Emily Slattery, a doctor herself, describes the recent birth of her son George as "boringly normal", but in fact it was far from ordinary. By using an independent midwife instead of an obstetrician, she has become the first woman in WA to take advantage of a new option in maternity care.

A Chinese company has been given until the end of November to remediate land it cleared at a cattle station in the Kimberley, following a blockade by Aboriginal native title holders.

Vance Mazur will serve at least 15 years behind bars for fatally stabbing a 35-year-old Broome man outside a bottle shop in 2017 while suffering from violent delusions.

WA's Child Protection Minister orders an urgent review into her department's management of five-year-old Symerien Brooking, who has one of the rarest medical conditions on the planet.

A 36-year-old man is charged with murder following an alleged hit-and-run attack on two men in Perth's south in the early hours of Easter Sunday.

Lou Brown used meditation and shear effort to clip about one sheep a minute for eight hours and claim the new world record.

Catching a glimpse of snow at the top of Bluff Knoll is a highly sought after WA bucket-list item, but this history of snowfall in WA spans Geraldton to Southern Cross.

When tiny pieces of plastic that were spilled on other side of the world start washing up on your beaches, who is responsible for cleaning them up?

The owners of the mothballed Ravensthorpe nickel mine in WA's south-east, say they will move to re-open the site if surging demand for the metal continues.

Micheal McRae is accused of bashing his baby son Nathaniel, leaving him with severe brain injuries, but the charge is upgraded after the boy spent a year fighting for life in hospital.

A seven-year-old Perth girl who picked up her toddler sister and held her aloft to save her from an attacking rottweiler dog is among a group of West Australians to be honoured with bravery awards.

The shared horror of losing family members to homicide has united two women in their quest to form a unique peer support group in Western Australia.

There is no sign of retirement for 91-year-old Rex Egerton-Warburton who still enjoys an active farming career despite being in the saleyards since he was five.

The "extinction pit" is the name used by scientists for a place no animal wants to go, and just five years ago the numbat Western Australia's animal emblem found itself on the edge thanks to the rise of a new predator.

Growers question the process behind Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) announcing that a controversial ex-chairman is among the preferred candidates to fill board vacancies.

A master wine producer whose riesling is the reigning Australian wine of the year bows out of the industry, citing age and the desire to hand over to a new generation for the decision.

Bereft of vineyards a couple of years ago, Forcett in south-east Tasmania, will soon have more than 200 hectares of wine grapes in the ground.

Among the old-growth gums and wildlife of Milford Forest are two critically endangered orchids that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. But their habitat could be at risk due to a planned highway upgrade.

Lucienne Rickard will draw an extinct species every day for a year but at the end there will hardly be anything left to show for her work.

DAILY BRIEFING: A woman is in police custody after a house is in Lauderdale on Hobart's eastern shore is destroyed by fire and concerns raised over planned cuts to distance education teacher levels.

A man accused of deliberately running over and killing a stranger had post-traumatic stress disorder after an assault nine years earlier, a court has heard.

In an six-hour police interview played to the jury, Ms Otto told detectives she and friend Bradley Purkiss had fantasised about living together and had often said things would be easier if her husband were dead.

It's no secret Tasmanians are proud of their rich convict history, which draws in tourists from far and wide, but there's much more to Van Diemen's Land than the infamous penal settlement at Port Arthur.

A judge sentencing a woman and her former lover to jail for the shooting murder of her partner Dwayne "Doc" Davies ?labels the act an "outrageous killing" and a "betrayal" by the victim's wife and close friend.

DAILY BRIEFING: A trio of women calling themselves the 'knitting nannas' are arrested for staging a climate change protest, and Hobart rent outpaces Melbourne for unaffordability.

Calls for a trial of the Federal Government's cashless welfare card in Tasmania spark fierce rebukes, including a comparison to "Nazi Germany" by one local mayor.

A public servant improperly awarded, or attempted to influence, millions of dollars' worth of government contracts for the benefit of a close friend, an inquiry finds.

These creatures can make some strange sounds and the Australian Museum wants you to record them to help monitor populations.

Consultants investigating Ambulance Tasmania found poor management of fatigue and workplace stress and a lack of workplace health and safety procedures across the organisation, a leaked report reveals.

DAILY BRIEFING: TasWater has lifted a boil water alert that was put in place on Monday for Lauderdale, Acton Park, Roches Beach and Seven Mile Beach, but investigations into how the drinking supply became infected with E. coli are still underway.

Police charge a 32-year-old Victorian man with murder after an Afghan man's body was found yesterday afternoon near Ceduna, in South Australia's west.

The man accused of murdering a 29-year-old man on the Nullarbor Plain is remanded in custody after appearing briefly in court in Ceduna, in South Australia's far west.

Friends of a man allegedly murdered on South Australia's Nullarbor Plain on Monday say he had previously worked as an interpreter with the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and the US Army in Afghanistan, and had "escaped the warzone" in moving to Australia.

Garry Seidel became so frustrated with the durability of his oyster baskets, he set out to create a more robust design capable of lasting years longer than those that had failed and were stacking up in his shed.

If you thought it was hot last year, you're not wrong. The Bureau of Meteorology is warning there is little relief on the cards, with 2018's high temperatures and severely dry conditions expected to persist until at least March.

A severe heatwave threatens to break all-time records in South Australia and Victoria today including the maximum of 46.1C in Adelaide set in 1939 as experts warn that "nowhere is going to escape the heat".

Regional airports are deemed essential gateways between the city and country, but questions have been raised about how secure they are.

Tuna spotters, flying above the Bight to tell fishers where to steer their boats, have started working with whale researchers to help them take stock of populations.