A sighting of a sea creature not usually found in Tasmanian waters has surprised onlookers, but could become more frequent, experts say.

A man who turned up to court in Adelaide on charges of illegally using a motor vehicle is arrested for allegedly driving there in another stolen car.

Two men have died in a head-on truck crash on the Sturt Highway near South Australia's Barossa Valley region, as wild weather continues to hit the state.

We still don't know who created the Marree Man, an enormous figure in the Australian outback. For every question answered, another two or three need to be asked. But like with all great mysteries, everyone has a theory.

A New South Wales Appeals Court judge has condemned violence at the hands of up to seven police officers in relation to the Australia Day arrest of an Aboriginal man.??

The former NRL player has pleaded not guilty to aggravated sexual assault.

The Federal Government has applauded a decision by the energy giant, but environmental groups say the move is "risky and irresponsible."

MORNING BRIEFING: Police have arrested 38 people following a climate change protest on Monday, and there have been more than 240 major crashes on the roads over the long weekend.

Toddler William Tyrrell, who vanished from his foster grandmother's home in the sleepy town of Kendall almost five years ago, was likely abducted by someone who chose to "act on their desires", an inquest into his disappearance hears.

A wooden cross marked "2014" the same year that William Tyrrell went missing was among several false leads found during a large police search for the toddler around Kendall on the NSW mid-north coast, an inquest hears.

An inquest into the disappearance of toddler William Tyrrell hears an SES volunteer who was involved in search efforts for the toddler on the NSW mid-north coast, did not respond to police questions.

The former chief investigator who led the investigation into the disappearance of three-year-old William Tyrrell on the NSW mid-north coast is accused of misleading a neighbour during a police interview two years ago.

People in a packed gallery sit up when inconsistencies begin to appear in the testimony of "person of interest" Paul Savage, a neighbour who claimed he joined in the search for the missing three-year-old.

As the Coronial inquest into William Tyrrell's disappearance had a special sitting in Taree just 40 kilometres from where the toddler was last seen family members have been left frustrated by delays and disappointed by its failure so far to turn up any substantial new leads.

Three girls aged 12, 13 and 14, are before the courts over 13 grassfires police allege were deliberately lit on the New South Wales mid-north coast.

Whitegoods repairman Bill Spedding tells an inquest into the disappearance of William Tyrrell he was having coffee with his wife on the day the toddler vanished, before revealing the "devastating impact" of the police investigation on his life.

A Kendall resident says he is certain he saw William Tyrrell being driven away by a blonde woman in a car at high speed moments after the toddler vanished from the New South Wales mid-north coast almost five years ago.

Washing machine repairman Bill Spedding is seeking up to $1 million in compensation after accusing NSW Police of causing him "reputational damage" by wrongly linking him to the disappearance of William Tyrrell.

Five new photos of William Tyrrell are made public by the NSW Coroner as well as the transcript of a key witness who said he cursed a woman he saw driving with an unrestrained child in the backseat.

Student Liam Birrer was supposed to be sitting a HSC exam instead he was fighting a bushfire in his local community.

The whitegoods repairman who became the chief suspect in one of Australia's biggest child abduction mysteries reveals for the first time how the ordeal "shattered" his life.

Four Corners has obtained exclusive video of the police interrogation of washing machine repairman Bill Spedding, who was wrongly accused of abducting three-year-old William Tyrrell from outside a home on on the NSW mid-north coast.

Conservation groups want harsher penalties for illegal land clearing, as the WA Government investigates a Chinese-owned company over the mysterious clearing of 120 hectares at a cattle station.

An arrest warrant has been issued after a man who served 12 years in prison for bashing and raping two tourists in WA's far north breached his post-sentence supervision order and failed to appear in court.

Australian farmers are grappling with the future of wheat exports as Black Sea nations like Russia and Ukraine increase shipments to Indonesia.

Praised for its "sweat characters and nuttiness", a Perth-based distillery and second-generation farmer from Western Australia's far-north have teamed up to create Australia's first red corn whiskey.

DAILY BRIEFING: Police arrest a man after a firearms incident at Risdon Vale, Tasmania's tourism boom appears to be going bust and people are encouraged to participate in platypus monitoring study.

Police are working to confirm whether human remains found near Port Lincoln, in regional South Australia, belong to a man who went missing 20 years ago.

South Australia Police are investigating a video that appears to show an off-duty officer badly injuring or killing a wombat by throwing rocks at it, but an Aboriginal elder says it is a local hunting practice.

A police officer who arrested Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day for being drunk in public tells a coronial inquest police were just trying to help her when she was taken into custody.

A woman who forged documents to become an au pair is arrested for allegedly kidnapping two girls aged four and 10 months.

Electricity giant AGL holds off plans to mothball parts of the gas-fired Torrens Island Power Station in Adelaide in a bid to prevent outages over summer caused by an ongoing outage at Victoria's Loy Yang Power Station.

A neighbour describes hearing a man screaming to be handed the phone on the afternoon a two-year-old boy died in Melbourne's outer-south-east. Police have arrested a man and a woman over the death.

Murrell

More than 70 eastern barred bandicoots have travelled some 400 kilometres from Hamilton, on Victoria's mainland, to the safe haven of French Island in Western Port Bay.

Police drop trespass charges against prominent French journalist Hugo Clement and his film crew, following their arrest while filming anti-Adani protesters at Abbot Point earlier this week.

Prominent French journalist Hugo Clement says his arrest in north Queensland this week will now feature heavily in the documentary he is filming, with the incident sparking a strong international reaction.

Children sleeping at home have been woken and arrested in Alice Springs, according to lawyers dismayed at a potential government back down on the use of arrest as a last resort.

The future of one of outback Australia's tourist drawcards, the National Transport Hall of Fame, is in doubt after an independent audit found financial irregularities by management.