Hiking huts are Australia's answer to Scotland's famed bothies and New Zealand's backcountry shacks and stand as a testament of a national identity that has long been intertwined with survival in isolation.

Coronavirus has forced some dramatic changes to how the ABC keeps the public informed, from home-based broadcasting to webcam interviews and recruiting people featured in a story to help film it on their mobile phone.

Tasmania records its first coronavirus infection in a nursing home, a 79-year-old woman in the state's cluster zone in the north-west, where cases linked to two hospitals prompted a mass quarantine last week.

Another five coronavirus cases in Tasmania's troubled northwest take the tally to 200, as the Health Minister urges people to remain vigilant.

A Tasmanian police officer is charged over a car crash that killed a pedestrian from New South Wales earlier this year.

The number of coronavirus cases associated with an outbreak in Tasmania's north-west is "trailing off", the state's director of public health says, with additional retail restrictions in place in the region due to be lifted on Sunday night.

AgQuip will not run in August, as it has done since 1973, due to the coronavirus pandemic, with organisers flagging November for the event which usually attracts about 100,000 people to north-west NSW.

A day after authorities said the coronavirus outbreak in Tasmania may be "trailing off", the tally jumps to 205 with four new cases detected in the past 24 hours — all in the state's north-west.

Australia's Chief Medical Officer says a coronavirus cluster in Tasmania's north-west was likely sparked by a passenger from the Ruby Princess cruise ship, as the state marks 24 hours without a new case being found.

Aussie expat Morgan Ray usually attends an Anzac Day ceremony on the banks of the Chicago River, but lockdowns have made that impossible this year. He's not alone in feeling alone this year.

The Chief Medical Officer spent nearly two hours answering questions from senators about Australia's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Here are all the key points you need to know.

Retail restrictions are extended on Tasmania's north-west coast, as the state records its ninth coronavirus death and 207th case of the disease.

Tasmania had one of the strongest responses to COVID-19 in the country. But on the day the two-person gathering rule was adopted, the state's nightmare quietly began.

Tasmania has four new cases of coronavirus to add to its tally, with three being health workers from the state's disease hotspot of the north-west.

A female healthcare worker "in her 20s" is the latest case of coronavirus confirmed in Tasmania, on the day Australia's Chief Medical Officer apologises for alleging an "illegal dinner party" contributed to the state's outbreak.

An elderly woman becomes the 13th Tasmanian to succumb to coronavirus as the Government rules out an easing of state restrictions.

Key dates in the outbreak which unfolded in two Tasmanian hospitals, according to a report released by Public Health.

Tighter retail restrictions imposed on Tasmania's north-west after a coronavirus outbreak will be lifted on Sunday night, with the situation "largely under control", Premier Peter Gutwein says, as the state records a day free of new cases.

For the fourth day in a row Tasmania records no new cases of coronavirus and announces it will begin to lift restrictions at aged care homes from next Monday.

Ambulance paramedics left a woman with a history of mental illness alone in her home without electricity, hot water or lighting before she was found dead months later, in a move a coroner said was "difficult to understand."

Ten healthcare workers from the Launceston General Hospital's COVID-19 ward are being tested after their colleague was diagnosed with coronavirus, as the Government reveals cases by municipality.

A man suffers head injuries when he is hit by a car that mounted a tram stop outside the Royal Adelaide Hospital, narrowly avoiding other bystanders.

You never forget your first car and it seems some of us wish we never let it go, including this 92-year-old who bought back his first Chevrolet and restored it.

A teenager who suffered a punctured lung when she was stabbed by a classmate at Renmark High School tells the District Court they are still best friends and she will continue to support her as she receives treatment for schizophrenia.

Amber Brea Rover was suffering from undiagnosed schizophrenia when she stabbed her friend Zoe Fenn in July last year.

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.

A coroner finds clear and ongoing inadequacies in the care of a pregnant Indigenous woman, who later died from sepsis, by doctors and staff at Tumut Hospital.

The NSW Government has announced a $10 million initiative to combat what the Agriculture Minister has described as a looming "fish Armageddon".

An irrigation channel used to release water into a forest along the Murray River in NSW is filled with earth and rocks, with an irrigator saying it's a sign of frustration boiling over in the area.

Conservationists are alarmed about the amount of vegetation to be cleared for Snowy 2.0, but Snowy Hydro says the benefits outweigh their concerns.

One of Australia's largest food exporters, SunRice, cuts more than 30 regional staff after producing its second-lowest rice crop.

Utes assemble at the Deni Ute Muster in western NSW

Rampant vandalism, stress on social housing, and a dairy farming family at the end of their resources SBS's Struggle Street spotlights the Riverina in its latest look at poverty.

A lawyer for former Brazil striker Ronaldinho Gaucho says his client will remain in Paraguay to help police with their enquiries into why he entered the country in possession of an adulterated Paraguayan passport.

Brazilian football icon Ronaldinho and his brother are arrested in Paraguay, with authorities saying the pair entered the country with falsified documents.

Extinction Rebellion protesters say they will take on board concerns that their demonstrations are disproportionately affecting people with disabilities, as police use power tools to separate activists in Melbourne and Brisbane.

Climate protesters who brought the streets of Melbourne to a standstill are vowing to make a comeback in autumn as police reveal the cost of overtime for controlling the protests would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Perth Glory are held to a draw thanks to a controversial extra-time equaliser by Robbie Fowler's Brisbane Roar in the west, as A-League newcomers Western United enjoy a winning debut with a 1-0 win over the Phoenix in Wellington.

The NRL's integrity unit launches an investigation after a video posted on social media appears to show Melbourne Storm's Nelson Asofa-Solomona swinging punches during a brawl outside a nightclub.

Victorian Opposition Leader Michael O'Brien calls on the Office of Public Prosecutions to release its advice not to prosecute Labor figures over the misuse of taxpayer-funded electorate officers during the 2014 election campaign.

Ciaron Maher and David Eustace are looking to turn their unorthodox training partnership into big success at Melbourne's Spring Carnival.

A police car may have reached speeds of up to 154 kilometres per hour during a pursuit that ended in the death of Raymond Noel Thomas in Melbourne's inner north, a court hears.

A former police officer critical of the force's response to the Bourke Street rampage is considering selling his home to afford independent legal representation at an inquest into the attack, a court hears.

A 21-year-old man of no fixed address is arrested by detectives over the alleged sexual assault of a woman in a park in Thornbury in Melbourne's north on Saturday night.

Police arrest dozens of young suspects in crimes such as carjackings and aggravated burglaries as they admit street gangs have "absolutely" become a problem in Melbourne.

The head of a community centre which houses Melbourne's controversial safe injecting centre is stood down after several staff linked to other services at the centre have been charged with trafficking heroin.

The limitations of company annual general meetings were laid bare at Crown's flagship Melbourne casino this week, where questions about company scandals were batted away, but Crown won't escape scrutiny for long, writes Daniel Ziffer.