Repay the sacrifice of your local elected officials by voting in Tuesday's primary.

THE star in the car was Clint Eastwood who came to town, not on a horse,

Tonight, we're heading all the way to Dublin, Ireland, where the football stadium has become a drive-through testing clinic and medical students have had their exams fast-tracked so they can become doctors sooner.

Arum lilies may be visually spectacular, but for more than 100 years they have been been suffocating the natural bush and backyards in the South West corner of WA.

For the first time in history, the mayor of WA's biggest council will be chosen directly by residents, but the campaign has been marred by allegations of criminal damage, sabotage and online abuse.

A residential development proposed by the Satterley Property Group on Anglican Church land in the Perth Hills suburb of Stoneville is branded a planning "disaster" by concerned locals.

At Western Australia's upcoming local council elections, 37 of the 138 jurisdictions won't hold a vote because all the candidates have been elected unopposed.

Locals say bad driving mainly from tourists is to blame for a spate of fatal crashes on a stretch of Indian Ocean Drive north of Perth, after the latest serious accident left two foreigners dead.

Recycler Brad Scott is using his Robe studio to convert used plastics into everyday items like bowls, doorknobs and cheeseboards.

Locals describe it as the "worst drought in living memory" but things are about to get worse in the Queensland town of Stanthorpe with its water supply just weeks from drying up.

At least one home is destroyed and there are fears for several others as fire crews deal with a bushfire emergency at Laidley in Queensland's Lockyer Valley, west of Brisbane.

Tourism operators throughout Australia are being told to focus on relationships rather than destinations, or risk repeating the mass-tourism mistakes of Barcelona and Venice.

Severe bushfire conditions are expected later in the week as residents describe their terror at having to evacuate when a fast-moving bushfire threatened a township north of Noosa overnight.

Amid the mass fish kills and the ongoing drought, residents of Menindee in outback NSW hope a festival will be the first of many positives that draw tourists back to the region.

Menindee residents say the New South Wales Government is moving too slowly to prevent the loss of important native fish breeding stock in the Darling River, as authorities warn of further large-scale fish kills in to summer.

A number of Western Australian south-west and Great Southern projects have received funding to clean up contaminated sites.

The Shire of Narrogin says its proposed amalgamation with the Town of Narrogin will require about $2 million of state funding if it is to go ahead.

The WA Local Government Association (WALGA) says it is hopeful regional councils which lost a combined $20 million in previously allocated funds will be given a State Government reprieve.

Lucy Moss's boutique in Coonamble is bursting with colour, and her latest venture offers various shades of relief for drought-affected farmers.

Parched parts of NSW received a welcome dump of rain over the weekend.

The most senior police officer on the Sunshine Coast is warning would-be tourists that breaching the 50km travel limit for a Mother's Day picnic is a bad idea and could cost a $1,334 fine.

The Mount Isa Medical Centre is taking over the testing service to ensure people with respiratory symptoms are checked, despite no cases being recorded in the city.

Water restrictions have been eased for residents of the Macquarie Valley, but it's unlikely affected councils will move back to unrestricted water usage anytime soon.

Communities in western New South Wales are mourning the suspension of their local newspapers with some saying the publications are the "heart" of the communities.

The Illawarra union movement pays tribute to a Dapto man who has not missed a May Day march in 88 years.

Six local artists, including four old friends in life and in art practice, have come together with an exhibition well timed for International Women's Day at Lone Goat Gallery in Byron Bay. The theme, Essence of Woman was put to the artists to freely interpret, and the six women have done just that.

With towns across New South Wales at risk of running out of water within months, there are renewed calls for an urgent upgrade of water storage infrastructure.

Small businesses are struggling across Australia as the coronavirus outbreak unfolds. But there are ways you can help keep them going — and stick to social isolation guidelines.

Whisky the kelpie and Diamond the sheep are making a splash at Karoonda in South Australia's Mallee region, after being painted on the town's silos.

The family and friends of Naomi Williams, who died, along with her unborn son, after 20 attempts to get help, say the apology they have received via a statement from the health district is not good enough.

Business owners at Ivanhoe in outback NSW are staring down closure if a plan to shut the jail goes ahead, and say the jail inmates make a huge contribution to the community.

When 40,000 seedlings propagated by prisoners at Loddon Prison were not going to be planted, locals stepped in to make sure the trees would find a home.

Gippsland residents are enjoying conceptual and abstract art from Melbourne and revelling in local artist contributions along the way, in the exhibition Synthetica.

On a bitter winters night in north west Queensland, a small rural community braved the cold to support the finals of local touch football competition's return.

At the far end of the campsite and caravan city in the Amamoor State forest at the Great Australian Music Hall, ABC Local Radio helped to kick off the 2015 Gympie Muster with the inaugural Muster Showcase. Eight different musical acts took to the stage giving gathered crowds a taste of what is to come at the four day music festival.

What does the future hold for regional towns? To some, it's about change. For others, it's about things staying much the same.

Spring is in the air in Newcastle, with the season's racing carnival officially launched.

The north Queensland town of Ingham has no shortage of pasta makers. A large number of the town's residents are of Italian heritage - but the owners of the local pasta manufacturing business are not. Despite this they still have the approval of the local nonnas.

Graffiti artists in Tamworth are now able to legally paint on two walls at the skate park after talks with Tamworth Regional Council deliver 6 month trial.