Flying a light plane to pick up bread from the local bakery is not something most Australians can relate to, but it is the unique reality for some who call Central Australia home.

Alice says the tobacco tax increase won't act as an incentive to break the addiction because smoking already has a "hold" on her life.

Sue Hickey draws ire from fellow parliamentarians saying Tasmanian speakers like herself deserve to earn more than their $190,000 annual salary.

They're some of the most senior figures in the country and are elected to represent the people, but are our politicians earning too much?

A horror summer season has seen fruit and vegetable growers in Queensland go to extraordinary lengths to grow crops.

Doctors are shocked by how quickly this season's flu is striking down the young and healthy. Last year, Amanda Nix was doing Tough Mudder, but a few weeks ago she was struck down with the infection, blacking out in an emergency ward as it took hold.

More than 11,000 scientists around the world have signed a scientific paper declaring a climate emergency, in turn backing protesters across the world demanding and calling on governments worldwide to act.

Scientists are stunned by the discovery of the well-preserved body of an 18,000-year-old puppy in far-eastern Russian Siberia, but experts are unsure whether it was a dog or a wolf.

A charity in the Blue Mountains is feeding 18,000 people a week during the COVID 19 crisis.

More than half a million dollars meant for a hospital cancer research unit was claimed in overtime and annual leave payments by an ex-manager despite records showing she was often not entitled to it, WA's corruption watchdog finds.

A WA woman is caught up in an online investment scam that used a bogus endorsement by mining billionaire Andrew Forrest and created fake ABC News articles to publicise the scam on Facebook and LinkedIn.

More than 25,000 homes are without power across Perth as a strong spring storm bringing wind gusts of more than 100 kilometres per hour knocks trees and branches onto powerlines and turns off traffic lights across the city.

Police say card-skimming devices fitted to two Perth ATMs allowed scammers to steal tens of thousands of dollars from the bank accounts of unsuspecting victims, with a 32-year-old Estonian man charged.

The Keith and District Hospital will receive $140,000 lifeline to keep operating until July under a new deal struck by the South Australian Government and Tatiara District Council.

Just eight months from forming, South Australian punk band Chelsea Manor found themselves playing before 15,000 screaming people at their first live gig.

A Queensland medieval festival has marked a milestone anniversary with huge crowds gathering to be immersed in 1,000 years of history, from the battleground to the bedroom.

Irrigator Anthony Barlow is fined well below the maximum for pumping water from the Barwon River during an extreme water shortage in Broken Hill.

A fierce cold front brings heavy rain and damaging winds across Perth and Western Australia's south-west, prompting hundreds of calls to emergency services and leaving tens of thousands of homes without power.

The Vietnam vet, master of ceremonies at Currumbin's Elephant Rock dawn service for 25 years, says this year's Anzac Day cancellations prove we sometimes don't know what we've got till it's gone.

People who deliberately spit, sneeze or cough on frontline workers will be fined up to $13,000, the Queensland Government announces as a new public health emergency order is introduced.

The Tasmanian Government to seek Federal Government and ADF assistance over coronavirus outbreak in the state's north-west.

Printmakers across the country are raising awareness of our most endangered group of birds and their non-stop, eight-and-a-half day journey home from their Artic breeding grounds.

The Riverina car dealership says it takes '100 per cent takes responsibility' for the incident, and has improved work health and safety culture.

A woman who worked as a financial officer at the since-failed SKM Recycling has been sentenced to six months' jail after siphoning more than $168,000 from the business into her own accounts.

The number of Australians to have recovered from COVID-19 has surpassed 6,000, Health Minister Greg Hunt has announced, leaving fewer than 800 active cases of the virus around the country.

Rose Bay man Bruce Goldberg is awarded $35,000 in damages over a defamatory Facebook post that implied he was a danger to women and a stalker, fuelling "chatter" in the affluent community.

The pub in South Australia's south-east allegedly served drinks to a number of customers in its front bar on Tuesday night.

The WA Attorney-General casts doubt on whether more than $600,000 worth of severance payouts, made to former Health Department employees embroiled in a decades-long corruption scandal, will be recovered.

A former finance officer for the Summernats car festival, who stole thousands of dollars from the business to fuel a drug habit, avoids prison time.

Police announce a $500,000 reward for information about the rape of an 18-year-old woman in Melbourne's CBD last year, as the victim speaks about the "traumatic" attack for the first time.

Yida Benny Xiong failed to put $300,000 from two foreign investors money into the purchase of a plot of land in Adelaide and instead spent the money himself.

Yida Benny Xiong ripped off two female foreign investors in excess of $300,000 in a property scam that was used to fund his luxurious lifestyle, an Adelaide court hears.

In recent years, SA has developed a reputation for blackouts and energy instability, but uptake of a home battery scheme spruiked as a potential solution remains sluggish.

Public transport policies are discouraging patronage in Adelaide, lobbyists say, after Freedom of Information figures uncover a significant decline in bus patronage in the first six months of the year.

The owners of the mothballed Central Norseman gold mine in WA have been fined over the death of a worker fatally crushed in 2016.

Police say half a tonne of gold concentrate found in a Kalgoorlie man's backyard came from a commercial mine. The 48-year-old says he found it at the local rubbish tip.

A 60-year-old man living in a caravan in outback WA faces legal action and fines of up to $50,000 from his local council after erecting a shade structure without a building permit.

As parents struggle to support their children learning at home, a survey of 10,000 teachers finds only half of those in the public system think Australia's remote learning arrangements are sufficient.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says plans are underway to test 100,000 people over the next fortnight for COVID-19 in order to make an informed decision on which restrictions could be rolled back after the state of emergency ends on May 11.

The Federal Government is ordered to pay $206,000 in legal fees for a two-year-old Tamil girl who has been embroiled in a high-profile legal battle to stay in Australia with her family.

Two more cases of coronavirus are confirmed in Victoria overnight, as Daniel Andrews encourages people to be tested for COVID-19 and tells parents to prepare for term two to remain online.

The Cancer Council uses new digital technology to transport more regional cancer patients to treatment.

O'Connor is one of the largest electorates in the world, but there will be 102 polling stations open for business on Saturday when the federal election takes place.

Labelled "exceptional" by the state's most experienced equine vet, twin fillies delivered by a mare in WA's Wheatbelt are still alive through a crucial period after being born.

The operators of a fast-food pizza shop in Hobart are fined $104,000 after a court finds they "deliberately" adopted a different payment system for foreign employees that saw the workers earn significantly less than their Australian counterparts.