Australia was built on gold rushes a century ago, but there is a warning it could slip from second to fourth on a list of the world's biggest gold producing nations by 2024.

A strong cold front is expected to bring damaging wind gusts, heavy rain, thunderstorms and possible flash flooding to south-west WA, with up to 40 millimetres of rainfall set to be dumped on Perth.

For inmates in a maximum security prison in WA, socialising unwanted dogs is "like a day away" from jail and the effects of the program are being described as "win-win".

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.

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

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

Dog owners whose animals kill sensitive wildlife, including penguins, now face fines of up to $5,040, after more than 170 little penguins die in dog attacks since June 2018.

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

Three-year-old Chase has come ahead in leaps and bounds in this past year, his family credits a program giving kids like him free access to early learning.

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".

Tasmanian farmer Richard Headlam says he was reassured a proposed coal mine on his land would not go ahead. Two years later, the plan by Midland Energy has been revived.

The Liberals' plan to open up World Heritage Area and national parks to more tourism developments has been contentious from day one now, it has attracted the attention of Tasmania's auditor-general.

DAILY BRIEFING: A motorist is fined $963 and has had his car clamped for 28 days after allegedly being caught driving 172 kilometres per hour, and the University of Tasmania engages a "reputation protection" consultancy group.

For Kobe Dare, the revived Tasmanian Aboriginal language of palawa kani is "one of the strongest there is". He's learning to speak it, then going home to teach his parents.

A water scientist is backing Hamilton farmers' concerns about threats to a local lake from a proposed fish hatchery, including the threat of algal blooms.

Almost six years after her father died in a mining accident on Tasmania's west coast, Tameka Sylvester is still waiting for answers with the family learning of inquest news via social media.

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 death of 17-year-old Maggie Lore at the Blackmans Bay blowhole in 2017 prompts a southern Tasmanian council to conduct a risk assessment of several areas in its municipality.

Diversification and innovation are proving to be a key factor in the survival of multi-generation farming families.

DAILY BRIEFING: Protesters fearing an imminent logging operation in Tasmania's Tarkine area are outside a government building in Hobart, as Labor calls for an investigation into how a 17-year-old escaped detainee custody.

A Tasmanian council has not yet decided whether it will appeal a decision giving a green light to a luxury helicopter-accessed fishing camp at Lake Malbena, saying the process has "put the council under a lot of stress".

'A pleasant pastime' is over for Tasmanian flower grower Peter Botting. He has pruned his last peony leaving the industry in capable hands.

A mansion in Melbourne's east, newly constructed units and more than 3,000 acres of Tasmanian farmland are among the assets seized by Australian Federal Police as part of a two-year investigation into alleged money laundering by Chinese nationals.

The Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania says more private landowners are investigating handing their land back to Aboriginal people, to protect it from development and "to do the right thing".

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.

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

Paramedics will return patients to ambulances for care if they are waiting more than half an hour in the ramping area of the Royal Hobart Hospital.

A 77-year-old man dies on a rural property on the west coast of South Australia after falling into a grain bin. SafeWork SA will investigate.

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.

FOI documents also reveal the Federal Government knows the process is creating division in small towns and causing some businesses to be boycotted.

The National commodity forecaster, ABARES, finds three quarters of dairy farmers and half of all broadacre farmers will receive a lower income than they did last year because of the drought.

A Norwegian MP calls for a state-owned Norwegian oil and gas company not to start drilling in the Great Australian Bight, while a scientist says noise from the project could hurt marine life.

Leonora, a small town in the West Australian Goldfields, is being touted as a suitable location for an underground, low and intermediate-level nuclear waste storage facility.

Cape Carnot south of Port Lincoln is popular with tourists because of its rugged cliffs and caves, but another two drownings are forcing the site's owner to rethink its future.

South Australia's latest budget locks in money for a new hospital and other key infrastructure projects, but also foreshadows cuts to overall health spending.

Increased taxes on properties are making South Australia even less attractive to investors according to the Property Council of Australia, amid worries surrounding the local housing industry.

After a furious backlash from supporters, donors and some of its own MPs, SA's Liberal Government could rethink aspects of its controversial land tax measures flagged in last month's budget but what is the dispute all about?

John Flynn established a medical facility in Innamincka and now, 68 years later, the RFDS is continuing on-the-ground medical services.

An ambitious plan to power every property on SA's Eyre Peninsula with solar has been labelled an Australian first but is it too good to be true?

When 13-year-old Maggie* went into care while her mother battled a drug and alcohol addiction, she hoped life would get easier. But she was sent to a residential care home where she was sexually assaulted and saw her life quickly spiral into drug and alcohol abuse.

Violent standover man Hizir Ferman may have "progressively suffocated" to death when Victorian prison officers used their body weight to pin him to the ground after forcibly removing him from his cell, an inquest has been told.

IBM is hiring 10 employees with autism at its Client Innovation Centre in Ballarat, joining the growing trend of neurodiversity programs in the workplace.

A new report by La Trobe University finds 80 per cent of teachers have experienced some form of student or parent bullying or harassment over the past nine to 12 months.

Australia will import foreign-grown grain for the first time since 2007, after the Department of Agriculture approved a permit to import bulk wheat from Canada.

Outreach workers across Australia say that the survival of farming communities will depend on support and understanding from the Australian community.