While capital cities struggle to handle their swelling populations, country towns are still crying out for more people.

Imagine navigating a 1,000km journey across the vast Mongolian wilderness atop a feisty horse, racing 40 others to finish first.

Joan Webb has already been approved for a government-subsidised home-care package. At 93 years of age, she's now facing an 18-month wait. She's not alone.

When Carol Westmore bought a farm near Launceston 15 years ago, she inadvertently embarked on a mammoth heritage-restoration project.

Eucalyptus oil production sounds like a distinctly Australian industry. While we once where the dominant player in the market, we've long been outpriced by cheap imports. Laura Poole reports that families, with a long history in this old art, are trying to keep up local production.

Police investigate two fires in North Adelaide early this morning, including one which spread through the state branch office of the national doctors' union, causing up to $2 million damage.

From Ireland's heartland to coastal Victoria, Australian convicts brought with them magic and superstition. Their symbols are still being uncovered today.

For William Jane, the decline in Australian bread consumption has seen his business boom. In the space of two years, he's gone from baking 12 loaves a day to 800.

Australian dairy production is dropping, but a town in Victoria's Western District is taking advantage of changing consumer tastes to turn its fortunes around.

An Australian medicinal cannabis company is working to address a global shortage of pharmaceutical-grade product, reducing cost and improving access at the same time.

At 662 square metres, a Perth university has created what it believes to be the world's largest periodic table of the elements.

A genus of Queensland marsupial lion that, in its heyday, would have had other animals "shaking in their boots", is reclassified to be entirely new.

A 64-year-old woman who allegedly purchased a yacht for her son to flee the country while he was on bail over a multi-million-dollar cocaine-smuggling operation is remanded in custody.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann says "school time is a time to go to school" ahead of thousands planning to leave the classroom for a global climate strike.

As WA Premier Mark McGowan proudly announced direct flights from Perth to Shanghai this week, it flew in stark contrast to Scott Morrison's US visit that put several Chinese noses out of joint, writes Eliza Borrello.

While the release of Jody Gore has shone a spotlight on the ability of Aboriginal women to access justice, Australia is continuing to turn a blind eye to violence against Indigenous women, writes Hannah McGlade.

Two years ago, he was playing for Australia and could have been forgiven for thinking he had the cricket world at his feet. Then Hilton Cartwright's form fell off a cliff and he's still trying to recover.

More than 60 West Australian homes and businesses are having their electricity cut off on an average day for failing to pay their bills, with the number more than doubling in just three years.

They are a select group of people who live in places that would never be possible today, and have refused every effort to get them to move on.

While Perth Stadium on the banks of the Swan River is soaring, its neighbour in the State Tennis Centre is literally sinking, contributing to major problems with facilities and there is currently no plan to fix it.

The NBN was supposed to provide all Australian homes with reliable, super-fast internet connections. As many of us adjust to living and working from home, connected with our jobs, friends and family online, has it lived up to its promise?

Australia and India, as former British colonies, had much in common, and could have forged a strong relationship for their mutual benefit. But Australia's White Australia policy, and India's determination to leave the Empire and become a Republic, stymied the friendship.

How should Australia proceed in its relationship with China and what are the risks involved?

Jayden Whyte tried to get help twice on the day he died. Now he is being remembered through a striking grassroots project that could help others before it's too late.

Residents in a regional WA town are fighting against what they say is a life-threatening decline in healthcare services.

Sandy Verschoor is elected Adelaide Lord Mayor, while the state's four largest councils and two largest cities outside Adelaide will have women in charge following elections yesterday.

Producers describe plans for a new abattoir near Port Pirie as a "complete game changer" for pastoralists, saving them thousands in freight costs.

Beekeepers have lost up to 70 per cent of honey production because of "horrendous" conditions, and the effects of another bad season could be felt by other food crops.

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.

A "fireball" believed to have been a meteor lights up the skies overnight, with reports of sightings coming in from South Australia and Victoria. One expert says the earth has been bombarded by twice as many small asteroids than usual over the last couple of years.

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

A small town has become home to a major new mural but you might not notice it if you were walking past.

Trevor Ashby's property south of Mount Gambier looks like a typical dairy farm from the roadside, but hidden among the cows is a tiny portal into a world-class dive site.

South Australia's forestry industry says it's struggling to secure enough water licences to expand, warning that if growers plant forests interstate instead, jobs and investment will follow.

One of Australia's most notorious paedophiles has applied for parole, but South Australia is considering whether the former magistrate should be indefinitely detained behind bars.

A little country school in South Australia's south-east provided an instrument for every student and the results have been "joyful".

When Peta Bauer first moved to a remote station for work more than 20 years ago she was the only female on the farm's staff. Now she's a record-winning sheepdog trainer and things are different.

A routine car search by Limestone Coast police has led to an investigation into whether south-east drug users are using Australia Post as a courier service to send and receive illegal drugs.

The centre at Mount Gambier will improve response times for critical patients as well as provide a greater level of comfort for crew and people awaiting transfer.

Australia is blessed with a vast number of stunning swimming holes, lakes, creeks, rivers and beaches. We thought we'd take one for the team and find a few excellent spots for you to cool down.

For a time in the 1960s, a natural spring at the foot of the Great Dividing Range was home to Australia's largest swimming pool and legendary "mini-Woodstock" rock concerts.

In a small town in country Australia an elderly man is praying he won't live to 91, like his father. He doesn't have the money, and it feels like debt is closing in on him.

Queensland painter Wayne Malkin claims a record for creating the world's smallest painting on the end of a matchstick, but he won't make it into the record books.

Why does the Australian Tax Office require people to tick a mental illness box for early access to their superannuation to fund gender transition surgery?

At Eumundi, in Queensland's Sunshine Coast hinterland, 43 per cent of people identify as having no religion, and now the town's last church has called it a day.