Police are investigating the "suspicious" origins of a devastating bushfire, which is believed to have started late Friday and yesterday destroyed 21 homes in northern NSW.

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.

From phoning war widows and having a chat to ease isolation, to walking a service dog down the driveway, younger veterans are finding creative ways to make this Anzac Day count.

The lead-up to Anzac Day is usually a busy time for florists and volunteers, but this year is very different.

One of the only full Anzac Day services to be held in Queensland will honour the service of local soldiers through a series of videos filmed during isolation.

The southern Queensland town of Yelarbon is the latest to put itself on the map with a large-scale silo mural, but visitors will have to wait until COVID-19 travel restrictions are lifted.

Queensland's Chief Health Officer refuses to budge on a decision criticised as "bureaucratic overreach" after an Anzac Day flyover is banned due to coronavirus restrictions, with the state recording another two cases.

For Country Women's Association secretary and cookery judge Pam Wright, whose uncle died a POW and whose father succumbed to his war injuries, Anzac biscuits mean more than just a delicious treat.

Queenslanders find innovative ways to commemorate Anzac Day from home and online after coronavirus distancing restrictions forced the cancellation of gatherings.

Researchers make some interesting discoveries about Fitzroy River humpback dolphins.

Thousands of residents from across Far North Queensland embrace the region's proud Anzac legacy, despite COVID-19 restrictions.

Thousands of residents across the Sunshine Coast pay their respects on Anzac Day — standing in driveways, paddling on the water, and dressing up — despite COVID-19 restrictions.

On one part of the Sunshine Coast, up to 116mm of rain is still needed to saturate the soil to reduce the risk of bushfires flaring.

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.

This holiday hotspot has the potential of having zero active coronavirus cases by early May, but with fine weather and loosening restrictions the situation could prove otherwise.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says her Government is developing a road map to reopen Queensland's tourist trade, first for domestic travellers and then as soon as possible to New Zealanders.

Words like 'iso' and 'sanny' are slipping into every day vocabulary, as COVID-19 slang goes viral like, well, "the 'rona'. Experts say its creating a sense of community.

Sunshine Coast Council estimates that parts of the region are facing a mosquito population double the size of previous years.

Zulya is a singing, guitar playing, native of Tartazan in Russia

ABC North Coast resident arts reviewer, Jeanti St Clair looks at the latest music and theatre to hit the region.

After spearheading the fight to combat the summer's devastating bushfires, NSW RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons leaves his job today and says his new role will take on the bushfire recovery efforts.

People are being urged to batten down the hatches as the cold weather hits, including sheep graziers who could lose animals to the potentially deadly chill.

As zoos are closed to visitors due to coronavirus, zookeepers trying to exercise animals by talking them for walks around the zoo.

The New Zealand Warriors will fly into Tamworth tomorrow, in an exemption from current travel rules.

Elizabeth Lane says her mother, a Newmarch House resident, is a 'sitting duck' as the new COVID-19 cases continue to rise at the Western Sydney aged care home.

A mental health initiative that became a national success story is forced to innovate in the coronavirus era with Zoom walks and online check-ins.

A NSW health district has collated its data from recent weeks and it shows a clear picture of how COVID-19 arrived and spread in the west of the state.

The family of missing backpacker Theo Hayez criticises Belgian media for claiming DNA on a cap found near Cape Byron Lighthouse suggested it was owned by the teen, who has not been seen for almost a year.

Kathryn Bigelow's take on the hunt for Bin Laden is big and bold, and while it lacks an emotional centre, it manages to achieve moments of impressive intensity.

Two Perth Festival light artists take us far beyond the incandescent glow of digitised art, says 720 cultural correspondent Victoria Laurie.

This apocalyptic zombie drama may have a rather lifeless script, but director Marc Forster makes up for it with heart-pounding action scenes and terrifying monsters.

There's nothing quite like a portrait exhibition to bring the crowds in. A steady stream of visitors has been arriving at the Lismore Regional Gallery since the 2013 Northern Rivers Portrait Prize opened on June 8.

Over the years as I've trawled through annual Archibald Prize for portraiture at the Art Gallery of NSW, I have always taken the time to also peruse two of the other exhibitions shown simultaneously: the Wynne Prize for sculpture and landscape painting and the Dobell Prize for drawing, named after Australian artist Sir William Dobell.

Beijing Dance Theatre's choreographer Wang Yuanyuan describes its newest piece Haze as a response to the current economic and environmental crisis facing China. If that's the case, things are pretty grim in the People's Republic.

TaikOz

Mozart Dances comprises of three short dance pieces inspired by Mozart's piano concerto number 11, sonata in D major for two pianos and piano concerto number 27.

Swimming in icy water is not something everyone aspires to do but it should be, according to an outdoor swimming enthusiast.

A report into hazing at the University of New England finds female students were pressured into sexual acts, "slapped on the arse" by a line of men before entering a party and told to lock their doors at night.

When people started getting sick from a particularly potent strain of salmonella last year, a team of experts rushed to try to trace the source of the outbreak.

Tasmania records another four cases of coronavirus, all in the state's north-west hotspot, after Premier Peter Gutwein warned of a statewide Easter police "blitz" and an "effective lockdown" in the north-west.

Kat Jackson does not play a brass instrument, and neither does her eight-year-old daughter, Neve, but they plan to sound the Last Post in their driveway this Anzac Day.

Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy warns New Zealand to pay attention to Tasmania's experience

More cases of coronavirus are confirmed as being from Tasmania's north-west, on the day Premier Peter Gutwein urges residents with flu-like symptoms to get tested for the deadly disease.

Infection protocols are being checked at three Tasmanian nursing homes after contact tracing reveals a healthcare worker from an infected hospital has also worked shifts at three aged care facilities.