A fatal crash following a police pursuit near a community north-east of Alice Springs is being treated as a death in custody, with police declining to say what prompted them to chase the 42-year-old man.

Sprinting into the path of a bucking 600-kilogram bull is not something most people would consider enjoyable, but it is what Cain Burns does for fun.

A clever little baiting device is being hailed as groundbreaking for the way in which it tempts foxes to take a poison bait while discouraging other wildlife.

In the remote Northern Territory community of Ampilatwatja, paintings show the prescriptions for thousands of years of traditional healing.

It could be days before the body of 59-year-old Craig Butler is able to be recovered from the Northern Territory mine site where he was buried alive when a pit wall collapsed.

The financial, emotional and psychological effects of the crime on the business directors of Alice Springs Helicopters and their families was significant, the prosecutor says.

Tengentyere Council chief executive Walter Shaw says police auxiliaries followed him to a friend's house and then back to his town camp, where he says they pepper-sprayed his dog and searched his car before acknowledging he had no alcohol.

The national anthem has been rewritten and performed for the first time in Alice Springs by a group that says it should be more inclusive of all Australians.

A heavily pregnant Alice Springs woman is sentenced to five years and three months in prison for stealing $486,000 from her former employer, leaving the business almost bankrupt.

In the middle of the Australian outback, an unlikely safe haven has emerged for birds migrating across the southern hemisphere. Now, the odorous oasis is helping keep Australian birds alive.

Bushwalkers and map sellers say the decision by Geoscience Australia to stop printing and selling topographic maps will put people's safety at risk and impact on our understanding of remote Australia.

Josh Meredith lives with Down syndrome and is helping change community attitudes towards disability in the workplace.

Two items salvaged from the ruins of the Glenrowan Inn, which burnt to the ground in a siege between the Kelly Gang and police almost 140 years ago, will be brought together again for an exhibition in north-east Victoria.

A fortnightly welfare payment for farmers, considered to be the cornerstone of drought assistance, should be removed from social security legislation, an independent review recommends.

Wangaratta Council has issued the pig's owner with a cease and desist notice, stating he has broken a local law by walking Grunt the pig in public and will be fined $806 if he continues.

Two teenagers accused of killing a man in north-east Victoria admit they "bashed" him because he offered to pay one of their girlfriends for sex, a court hears.

A random survey of people living in the Murray-Darling Basin shows support for reallocating water from irrigators to Indigenous communities.

A group of volunteers from Melbourne and Wodonga are back home after spending a week in the Philippines teaching children how to swim. They say the trip will save lives.

Commemorating his love for trains, Tim Fischer's coffin was transported by rail to Albury where a state funeral will be held.

DNA testing has confirmed that a "seriously cute" little dog that crash-landed into a Victorian backyard is an endangered breed of dingo.

Scientists are hoping to stop mountain pygmy possums from hibernating, acclimatise them to warmer environments, then relocate new populations to lowland forests.

The group representing Victoria's councils calls for organisations like independent schools, pokies clubs and churches to pay their fair share of rates because "mum and dad homeowners" are unfairly cross-subsidising private and commercial enterprises.

When AFL star Cyril Rioli started playing football inside Australias most infamous youth detention centre, he found teenagers ready to change.

A black plume leaks into Darwin Harbour from a local sewerage plant.

The life story of a former world champion bull rider resonates with participants of an Aboriginal-run initiative that is using rodeo to improve lives in the Kimberley.

A Central Australian pastoral family has bought a cattle property from a Middle Eastern sheikh for $10 million.

It was the first jurisdiction in the country to roll out a floor price on alcohol, alongside a raft of other measures, and data shows is it having a significant effect in the Northern Territory.

South Australia's Correctional Services Minister criticises prison officers for using a decoy in an attempt to shield a notorious murderer and rapist from media attention.

With Tasmania committed to changing its laws, the Northern Territory will be the only place in Australia where sexual assault survivors are not legally allowed to share their own stories and journalists can face time behind bars if they name victims.

The lithium industry is facing its own war on waste as a farming community asks questions about the storage of tonnes of tailings and its safety.

There are hopes new technology obtained by the Australian National University will put Australia ahead of the curve when it comes to space communications even ahead of NASA.

A man has been taken to hospital in a critical condition after falling from a height of several metres at a Canberra worksite, and landing on materials that may have "exacerbated" his injuries.

The Kambah man could face serious assault charges after allegedly attempting to escape police twice, first while driving unregistered and later while being treated in hospital, when he injured two people.

The Canberra Press Gallery's Midwinter Ball is the political affair that would make headlines every year if it wasn't kept off the record. But this year the cone of silence has been lifted and the speeches are in the open for all to see.

The WA Treasurer tells federal Labor colleagues "to take a step back" from their attacks on Liberal MP Gladys Liu and be mindful of the importance of the trading relationship with China.

Already waiting for two previous inquiries to be acted upon, support agencies say the new family law inquiry announced last week will require they take resources away from frontline services in order to participate.

The Sutherlands hope that telling their story will help transgender parents be accepted to the point where, one day, "no-one bats an eyelid".

Canberra hasn't become an off-the-grid island in the middle of New South Wales. So why is the ACT Government now calling the capital 100 per cent renewable?

One email was all it took for hackers to steal some of the most personal information from people potentially now in high-ranking roles across the globe. The cyber attack was so sophisticated it didn't even need the person to click on a link or open a document for the hackers to get in.

ACT water police spent Wednesday morning trying to tie up an unwilling Canberran that had found itself in Lake Burley Griffin. According to a witness, the roo was eventually rescued and hopped off towards the High Court.

As it marks 90 years embedded in the Canberra community, the YWCA looks back on its role as an organisation aimed at empowering women, from early karate lessons that scandalised to advocating leadership roles for women today.