ABC North Coast resident arts reviewer, Jeanti St Clair looks at the Northern Rivers Portrait Prize.

Mike Ladd reads the Clive James poem, My Father Before Me

Space exploration has given us conveniences such as smartphone cameras, memory foam mattresses and satellite navigation, but it also boosts the economy.

Ian Blayney is a regional MP who decided to quit the WA Liberals and move to the Nationals. But everyone, especially his own former party leader, is being strangely nice about it, writes Jacob Kagi.

Two men are charged with trying to smuggle more than a tonne of cocaine and ecstasy into WA, after their yacht hit a reef and they were found on an island in the Houtman Abrolhos allegedly hiding the drugs with seaweed.

When Grammy-nominated American jazz performer Joey DeFrancesco sold his blonde-coloured Hammond B3 organ over eBay to an Australian bidder, he had one condition. That it be made available when he played in Australia.

Ballandean rural firefighter Aaron Cox whose viral photo captured the hearts of Queenslanders following a horror bushfire emergency says he's glad the image gave people an avenue to thank the wider firefighting community.

Red-and-yellow flags are now planted on beaches up and down the coast, but surf lifesaving in Queensland originated from a need to watch over people in the Brisbane River.

Authorities reveal the residents of a Sunshine Coast aged care facility were trapped inside as a dangerous bushfire approached this week, but they were kept safe by a protective ring of firefighters.

Building an artificial reef could be the key to stabilising a popular beach at Queensland's Inskip Point that suffers from repeated landslips, a geotechnical expert says.

Residents in a small Queensland town are still counting their blessings 12 months after a bushfire destroyed more than 12,000 hectares of pasture, and now they are preparing to be in drought before the decade is out.

A Sunshine Coast couple who launched an ambitious campaign to pay for their dream wedding using Queensland's container refund scheme lock in a venue, celebrant and catering all paid for by the initiative.

One of the most eroded stretches of the Mary River at Kenilworth has been transformed in an effort to stop valuable farmland washing away and polluting the Great Barrier Reef.

Heavy rainfall across south-west New South Wales has provided some farmers with much-needed relief, many measuring the best falls they have seen in over two years.

As a maintenance man, Peter Crawford knows better than most that one of the hazards of underground living is the question of who might drop in.

Consumer Protection is urging people to look beyond the price tag when shopping online this Christmas.

Nationals MP Wendy Duncan says the State Government is paying the price for the shortage of doctors in regional Western Australia. She says the Commonwealth should fund efforts to attract doctors to regional areas.

A business commentator has warned the relief felt by the local nickel sector, after an Indonesian move to restrict exports, could be extremely short-lived.

The Denmark Shire is proposing a plan to replace the leases at a popular holiday spot with more traditional ownership rights.

WA's District Court has confirmed Collingwood defender Marley Williams will face trial next month, accused of causing grievous bodily harm.

The holiday community of Peaceful Bay in WA's Great Southern is struggling with the question of how to protect its slice of paradise against the tides of change and bureaucracy.

Leaseholders in the Western Australian south coast holiday community of Peaceful Bay have expressed concerns over a proposal to transfer their property leases to more conventional ownership titles.

Former WA chief scientist Lyn Beazley says she is honoured to be named patron of an agriculture program in Manjimup.

How quickly do you think Australia could assemble more than 20,000 troops, 8,000 horses, and put them on to yet to-be-equipped navy ships to be sent to the battlefields of World War I?

Footballer Marley William's claim he acted in self defence when he punched another man is a "fantasy", the prosecution in his trial says. Mr Williams admits to punching then 29-year-old Matthew Robertson in the face outside the Studio 146 nightclub in the south coastal town of Albany, the Magpies defender's home town. He gave evidence on Wednesday and today, saying Mr Robertson and two other men had previously attacked him inside the club and he feared being 'beaten up' again outside.

A regional business lobby group says the Federal Government should recognise how important skilled foreign worker visas are in country areas.

Shearers, labourers, chefs, farmers and lifeguards are among the workers who push through the heatwave.

At the end of the bitumen road and surrounded by parched grazing land, Ivanhoe, like many outback towns, is fighting for survival.

The Yetta Dhinnakkal Centre, meaning "right pathway" in traditional language, was established as Australia's first prison exclusively for young Aboriginal men but next year it will close and locals are warning the impact will be disastrous.

Why might the court intervene when a devout Jehovah Witness parent refuses a life-saving blood transfer to their child? What about cultural and traditional beliefs that clash with new ‘norms’ of society? More specific descriptions of what make a family of defines gender for example. Has the law has kept up with the changing society it regulates?

Will personal freedom always give way to social control in China? Families have lived through a wave of revolutions in communist China and the legacy flows down the generations. Three authors talk about the cycle of openness and repression from the Cultural revolution to Tiananmen Square as individual freedoms are tolerated and then repressed to meet the goals of China's communist rulers.

Bradley Edwards elects not to offer a detailed defence to three charges of murdering Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon — crimes that became known as the Claremont serial killings.

Dramatic footage from the NSW Rural Fire Service shows the treacherous conditions firefighters are dealing with at Shark Creek, which remains under emergency alert.

The hunt for the missing Belgian backpacker, who disappeared after a night out on May 31, is formally referred to the NSW coroner in a move that ends the official police search.

The community of Rappville in northern NSW is banding together to make sure everyone gets back on their feet, but Allan Robertson is dreading having to tell his partner that their home is now just ashes.

Queensland's Chief Health Officer refuses to budge on a decision criticised as "bureaucratic overreach" after an Anzac Day flyover is banned due to coronavirus restrictions, with the state recording another two cases.

Unemployment in one Queensland region soars to more than double the state figure as an expert warns it's the 'calm before the storm'.

Just as Australia was about to confirm its first case of coronavirus in Australia in January, Sunshine Coast health figures were given a grim briefing.

Rajkumar Janagani stabbed his wife more than 20 times while she slept in their Brisbane home. She survived, but has suffered serious physical and emotional trauma.

Annastacia Palaszczuk will use her handling of the coronavirus crisis as evidence she should be returned as Premier at the state election in six months. But it's likely this poll will be a referendum on the future, not a scorecard on the past.

Suzanne Miller earnt a high wage but in a "gross abuse of high office" she also illegally spent a further $75,000 in taxpayer funds on personal purchases, a Brisbane court hears.

A 14-week coronavirus drug trial involving volunteer military personnel has resumed despite previous concerns from doctors and veterans about its ethics.