A bushfire threatening homes at Drake, near Tenterfield, is downgraded as the threat to houses eases.

An emergency warning has been issued for a blaze burning at Sandy Creek, east of Armidale, which has closed roads and is threatening several properties where residents have been told it is "too late to leave".

An emergency warning is downgraded in northern NSW after an "unpredictable and fast-moving" grass fire had threatened homes, with embers to blowing up to 4 kilometres ahead of the fire front.

Business owners in Tenterfield say tourists will be the key to the rural town's recovery, as bushfires and drought take their toll on the local economy.

MORNING BRIEFING: The Rural Fire Service says it will begin assessing the full extent of the bushfire damage in northern New South Wales today, and a man is charged after a robbery in 2003.

The remains of a 77-year-old man and a 68-year-old woman are found on a property destroyed in the bushfires which ripped through northern NSW earlier this week.

A man is charged with two counts of murder after a woman and a young boy are found dead in a Tamworth house fire that police believe was deliberately lit. Two other people are in hospital with burns.

Free sheds are being built for those with nothing, in a creative approach to disaster recovery that is changing lives and putting a smile back on faces of despair.

Almost bone-dry from drought and having endured four major bushfires this year, Tenterfield was due for a break. That came in spades when the town found a new water supply.

Fire crews prevent a gas explosion and save neighbouring homes from a blaze that killed an 82-year-old man and his dog at Mount Burr in South Australia's South East.

Police investigate the cause of a bushfire that came dangerously close to a Loxton aged care facility in South Australia's Riverland, prompting an evacuation overnight.

Local resident Oliver Stone recorded the fire's advance towards nearby homes.

Firefighters are battling to stop a large bushfire from destroying the tinder-dry Ramsar-protected Macquarie Marshes in western New South Wales.

Despite the heat, hail and fires, the Brumbies are planning to kick off their Super Rugby 2020 season tonight at Canberra Stadium, bringing some short-term relief to local fans.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp issues a blunt warning to fans trying to shake his hand as Serie A team Juventus reveals a player tests positive for COVID-19.

A decade after they lost everything in Black Saturday, one Victorian family is learning just how difficult it is to declutter.

Hundreds of residents from three Victorian towns are told to evacuate from their homes as part of one of the state's biggest-ever fire drills, in preparation for what could be a devastating fire season.

Vic Jurskis says his new book, Firestick Ecology, is a simple story of how Aboriginal people managed the land through fire to create and maintain the biodiversity and the fire-safe environment that greeted the first European settlers. The sub-title is 'fairdinkum science in plain English'. He says that to conserve biodiversity and live safely, we need to manage our forests with fire 'willingly, frequently and, with practice, skilfully'. The evidence of our land management failure is all around us, he says.

MORNING BRIEFING: NSW police hunt for Sunjay Dayal, who escaped while undertaking maintenance work in Mount Kiera, while three cars set alight in a garage triggers the fire alarms inside a Liverpool unit block.

Fire crews have spent more than two weeks extinguishing a coal wash fire burning underground on a property in NSW.

Hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren visit the national capital each year to study history and democracy — except, of course, this year.

Heading into the Top End's dry season, Jawoyn rangers are working to prevent dangerous bushfires from tearing through their country and communities.

Nineteen people are facing charges after firewood worth $1 million was allegedly harvested as part of what police are calling a "large-scale wood theft" operation in southern Tasmania.

Residents on the New South Wales south coast have rejected the finding from a Rural Fire Service investigation into the cause of a deadly fire at Lake Conjola.

Dark Mofo art experience Hrafn: Conversations with Odin sees tourists returning to the fire-ravaged Huon Valley south of Hobart to spend money and boost the local communities.

A Perth woman sustains burns to 30 per cent of her body and is taken to hospital in a critical condition after a man allegedly set her alight and then threw a firebomb into a house in Perth's east overnight.

An Adelaide business owner says buildings residents are not being informed about dangers posed by potentially flammable aluminium cladding, as an audit reveals dozens of structures are at risk.

An animal rights group calls for a roadside memorial to be erected for a number of chickens killed in a truck fire on Adelaide's Northern Expressway this morning.

An Adelaide court is told the 2012 fatal shooting of panelbeater Jason De Ieso was retribution for a firebomb attack on a home occupied by the parents of three of the alleged murderers.

Trees damaged by recent bushfires are used to restore Upper Murray River with the hope of saving the endangered trout cod.

Those who suffered devastating loss in the January bushfires say they didn't have time to rebuild before the coronavirus came along and dealt them another crippling blow.

Fire-affected communities in eastern Victoria are calling for a permanent firebreak to be built along both sides of the Princes Highway into New South Wales.

Fire season is officially over in southern Australia, but the work is only just beginning for the royal commission into the deadly crisis.

Shane Fitzsimmons was nicknamed the "nation's father" for his leadership during the catastrophic bushfire season. As he departs his post as NSW RFS chief, he explains how he went from a troubled teenager to a celebrated leader, earning respect and saving lives along the way.

Australian creatives who have lived through devastating natural disasters turn their trauma into beautiful pieces of art.

A man pleads guilty to killing a relative whose bones were found in a fireplace of a home in South Australia's Mid North eight years after the man went missing.

Two men have died in a head-on truck crash on the Sturt Highway near South Australia's Barossa Valley region, as wild weather continues to hit the state.

Allegations a female firefighter was grabbed by the neck by a male colleague, and another suffered burns after being "blocked" from leaving a house fire, spark an investigation at a regional SA fire station but the findings will not be made public.

After allegations of misconduct and violent behaviour at a South Australian fire station were revealed by the ABC, some staff are now facing fresh claims of a serious conflict of interest as calls for a public inquiry intensify.

The wooden jetty and Whyalla catches fire, sending black smoke into the sky.

A young child has been transferred to hospital in Adelaide with serious burns from a house fire that has also injured two other children and several adults at Port Augusta in South Australia's north.

A toddler has died in an Adelaide hospital after suffering horrific burns in a house fire in Port Augusta in South Australia's Mid-North last week.

NSW Police say four residents helped rescue a 31-year-old woman and a child from a house fire in Singleton in which three other children died.

Neighbours say they were woken by "screaming" in their quiet cul-de-sac as an intense fire took hold of a house in Singleton on the NSW Hunter Valley, leaving the local community "distraught".

Residents of a quiet suburban street in NSW's Hunter Valley say they watched on helplessly with a young mother whose house burnt down in front of her with three of her children inside.