A mothballedNSWHunterValley coal-firedpowerstationis to be re-commissioned and the new owners say it willbecleaner andgreenerthanitwas beforeitshutdownfive yearsago.

Danielle Easey's relatives share tributes on social media after her body was found wrapped in plastic and dumped in a creek in the NSW Hunter Region, as police search for clues about when and why she was killed.

Findings from a probe into alleged cover-ups of child abuse within the Catholic Church in NSW have identified credibility issues among members of its upper echelons.

The search for four men and a woman missing feared dead after a helicopter vanished from radar north of Newcastle will continue after earlier bad weather halted the operation.

While the search continues for five missing people who are feared dead off the NSW coast, one male has been confirmed by the Australian Defence Force as Warrant Officer Gregory Miller.

The family of volunteer firefighter from New Zealand who was killed in a hit-and-run in the NSW Hunter Valley has issued an emotional plea for someone to come forward.

The Nationals are hoping to cling on to their seats, including a few held on very slim margins, and add to their tally by winning a three-cornered contest. But the country-based party has problems, and some say they're at risk of losing a handful of seats.

A koala joey, only months old, is defying the odds after being rescued when her mother was hit by a car in Port Macquarie on the NSW mid-north coast. Pixie is now in home care and being carried in a makeshift pouch 24 hours a day.

It is an endangered 'living fossil' and foxes and wild pigs love to eat it, but there is a glimmer of hope for one of Australia's most striking and mysterious creatures.

Police recapture prisoner Matthew Furner, who escaped from custody at Port Macquarie Base Hospital on the NSW Mid North Coast and fled into nearby bushland.

A prisoner recaptured after being on the run for nearly 12 hours on Sunday has been too injured to front court on the NSW mid-north coast.

The number of homes lost to three fires in northern NSW rises to nine as strong winds continue to hamper the efforts of firefighters to bring them under control.

Members of a NSW rugby league club who were photographed at an airport wearing offensive t-shirts emblazoned with a topless mermaid look set to face the wrath of the sport's officials.

They were Australia's worst bus-crash tragedies and they happened within weeks of each other on the Pacific Highway. Fifty-six people were killed and 63 injured and 30 years on the pain still lingers for many.

The Port Macquarie koala hospital fears more than 350 koalas may have died in a bushfire south of the town, with staff frustrated they cannot yet access the site.

The honey industry is facing hard times along with other producers, having taken a battering over recent years from the drought and a string of natural disasters.

Injured koalas receive life-saving treatment after surviving devastating bushfires on the New South Wales mid-north coast.

The discovery of endangered quolls, bilbies, and rock wallabies on islands of habitat in the Great Sandy Desert offers a rare glimmer of hope for wildlife managers.

In the Northern Territory, where much of the population is sparse and remote, there are still wide gaps in understanding superannuation.

There have been calls for greater transparency on remote cattle stations after a FOI request revealed a push to keep the mass death of a critically endangered species under wraps.

A Chinese company has been given until the end of November to remediate land it cleared at a cattle station in the Kimberley, following a blockade by Aboriginal native title holders.

Aboriginal followers of a Tongan-born preacher set fire to artefacts considered sacred by many local elders, and dismantle and burn a spiritual law ground.

WA's Child Protection Minister orders an urgent review into her department's management of five-year-old Symerien Brooking, who has one of the rarest medical conditions on the planet.

Lou Brown used meditation and shear effort to clip about one sheep a minute for eight hours and claim the new world record.

A finishing school for western ringtail possums is not about airs and graces it's about helping orphaned possums get used to fending for themselves.

A West Australian man has captured on camera what may be one of the first documented cases of a redback spider capturing a mouse.

Praised for its "sweat characters and nuttiness", a Perth-based distillery and second-generation farmer from Western Australia's far-north have teamed up to create Australia's first red corn whiskey.

Tracey hoped putting her mother in an aged care home would give her a sense of security, but she ended up severely injuring herself in a fall. Warning: contains graphic images.

Formula Three driver Alex Peroni walks off a plane in his hometown of Hobart just one week after a horror race day crash in Italy.

The stories of two Tasmanian officers added to the national list of police who "gave the ultimate sacrifice" most likely differ markedly to those from other jurisdictions.

Jamie John Curtis tortured Alicia and murdered her fiance. His latest bid for freedom has failed, so now she's calling for him to be declared a dangerous criminal in the hope that he'll never be paroled.

DAILY BRIEFING: Scientists offer the public the chance to name a rare red handfish, and there are calls for councillors to receive training on responding to bullying.

Tasmanian farmer Richard Headlam says he was reassured a proposed coal mine on his land would not go ahead. Two years later, the plan by Midland Energy has been revived.

Jorgen Jorgenson visited Van Diemen's Land when it was first settled 20 years later he would return as a convict and former self-proclaimed king of Iceland.

A botched effort at censoring a scathing report on Tasmania's juvenile detention centre reveals a litany of shortcomings, including "very little real security", CCTV that is "rarely monitored", inadequate reporting of force being used and a fence that would not stop an escape attempt, only "slow it down".

DAILY BRIEFING: An elderly female driver has a fright after her car swerves off a road and over a cliff, and the Tasmanian Government holds off formally asking the Commonwealth to help pay for firefighting in the Wilderness World Heritage Area last summer.

The daughter of a Tasmanian man shot dead in the Philippines says the family is shattered by the loss and having trouble repatriating his body due to "language barriers".

DAILY BRIEFING: More Nazi Nazi memorabilia goes under the hammer, and Tasmania becomes the second highest performing state in the country economically.

A public servant improperly awarded, or attempted to influence, millions of dollars' worth of government contracts for the benefit of a close friend, an inquiry finds.

DAILY BRIEFING: An 85-year-old retired GP has been missing in the state's north since Monday, and the Opposition calls on the Government to fix issues within TasWater after a boil water alert is issued for parts of Hobart.

Researchers have used marsupial lion fossils discovered in Naracoorte and the Nullarbor to discover that the Thylacoleo was similar to a tree-climbing Tasmanian devil, ambushing its prey in forests.

Police are working to confirm whether human remains found near Port Lincoln, in regional South Australia, belong to a man who went missing 20 years ago.

Emergency crews recover the bodies of an Adelaide man and his five-year-old daughter who were hit by a freak wave on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula.

This is Phil Gregurke. He is havingtotravel 200kmjust topickup acartonofbeerand some toiletpaper for his pub on the Birdsville Track.