High temperatures and strong winds fuel blazes across the state, with at least two homes being destroyed near the town of Darawank on the NSW mid-north coast.

Land clearing work at the Kimberley's Yakka Munga cattle station has ground to a halt as native title holders blockade the road and refuse contractors entry to the site.

A "flood" of vulnerable Australians have been walking into Telstra shops looking to buy a cheap flip phone and walking out with contracts worth $250 a month. Now the consumer watchdog is investigating.

Many Australians regard the beach as a place that belongs to everyone, where no-one can be excluded. But the truth of that notion will now be tested by the High Court.

Damage to a fibre optic cable causes a 20-hour communications blackout across Western Australia's Kimberley region, proving bad for business, but reigniting old-fashioned conversation.

The changing media landscape has meant former electrician Brodie Moss has an audience of more than 1 million, a comfortable full-time income, and the freedom to go fishing whenever he wants.

Northern pastoralists are upbeat after the Fitzroy Crossing Bull Sale recorded strong results, despite a year of extreme weather.

Indigenous ranger teams have traditionally been dominated by men, but a growing female workforce in the Kimberley is being seen as a vital resource.

Voting rights based on owning property were last seen in many democracies in the late 19th century, but they live on in most Australian local government elections.

A Federal Government investigation has found no evidence a whistleblower onboard the livestock carrier Awassi Express fabricated conditions on the boat by switching off fans and ventilation.

It usually melts long before lunchtime but forecasters expect snow over the Stirling Ranges to linger into the midafternoon this Saturday as a cold front blasts the mountain peaks of southern WA.

The WA SES Volunteer Association hits out at department bureaucracy after a decade-long wait for equipment.

Tasmanian MP Madeleine Ogilvie is the descendent of Labor royalty but this time around, the new Member for Clark is at pains to prove she's her own person, Emily Baker writes.

Formula Three driver Alex Peroni walks off a plane in his hometown of Hobart just one week after a horror race day crash in Italy.

DAILY BRIEFING: Investigators says a fire a Hobart cafe started when towels ignited in a dryer and a 16-year-old boy is charged with an attempted armed robbery in Launceston.

A 60-tonne truck carrying part of a wind turbine rolls over in Tasmania's central highlands, leaving a 68-metre blade across the road.

When Family Planning first came to Tasmania some of its doctors were labelled witches, and it was illegal to advertise contraceptives. Nowadays, a simple text to a number can see condoms delivered to your door.

A victim of one of Tasmania's "most horrendous" crimes, a woman is fighting the justice system to keep her captor and rapist in jail, while being unable to identify herself.

Fire is "absolutely the number-one risk" to the city of Hobart, authorities say. But has the island state learnt from the 1967 fires that destroyed hundreds of homes and claimed 62 lives?

DAILY BRIEFING: The father of Graham Enniss, who escaped from Hobart's Risdon Prison this morning, urges his son to hand himself in, as police caution the public to stay away from the man.

Tasmania is known for being clean and green, but Eva Pagett can't drink her tank water because it's contaminated with lead.

DAILY BRIEFING: The wait for public housing in Tasmania blows out by 34 per cent for those most in need, and passengers on a tourist train get a fright after an apparent failure of the braking system.

A man who assaulted his then-pregnant girlfriend on a weekly basis, destroyed her possessions by driving over them and smeared faeces on her clothes is jailed and described by the presiding judge as "domineering" and "cowardly".

DAILY BRIEFING: Scientists offer the public the chance to name a rare red handfish, and there are calls for councillors to receive training on responding to bullying.

Australia's island state is known for its rich history and pristine environment it also provides 50 per cent of the raw materials that go into the powerful painkillers at the centre of the United States' opioid crisis.

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.

DAILY BRIEFING: Premier Will Hodgman says it is "improbable" mining exploration licences or leases will be granted to companies looking for coal on agricultural land, and the Hobart City Council is one step closer to drug testing councillors.

The 24-year-old believes a move to change laws in Tasmania allowing survivors of sexual crimes to share their stories will give greater insights into how perpetrators operate.

Vicki Denton is seeing better than she has in years. She gave up on the public health system and went into debt to have private surgery to avoid going blind.

A draft report has found a $260 million development of Glenorchy's Wilkinson's Point would great 1,100 jobs and inject millions into Hobart, but it could come at a cost to locals.

DAILY BRIEFING: On a day of total fire ban in Tasmania's south, the fire service is being kept busy dealing with several outbreaks, including at Elderslie and Lachlan, where communities are on watch-and act-alerts.

DAILY BRIEFING: The prisons watchdog says he was pressured to redact a report on the Ashley youth detention centre and he will strongly resist requests to do so in the future.

DAILY BRIEFING: Almost 30 tourism operators have received breach notices for missing parks passes, and a Tasmanian Senator acknowledges "shocking" aged care findings.

Using cameras and wind disturbance, a Tasmanian wind farm will be the first in Australia to deter wedge-tailed eagles from flying into the turbine blades.

Single dad becomes unsung hero of a photographic exhibition championing men's health that is making a difference

Make-up course organiser Larissa Jones says parents can't ignore the pressure their children feel to wear make-up and it is better to coach them and let them talk about their insecurities.

From growing agri-tourism to tackling racism, these Trailblazers are taking their big ideas to the country's corridors of power to revolutionise regional Australia.

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.

Lukina Lukin has fought her way to the top of Australia's lucrative southern bluefin tuna industry in a classic rags-to-riches tale of survival and success.

More money has been pledged for more than 70 protected areas across the country, almost entirely in regional and remote Australia.

The Australian birthing kit program sees groups of women get together to help at-risk mothers around the globe and is believed to have helped save nearly 300,000 lives.