Diamonds so rare they never reach the open market are unveiled by Rio Tinto in a historic preview at the Argyle mine in Western Australia's far north.

A magnitude-6.6 earthquake off the West Australian coast is felt across large parts of the state, but there are no reports of major damage.

Government marketers are spending an increasing amount of money on bringing so-called influencers to Australia, but is it money well spent?

Survivor is a word thrown around fairly lightly, but in the case of German migrant Frauke Bolten-Boshammer, you can't help but feel she's earned the title 10 times over.

Police are called in after 'Cinnamon', a 40cm-long saltwater crocodile, is stolen from Broome's Malcolm Douglas Crocodile Park.

A life-changing adventure for a Broome based GP and his son: Dave and Tom Berger have flown 40,000km in a single-engine plane.

A social media video of a tourist hanging off a notorious WA cliff on Easter Sunday has prompted a furious response from a sea rescue group.

A strong cold front is expected to bring damaging wind gusts, heavy rain, thunderstorms and possible flash flooding to south-west WA, with up to 40 millimetres of rainfall set to be dumped on Perth.

When tiny pieces of plastic that were spilled on other side of the world start washing up on your beaches, who is responsible for cleaning them up?

A seven-year-old Perth girl who picked up her toddler sister and held her aloft to save her from an attacking rottweiler dog is among a group of West Australians to be honoured with bravery awards.

The shared horror of losing family members to homicide has united two women in their quest to form a unique peer support group in Western Australia.

Modern consumers want to know more about the story of their food where it came from, how it was produced and farmers in WA are taking advantage of the trend.

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.

Tasmanian driver Alex Peroni sustains a broken vertebra but walks away from a spectacular crash at Monza in Italy, with his survival attributed to his helmet and the round bar which protects drivers' heads.

Close to the heart of gay rights campaigner Rodney Croome are two flags made from the dresses of drag queens who fought police in the Stonewall riots in New York. They'll now be preserved in a collection of memorabilia documenting the battle to change society's views.

DAILY BRIEFING: A worker has been "narrowly missed" by a bolt falling from a crane at a Hobart worksite, and Madeleine Ogilvie meets with Labor to discuss her future.

DAILY BRIEFING: Man who's been on the run from police for almost two weeks caught, Madeleine Ogilvie takes her new seat in Parliament as an independent.

Residents in the Hobart suburb of Risdon Vale say they are double checking their doors are locked as the search for a prison escapee enters its second day.

Three-year-old Chase has come ahead in leaps and bounds in this past year, his family credits a program giving kids like him free access to early learning.

DAILY BRIEFING: Bushwalkers are rescued in two separate incidents in Tasmania's national parks, while road spikes are deployed after a driver evades police.

DAILY BRIEFING: 130 jobs are being cut from the Vodafone centre in Hobart, and former attorney-general John Bennett has died.

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 water scientist is backing Hamilton farmers' concerns about threats to a local lake from a proposed fish hatchery, including the threat of algal blooms.

DAILY BRIEFING: A Launceston woman is rescued from a house fire, and a Tasmanian judge describes the actions of a man caught with ecstasy in his underwear at Hobart Airport as "immature".

Until now little has been known about what penguins get up to when they head out to sea to forage.

A Tasmanian council has not yet decided whether it will appeal a decision giving a green light to a luxury helicopter-accessed fishing camp at Lake Malbena, saying the process has "put the council under a lot of stress".

Tensions are rising within the Tasmanian Liberal party as some look to drop veteran Eric Abetz from the top spot on the Senate ticket in favour of his apprentice, Jonathon Duniam.

As bushfire conditions ease around Tasmania this weekend, the firefighter's union wants laws to back volunteers leaving work in an emergency as the bushfire season extends to as long as six months.

Using cameras and wind disturbance, a Tasmanian wind farm will be the first in Australia to deter wedge-tailed eagles from flying into the turbine blades.

Paramedics will return patients to ambulances for care if they are waiting more than half an hour in the ramping area of the Royal Hobart Hospital.

Oil and gas testing is set to take place in the Great Australian Bight this year, with the national petroleum regulator granting permission to exploration company PGS.

High speeds, low altitudes, and "crazy" games of chicken meet two of Australia's most elite pilots, including the first woman to become the national aerobatics champion in more than 20 years.

Australian woolgrowers are set to benefit from the suspension of wool exports from South Africa to China due to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

The National commodity forecaster, ABARES, finds three quarters of dairy farmers and half of all broadacre farmers will receive a lower income than they did last year because of the drought.

Cape Carnot south of Port Lincoln is popular with tourists because of its rugged cliffs and caves, but another two drownings are forcing the site's owner to rethink its future.

From afar, it might look like Michelle Blewitt is teaching bystanders how to pan for gold, as she vigorously shakes a sieve full of sand on a beach, but on closer inspection, she is teaching locals how to hunt for microplastics.

A council in South Australia's Riverland is working to recognise the final resting places of people whose graves were unmarked because of the stigma of suicide at the time.

Two Korean men who organised a cross-country road trip to transport 10 kilograms of ice across Australia are jailed for up to 12 years each, with a judge saying their crime had the potential to "massively harm the community".

The shrinking town of Poochera is pinning its hopes of survival on a big statue and a prehistoric ant, and locals say their plan may just be enough to save their home from dying out completely.

Olympic gold medallist Kyle Chalmers is cautiously optimistic another round of surgery has fixed an ongoing heart condition "once and for all", with less than a year to go before the 2020 Olympic Games.

A police officer helps save a worker who jumped into the ocean for his own safety when the Whyalla jetty caught fire on Wednesday afternoon.