Taxi driver Reg Kelly will bear the scars of a murder attempt for the rest of his life, but he wants to thank his home town for rallying to his side.

Locals at the heart of a devastating fish kill say politicians lack the vision or intent to overcome water management deficiencies, as the ABC visits towns from Goolwa to Menindee to find out who, if anyone, is in control of the Murray-Darling Basin.

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.

A commercial fisher has been fined $15,000 and had his boat confiscated after pleading guilty to seven charges of illegal fishing in the Darling River.

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.

Firefighters will continue to strengthen containment lines around a bushfire in Riverslea in the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River.

A 34-year-old Perth man has been charged with driving at more than 175 kilometres per hour near Cranbrook, while his 12-year-old daughter was in the car.

Graham Morrison, 55, is given a three-and-a-half-year jail sentence after hitting a family car on the Newell Highway near the end of an 11-hour trip.

Indigenous dancers from three states gather on the banks of the Darling River to honour a waterway that's underpinned their cultures for millennia.

MORNING BRIEFING: A NSW police officer is left with bite marks after an attack by a man who also swallowed a balloon, while divers resume their search for a car that crashed into the Hawkesbury River last night.

Researchers make some interesting discoveries about Fitzroy River humpback dolphins.

A controversial idea to build a bridge over Far North Queensland's Daintree River is back on the agenda, with the new Douglas Shire Mayor narrowly winning a vote on the issue.

Eighteen-year-old Tayla Slater has a broken vertebrae after falling from her horse when it was startled by a driver revving his engine.

ABC North Coast resident arts reviewer, Jeanti St Clair looks at the latest music and theatre to hit the region.

Sick of isolation? It might be time to explore the slow TV genre. From the comfort of your lounge room you can cruise down the Manning River as video producers live stream their tranquil journey.

Sam Davis and Spencer Austad getting ready to motor down the Manning River.

The Secret River is a classic in the making, says ABC 720 cultural correspondent Victoria Laurie

Exhibition builds on legacy of 1973 Aquarius Festival

There's nothing quite like a portrait exhibition to bring the crowds in. A steady stream of visitors has been arriving at the Lismore Regional Gallery since the 2013 Northern Rivers Portrait Prize opened on June 8.

Nigel Lazenby always dreamed of owning a house with river frontage, but that turned into a nightmare when a landslip wrecked his and other homes along the Tamar River in 2016. Now, Nigel is one of a group of owners who just want "fair" compensation.

There are fears the elderly and people with disabilities will become housebound, meanwhile some drivers in their 60s and 70s find themselves in a Centrelink queue for the first time.

Warm oceans are encouraging wet conditions for Australia, with the hint of a negative IOD and even a potential La Nina on the horizon.

Lawyers for two teenagers who threatened to carry out a school massacre tell South Australia's Supreme Court they should be immediately released.

A student who stabbed a classmate at Renmark High School in South Australia's Riverland is found not guilty on the grounds of mental incompetence.

A team of archaeologists is working with Indigenous people along the Murray River to discover stories of the land that could now be tens of thousands of years old.

Police say poor decisions, not weather conditions, were to blame for a head-on crash between two trucks yesterday, but transport authorities argue it is premature to blame the drivers, given how difficult it can be to pull over to the side of the road.

Two South Australian Government-run aged care facilities each have a year stripped off their accreditation periods after failing 21 of 44 operating requirements during an audit.

Police investigate the cause of a bushfire that came dangerously close to a Loxton aged care facility in South Australia's Riverland, prompting an evacuation overnight.

A Gold Coast electrician fishing on the Murray River on the NSW-Victorian border was startled to find that what he thought was a log, or a dead Murray cod, was in fact a partly-skinned freshwater crocodile, thousands of kilometres from its natural northern Australian habitat.

The dead freshwater crocodile was found in Murray River, thousands of kilometres south of its home.

Thousands of bottles, soy sauce containers, wrappers and microplastics that have been fished out of Melbourne's iconic river will be melted down to create seats along the water's edge.

One of Australia's largest food exporters, SunRice, cuts more than 30 regional staff after producing its second-lowest rice crop.

Australia's dairy farmers are leaving the industry in droves as drought and sky-high prices for water take their toll.

Foxes are chewing on irrigation pipes used in orchards and vineyards as the drought bites in the Riverina.

Formed millions of years ago and hidden from sight, Australia's precious underground water reserves are becoming a new battleground in the fight for water.

Airport authorities are calling for a crackdown on drivers touting their services at the the terminal but one driver says it is the only way he can earn enough money to pay his bills.

Photographs exploring Rockhampton's long relationship with the Fitzroy River have been unveiled in a new exhibition at the Rockhampton Art Gallery.

CEO of a Bunbury freight company, Mark Mazza wants to see a nationally accredited training scheme for truck drivers.

As heated debate about water policy continues, native fish are continuing to die in the lower Darling River in shrinking residual pools.

A council in far west New South Wales has started trucking water to the remote Darling River town of Pooncarie, which is expected to run out of raw water within days.