A significant move by the Anglican Church to bless the marriage of two gay priests at a ceremony this week has been postponed due to a legal challenge.

Voting opens for Victorian Aboriginal communities to elect the people who will help make the rules for what are expected to be the first treaty negotiations in Australia.

A $30 million proposal for a sheep abattoir that would employ 150 full-time workers is opposed by a group of residents, who are concerned about potential health impacts and devaluation of their properties.

Equestrian sports are set for a major safety overhaul following an inquest into the deaths of two teenagers who died while taking part in separate eventing competitions three years ago.

A Gippsland couple missing in Victoria's High Country since Monday has been found safe and well.

Police have confirmed the body of a man found in missing NSW woman Ruth Ridley's car in Victoria is that of her estranged husband.

The Victorian Government's historic treaty negotiations with the state's Aboriginal communities are one step closer this week, with the election of the First Peoples' Assembly. But the toughest yards to meaningful treaties still lie ahead.

The group representing Victoria's councils calls for organisations like independent schools, pokies clubs and churches to pay their fair share of rates because "mum and dad homeowners" are unfairly cross-subsidising private and commercial enterprises.

The sister of missing hiker Niels Becker hopes he will be found with an "epic story" to tell after failing to return from five-day hike in cold conditions in Victoria's alpine region.

Aboriginal people who bury their loved ones in traditional ceremonies without bureaucratic approval could end up facing fines of up to $31,000 or two years' imprisonment.

A Victorian man who sent 52 packages filled with asbestos to embassies in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra has been sentenced to one year in prison.

Forty years after the Vietnam War, two Canberra veterans have developed digital maps to help locate some 300,000 Vietnamese war dead still missing in action.

The Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs tells the Senate Intelligence Committee that he's never handed over classified information to the press.

From marking out garden beds to meeting the Queen, there is one man who has been planting tulips at Floriade for 32 years and he's showing no signs of slowing down.

A historic train carriage is destroyed in a suspicious fire at the Canberra Railway Museum, just hours before its reopening. The 1930s passenger carriage was gutted in the blaze and two adjacent cars were also damaged.

Victorian prosecutors say there is no justification for the High Court to grant special leave for Cardinal George Pell to appeal against his child sexual abuse convictions.

Haider Ali, 37, is returned to Australia to face court after he fled the country while on trial for sexual offences two years ago.

Disability royal commission chair Ronald Sackville said commentators were discouraging people from telling their stories to the commission, but critics say the real discouragement is the absence of appropriate supports.

A Snowy Mountains RSL wants charges laid against the local council, which it has accused of desecrating part of a war memorial that a historian says has "state significance".

Scientists are in a race against time to map "extraordinary and complex" ancient fish traps on one of Australia's most remote islands.

A potential vaccine for streptococcal infections is being tipped as a game changer in remote communities after a recent outbreak was detected in Cape York.

Environmental groups say plans to save marine animals from harm and drowning in discarded fishing nets are not being implemented where it is needed the most.

A year after her murder, Toyah Cordingley's name still hangs in shop windows, on posters strung up on trees, and stickers on car bumpers in nearly every street in Cairns.

A father who threatened to kill a Federal Circuit Court Judge in a late night, expletive-laden phone call walks free from a Far North Queensland court.

Regional trials of a world-first digital platform aimed at transforming access to mental health services for young people tracks how participants are feeling in real time.

Champion synchronised swimmer Rachel Presser wants you to know that there's a lot more to her sport than floral caps and sequential dives. Come the next Olympics, she might have a chance to prove it.

Scott Morrison steps in after former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce suggested the family facing deportation to Sri Lanka should be allowed to remain in the central Queensland town of Biloela.

Sue*, a worker at a company bidding for an Adani contract, tells the ABC she is leaking information to environmental activists so they can target her employer, saying it's the "ethical, moral thing to do".

A company that provides frozen food to Meals on Wheels across four states, is recalling thousands of its products due to listeria contamination.

Football loves a sugar hit and the tabloid frenzy created by images of Usain Bolt in a Mariners shirt had the capacity to give the entire A-League Type 2 diabetes. But the FFA was right not to fund his Central Coast trial, Richard Hinds writes.

One retirement village on the NSW Central Coast is home to half a dozen women who have all celebrated their 100th birthday.

Usain Bolt leaves the Central Coast Mariners after a trial, with the A-League club and Olympic sprint legend unable to come to a deal that would have extended the sporting experiment.

Coal ash is commonly mixed with wastewater and collected at an ash dam near the power station.

Evans Head topped a New South Wales drone trial for shark sightings last summer. Where does your beach sit on therankings?

AFL great Neale Daniher is named the 2019 Victorian of the Year in recognition of his advocacy to find a cure for the fatal motor neurone disease he was diagnosed with six years ago.

A Victorian dairy lobby group calls for the New South Wales Government to stop subsidising the cost of transporting fodder.

Industry groups estimate a majority of sheep farmers are using pain relief when mulesing stock, but Victoria looks set to become the first state to make the practice mandatory.

Farmers and contractors rush to spend up to $350,000 for hay-baling equipment to make the most of grain crops and strong demand for fodder as the drought rolls on.