DAILY BRIEFING: A promised lost-cost abortion service for southern Tasmania is on hold indefinitely, and the union says more immediate solutions are needed to address prison overcrowding.

Residents of a heritage town in northern Tasmania accuse the Government of not consulting them over plans for a new prison nearby, and demand to know the location of other potential sites.

DAILY BRIEFING: On a day of total fire ban in Tasmania's south, the fire service is being kept busy dealing with several outbreaks, including at Elderslie and Lachlan, where communities are on watch-and act-alerts.

DAILY BRIEFING: An 85-year-old retired GP has been missing in the state's north since Monday, and the Opposition calls on the Government to fix issues within TasWater after a boil water alert is issued for parts of Hobart.

AWI leader tells ABC reporter to "f**k off" at industry event north of Adelaide [LANGUAGE WARNING].

Evacuations are ordered in coastal towns and communities in north Queensland as Tropical Cyclone Debbie bears down, with authorities warning of damaging tidal surges and an impact on a scale not seen since Cyclone Yasi in 2011.

The SES is urging northern Queensland residents to be ready as a tropical low starts to bring heavy rain to coastal communities north from Rockhampton.

Hundreds of people have signed a petition calling on Queensland MPs to stop a departmental plan to remove 'historic' fishing huts in and around a national park in the state's north.

When Dave Suter donated the 'innocuous' wartime artefacts he had once used as bookends, he was shocked to learn they were unexploded WWII bombs.

An agreement with a Chinese company to develop an export processing facility for north Queensland and Northern Territory beef has been signed with a local council.

As the NRL finals begin to appear on the horizon, the Wests Tigers jump inside the top eight after scoring five tries to one in their convincing 28-4 win over a disappointing North Queensland Cowboys outfit at Leichhardt Oval.

The Broncos beat the Cowboys 18-14 thanks to a last-minute Jake Turpin try, but don't let the scoreline fool you, this was not one of those classic Queensland derbies.

The South Sydney Rabbitohs hold off Brisbane's late charge in a spiteful clash at Lang Park, while the North Queensland Cowboys comfortably account for Penrith.

A massive new prawn farm to be built at Proserpine in north Queensland could herald a new era in aquaculture, but some commercial fishers are concerned.

The North Queensland Cowboys has ended the Canterbury Bulldogs' finals hopes with a 15-8 victory in the final NRL match at Townsville Stadium.

North Queenslanders plead with the government to help them eradicate an increasing number of wild pigs, which are threatening the environment and putting road users at serious risk.

The departure of some of north Queensland's best and brightest students is worrying the region's leaders and prompting them to devise a retention solution.

A 53-year-old man accused of lighting up to four bushfires in north Queensland will undergo a mental health assessment, after a dramatic arrest where he allegedly rammed a police car and officers fired shots at his vehicle.

In the north-west Queensland town of Ravenswood, two heritage-listed buildings at a school have been moved due to an expansion of the local gold mine.

A Senate inquiry in the Northern Territory reveals decomposing bodies are being transported on ageing aircraft without refrigeration, potentially posing a massive biohazard risk.

Life on a mustering crew in northern Australia means travelling to remote stations to bring in cattle from thousands of kilometres of far-flung bushland.

A road transport group says it will be difficult for truck drivers to give cyclists a wider berth, as required by new rules coming to the Territory.

At one point Peter Sherwin was the largest private landowner in the country, with about 300,000 head of cattle, spanning 17 cattle stations.

Authorities are trying to find a 59-year-old man buried under soil and rock after a wall collapsed at a manganese mine in the central Northern Territory.

The NT has historically performed very poorly in NAPLAN testing and the improvement in results is impressive considering almost half of students speak English as a second language. But a pay battle for teachers could derail future successes.

In the 12 months to June this year, there were 2,472 residential break-ins reported to police across the Northern Territory the highest annual figure since 2008.

A pet deer fatally attacks a man and injures his wife during feeding. The couple's son had to beat the animal with a lump of wood to save his mother, the ABC has been told.

The brothers shot and injured by police after wielding a knife and tomahawk during a confrontation in Victoria's north-east were of interest to counterterrorisminvestigators.

Authorities discover more than 120 dead native birds, believed to have been poisoned, on a rural property in northern Victoria.

A $30 million proposal for a sheep abattoir that would employ 150 full-time workers is opposed by a group of residents, who are concerned about potential health impacts and devaluation of their properties.

The NT Police's recent haul included a banned Adler shotgun and a pistol once owned by Vic Hall, a legendary NT Mounted Police officer and World War One veteran who wrote numerous books about his colourful life in the outback.

Embattled regional airline Airnorth is in for a run for its money as competitor airlines line up for the NT Government-subsidised contract.

Scorched earth and burned toys show just how close a family's home came to destruction during rural Darwin's bushfire emergency.

A rare copy of the nearly 40-year-old documentary Dirt Cheap, which details the early resistance against uranium mining in Kakadu National Park, is rediscovered in Darwin.

Black, brown, brindle, or sandy what makes mixed-breed dogs, known as Darwin specials, so popular?

Young people in the Top End are returning 'in droves' after tasting life elsewhere and they think they are onto a good thing, a national survey finds.

Resources giant Santos is strengthening its grip on the north Australian gas sector, as it moves to secure billions of dollars worth of exploration and production investments in the Top End.

In the turbid waters of the Wessel Marine Park in the Gulf of Carpentaria, an underwater garden of sponges, corals and creatures is revealed.

An "extremely disturbing" trend of Northern Territory Government workers facing "reprisals" for raising concerns about corruption or improper conduct triggers a call for the region's whistleblower laws to be strengthened.

An Aboriginal corporation in the Kimberley is set to become the first to commercialise the breeding of native freshwater prawns.