Signs urging people to stay 1.5 metres apart mark the entrance to Litchfield National Park, and police patrols ensure the instructions are obeyed.

Locals at the heart of a devastating fish kill say politicians lack the vision or intent to overcome water management deficiencies, as the ABC visits towns from Goolwa to Menindee to find out who, if anyone, is in control of the Murray-Darling Basin.

Mount Isa's Nev Power said fixing windmills and tractors prepared him to chair the COVID-19 Coordination Commission.

Communities in western New South Wales are mourning the suspension of their local newspapers with some saying the publications are the "heart" of the communities.

Sometimes the people who make the biggest contributions to our culture can be pretty strange characters.

Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein says the Chief Medical Officer's claims that the north-west Tasmanian coronavirus outbreak started with a dinner party of health workers are a rumour that will be followed up.

One Tasmanian Aboriginal elder says the mountain's summit is where her spirit will go when she dies. She wants people to only visit the sacred pinnacle "for good reason".

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.

The famous Dog on the Tuckerbox statue near Gundagai in the NSW Riverina has been knocked from its sandstone pedestal in an attack the local mayor has called a "senseless bit of vandalism".

Sitting proudly on its pedestal, Gundagai's much-loved pooch is back where it belongs after it was recently vandalised in an attack that left the community outraged.

A Melbourne council will hold a "solemn" ceremony to acknowledge the impact of European settlement on Indigenous Australians before its usual Australia Day celebrations a move an Aboriginal group says could provide a national model for January 26.

Working nine to five in a stable job as an information technology consultant would be enough to make some people very happy. For Vincent Brouillet it was not enough, he craved freedom, fresh air and the chance to fulfil a dream.

As wisps of fog settled on the township of Eungella, bike riders emerged from the muddy tracks within the rainforest. The Eungella National Park rarely fails to live up to its Indigenous name 'Land of the Clouds' and once a year the town attracts athletes who are eager to compete in its mountain bike marathon.

Mount Panorama has made the most experienced racing driver and their team shudder, but it hasn't stopped a group of TAFE students taking on the mountain.

Built in 1925, the Noojee Hotel catered for the growing timber industry in the area, providing accommodation and beer. Then in the early 1960s, a series of dinosaur sculptures were made by local man Jack Kelly. Their reputation preceded them and after much wear and tear, they were thrown out to waste. Now two locals have reignited Noojee's love affair with the prehistoric animal.

Kym Lynch from Mount Isa trains for extreme sports events around work

Alison Whitehead ran up and down a local hill until she reached the equivalent elevation of Mount Everest's peak

Bull riders will still tell you the Mount Isa Rodeo isn't a social event they go to win. But as conditions in country Australia worsen, they're not the only ones hanging on.

WorkSafe and police investigate the death of a construction worker who was demolishing a Ballarat home when he was killed in a wall collapse this morning.

A cold front moving across NSW dumps snow around Goulburn and the Blue Mountains, while erratic winds and lightning may hamper firefighting efforts in the north of the state.

MORNING BRIEFING: An independent panel gives a 30-storey tower and retail complex at Barangaroo the green light, while police are perplexed how an SUV ended up on top of a parked car.

A group of scientists is pushing for Exmouth Gulf, next to Ningaloo Reef in remote Western Australia, to be protected from industry saying its biodiversity is of global significance.

A trial is underway to determine if two former senior staff from the Shire of Exmouth in WA falsified records in relation to a $1 million aquarium purchase.

Railton is full of topiary with hedges cleverly clipped into animals, words and objects but there are hopes it can reinvent itself and boost its economy like the north-east town of Derby on the back of newly-opened mountain bike tracks.

Adhesive mouse traps which use glue to slowly inflict fatal injuries are still being sold at discount shops throughout Australia and are harming native animals, according to an animal rights group.

Todd Robinson speaks out about his partner, Constable Glen Humphris — one of the four police officers killed in a fatal crash — saying he was "so proud" to have joined Victoria Police.

Constable Glen Humphris and three other officers were hit by a truck while standing in the emergency lane of the Eastern Freeway in Melbourne.

The partner of Senior Constable Kevin King, who was killed in last week's Eastern Freeway crash in Melbourne, says her heart is "in pieces" after the loss of her "only love for 35 years".

Sam Bloomfield makes medieval-inspired armour and art in a process he says is a bit like dressmaking — only with metal, not cloth.

Bob the Railway Dog, an icon of Peterborough in South Australia's mid-north, is again being celebrated with a book detailing some of his many adventures.

Snakes have been known to wrap their jaws around crocodiles, kangaroos and goats so why would one give up on a bird?

What drives people to spend their weekends suffering as they attempt to run 50, 100, or even 200 kilometres through the bush and over mountains?

Maggots were found in the mouth of a patient with advanced dementia by visiting family members, the Royal Commission into Aged Care sitting in WA has been told.

A West Australian man has captured on camera what may be one of the first documented cases of a redback spider capturing a mouse.

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.

Have you ever seen the Great Australian Bight from the air? A truck driver with a passion for drone photography showcases some of Australia's most remote landscapes as he makes his weekly Nullarbor crossing.