Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews responds to the state's Deputy Chief Health Officer's tweet comparing coronavirus to Captain Cook's arrival in Australia at a press conference on May 1, 2020.

Victoria Police has suspended a senior constable over what Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton calls one of the most appalling breaches of privacy he's ever seen.

A racehorse brought to Australia for the 2016 Spring Carnival has been euthanased after falling in a jumps race in south-west Victoria.

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

A Catholic order settles out of court paying $4 million to survivors of historic sex abuse and apologising to them, their families and the Latrobe Valley community.

Scott Alan Murdoch, the man who stabbed Melbourne woman Kylie Blackwood and left her bleeding to death to be found by her 11-year-old twins, will have to serve at least 36 years before he is eligible for parole.

A humble, but very big, brown boot is seen disappearing into the sky via a crane, prompting commuters to take to social media to ask the obvious question.

Floodwaters are swelling rivers in drought-ravaged outback Queensland and lifting the spirits of graziers.

The Cordillo Downs woolshed is the biggest of its kind in the world and a reminder of when Australia rode on the sheep's back. Now help is being sought to guarantee its future.

Outback drillers find water 90 metres below the surface of SA's APY Lands in an underground valley millions of years old and remote communities are hoping it will provide a much-needed economic boost.

Part of the Port Augusta Prison has been evacuated after a letter containing a mystery white powder was opened by staff.

Isaac Doman could not talk until he was eight years old. Now he's directing his own short films for an award-winning company.

A controversial teddy bear fence, which stretches for more than a kilometre on South Australia's Copper Coast Highway, is being deliberately hacked apart by knife-wielding "haters", its creator claims.

A controversial teddy bear fence featuring thousands of teddy bears alongside one of SA's major highways has been destroyed, with many condemning the actions of vandals.

More than 3,000 World War II wrecks lie in the Pacific Ocean of which around 300 are oil tankers. There are fears of environmental devastation as they begin to rust and leak oil.

A group of textile artists in Newcastle has thrown down a challenge to artists around Australia to create hand-made flowers to raise funds for ovarian cancer research.

Authorities are fed up with a Taiwanese shipping company's slow response to salvaging containers it lost at sea near Newcastle one year ago, with one commercial fisherman saying he is still catching up to 20 push bikes in nets.

Health authorities in Newcastle, NSW, have developed a vaccine safety tracking system, now a world-leader in monitoring the rollout of vaccines in Australia.

Children of post-war European migrants call for permanent monument at Greta Migrant Camp in the NSW Hunter Valley.

Former Anglican Dean of Newcastle Graeme Lawrence "avoided" answering questions when giving his evidence about allegations he sexually assaulted a teenager at his home in the early 1990s, a court has heard.

Former rugby league star Jarryd Hayne is committed to stand trial on charges of aggravated sexual assault of a woman in the NSW Hunter region.

A man who had half his face shot off in a 2017 home invasion has fought back tears after a second man pleaded guilty in relation to his violent home invasion.

Senior members of the Nomads bikie gang are sentenced over their participation in a criminal group, during a period of what the prosecutor described as "extreme" and "unpredictable" violence across the Hunter region.

The United Wambo coal mine in the NSW Hunter Valley gets the go-ahead, but on the condition that its coal can only be exported to countries that have ratified the Paris climate agreement.

What would you do if you were told you had 16 months to live? That was the harsh reality for Jill Emberson when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. With the survival rate of the disease half that of the breast cancer survival rate, she's using her last moments to make a change.

A NSW firefighter who hatched a plan to start bushfires "so he could fight them" will serve more time in jail than the man who lit them his younger brother.

If you suffer from trypophobia, or an aversion to the sight of clusters of small holes, you might want to take a deep breath before laying your eyes on a Suriname toad.

The Independent Planning Commission will be reviewed after a 21-year mining lease near Singleton was approved before public submissions closed a blunder the Opposition says will call the system's integrity into question.

The victim of a violent home invasion in Newcastle has described his ongoing suffering and lifelong trauma after half his face was shot off in December 2017.

A transport company seeking lucrative contracts to run Adelaide's public transport networks has shared fake quotes of former Labor ministers in an apparent bid to assist the South Australian Liberal Government press its case for rail privatisation.

A recent Harvard study found Australia's economy is less complex than Kazakhstan or Uganda, but is the assessment fair? And, if it is, what can be done to diversify the economy away from its mining dependence?

The New South Wales Supreme Court has heard a man accused of killing a knife-wielding intruder was annoyed but had no intention of killing the man after a chase and struggle.

The NSW regional electorate of Cowper has the largest number of voters in the country, the latest Australian Electoral Commission elector count reveals.

The Country Women's Association is set to take on Wicked Campers after one of its members took direct action and painted over of slogans on one of its vans.

Following the recent Hendra virus outbreak, an equine vet is encouraging horse owners to vaccinate their animals against the deadly bat-borne disease.

A NSW Mid North Council apologies for the grief it caused the community for knocking over headstones.

People in a packed gallery sit up when inconsistencies begin to appear in the testimony of "person of interest" Paul Savage, a neighbour who claimed he joined in the search for the missing three-year-old.

Today the Macleay Valley is suffering unprecedented drought, but 70 years ago it was inundated with "mighty waves as high as telegraph poles" that flooded the region and left 2,000 people homeless.

A Kendall resident says he is certain he saw William Tyrrell being driven away by a blonde woman in a car at high speed moments after the toddler vanished from the New South Wales mid-north coast almost five years ago.

Five new photos of William Tyrrell are made public by the NSW Coroner as well as the transcript of a key witness who said he cursed a woman he saw driving with an unrestrained child in the backseat.

Young, adventurous and enterprising couple Jess Davidson and Andy Hoffman quit their jobs to follow a dream more than a year ago.

Injured koalas receive life-saving treatment after surviving devastating bushfires on the New South Wales mid-north coast.

A teenage boy was watching television on his iPad when a cattle truck slammed into his parents' caravan, killing both of them, on a Western Australian outback highway two years ago, a court is told.