Harry Bowman has been the face of the Top End's crocodile cruises for more than 30 years, but the time has come for him to say farewell to his toothless old mate Brutus the giant saltwater croc.

The 2016 killing of a Canberra man is portrayed as a "cold-blooded plan", designed to silence him over an earlier machete attack, on the first day of an ACT Supreme Court trial.

The crown alleges Mark Jones waterboarded Bradley Breward with a hand towel, by placing it over his face and pouring water over it, and also put a plastic shopping bag over his head twice for 40 seconds each time.

A screen shot showing an umpire telling a security guard to get off the pitch as two players tussle at the North Melbourne vs GWS Giants AFL match at Bellrieve Oval in Hobart on Saturday June 15, 2019.

"More mines, more jobs, more future," proclaims a mysterious billboard near Kingaroy. But not everyone agrees and the years of "constant fighting" are taking a massive toll.

The father of missing Belgian backpacker Theo Hayez says unlocking his son's last WhatAsapp messages could be key to find him alive. But a leading expert says the tech giant is incapable of unjumbling the "garbled" encrypted messages.

An Indigenous boy with an intellectual impairment was stripped naked inside Brisbane's adult maximum-security police watch house after being deemed a suicide risk, documents reveal.

A screen shot showing an umpire telling a security guard to get off the pitch as two players tussle at the North Melbourne vs GWS Giants AFL match at Bellrieve Oval in Hobart on Saturday June 15, 2019.

MORNING BRIEFING: Housing Minister optimistic debt will be wiped, city demands urgent action on climate emergency and councils increase rates.

Ex-detective Paul Dale tells a royal commission he has waited years to expose "corruption" within Victoria Police over the use of Nicola Gobbo as an informer, and that his sexual relationship with the woman known as Lawyer X has been exaggerated.

The NSW Treasurer delivers a surplus of around half that expected this time last year, but is forecasting blue skies ahead. He's optimistic despite doubts circulating about the domestic and global economies, Ian Verrender says.

More than two decades since Philip Nitschke set fire to the "disgusting, pathetic" bill overturning voluntary euthanasia in the Northern Territory, the region remains in a stranglehold, banned from even debating the issue.

Queensland Environment Minister Leeanne Enoch's comments at an Indigenous festival reveal Labor is divided on the Adani mine's recent approval, the State Opposition says.

A south-east Queensland council with more than 700 memorabilia items the bulk of which is believed to have been bought with ratepayers' money is asking the community what should be done with the haul.

A life-saving surgery seen as a major breakthrough in stroke treatment is only available to Canberrans during business hours, but soon patients will not have to worry about whether the timing of their stroke will affect their care.

A screen shot showing an umpire telling a security guard to get off the pitch as two players tussle at the North Melbourne vs GWS Giants AFL match at Bellrieve Oval in Hobart on Saturday June 15, 2019.

When 22-year-old Jake Vincent had a stroke, he was forced to wait at the emergency department for almost seven hours. The doctor who finally saw him "went white" he hadn't been administered a time-critical medication earlier.

Former drug squad detective Paul Dale wanted to speak to gangland bosses Tony Mokbel and Carl Williams nine days after he was arrested for the burglary of a drug house, the royal commission hears.

Two brothers charged with intentionally causing serious injury over an alleged attack on a a senior Victoria Police officer displayed aggressive and threatening behaviour and were "attempting to engage in a fight" a Melbourne court is told.

Police arrest a woman they had urged to come forward to authorities after a 23-year-old plunged to her death at a high-rise complex in Sydney's inner east.

The Queensland Supreme Court will decide whether to allow a widow to use her dead husband's sperm to give her young son a sibling, as they were planning to do so before he died.

Canberra Grammar students discover the unexpected benefits of rebuilding damaged classrooms in Nepal, as they form special bonds with school hosts in the heart of the Himalayas.

There is a "crisis of confidence" in the NSW building industry following the second emergency evacuation of an apartment block in Sydney in six months, the Insurance Council of Australia and Federal Government warns.

Production at a remote Rio Tinto mine site is temporarily suspended when a union investigation raises safety concerns at the operation.

Kelly says the way police handled the investigation into her alleged assault "has been the most devastating part of it" after she was told her rape kit was destroyed and then never existed at all.

Consumers are pushing demand for alternative mushrooms to new highs as plant-based diets become increasingly popular and people seek nutritious meat substitutes.

MORNING BRIEFING: The ex-girlfriend of a woman who fell to her death from a Sydney apartment block is expected to be charged with her murder, while a backpacker says the alarm about Theo Hayez's disappearance should have been raised much earlier.

More than 12 tonnes of dead fish have been buried after a council on the New South Wales north coast bowed to public pressure and opened a lagoon.

A man who donated his sperm to a lesbian friend with the belief he could play a role in the child's life wins a High Court fight to be named the girl's legal father, blocking her mother from moving overseas.

At age seven, Lisa Millar was singing the ABC News theme and practising her interview technique on her little sister. After 25 years of reporting in Australia and overseas, she's now looking forward to the challenge of co-hosting a daily morning television program.

Dashcam footage shows the truck's brakes smoking, before it hurtles through a red light at a notorious intersection.

One of hundreds of victims of an Adelaide chiropractor who indecently filmed clients, including children, says the man took away her "dignity" and "confidence", but has vowed to move on with her life.

Two people charged with aggravated assault over a fight at an AFL game at Adelaide Oval are engaged in another altercation outside court.

Police investigating the stabbing of a 40-year-old man, who was found lying on the road at Hackham West overnight, uncover a drug lab believed to be used for growing magic mushrooms.

Full-cycle docking of Collins Class submarines could disappear from its current site in South Australia by 2024, Freedom of Information (FOI) documents reveal.

Divisions in the AFLW over a proposed collective bargaining agreement put the future of the league's 2020 season in limbo, as the head of the players' association criticises a "damaging" campaign against the deal.

Ambulance officers are unable to save a man who tumbled off a train platform and onto the tracks in Adelaide's north-west this afternoon.

The lawyer for medicinal cannabis advocate Jenny Hallam asks for his client to avoid conviction, saying she needs to travel to the United States as part of her new job at a New South Wales cannabis farm.

A man is charged with the alleged indecent assault of an eight-year-old in the public toilet of a venue in South Australia's Riverland region on Sunday.