Former school deputy principal Kenneth Ralph Ernst is jailed for the prolonged sexual abuse of a young girl, in a case the judge described as a "gross breach of trust" made worse by Ernst's decision to plead not guilty.

With dementia rates projected to soar in decades to come, a public pool on the Sunshine Coast is helping people living with the condition to stay healthy and feel included in the community.

A 25-year-old man lures two boys to a secluded location and offers to pay them $5 for oral sex, just months after he was given bail for possessing graphic and violent child porn material, a court hears.

Chemical experts warn a Queensland council that a plan to dump millions of litres of PFAS-contaminated water into the sea off the Sunshine Coast as "insanity".

Dozens of residents from the Peregian Beach area have evacuated.

A Sunshine Coast couple who launched an ambitious campaign to pay for their dream wedding using Queensland's container refund scheme lock in a venue, celebrant and catering all paid for by the initiative.

One of the most eroded stretches of the Mary River at Kenilworth has been transformed in an effort to stop valuable farmland washing away and polluting the Great Barrier Reef.

Signs urging people to stay 1.5 metres apart mark the entrance to Litchfield National Park, and police patrols ensure the instructions are obeyed.

Official data indicates no Aboriginal people in the NT have tested positive to COVID-19, and as restrictions start to ease, health leaders say it's time to address some of the fundamental holes in Aboriginal health care.

There's evidence we've covered in the past that paracetamol isn't very effective in back pain. But what about so called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, NSAIDs, the most commonly used in Australia being ibuprofen?

Longstanding pain is a huge problem and doctors are trying to avoid opioids with all their problems, which could explain why a medication called Lyrica - the generic name is pregabalin - is one of the world's highest selling drugs.

A farmer at the centre of the Menindee fish kill story has lodged a complaint with police, alleging he felt "intimidated" by a staff member of lobby group Cotton Australia.

Jack Absalom led an unconventional life and was best-known for his landscape paintings and bush survival skills, which were televised to the nation by the ABC.

Residents in far west New South Wales are calling for a more consistent use of police body cameras following reports from witnesses about the way officers allegedly responded to a teenager who was self-harming.

For the past four years Broken Hill's Indigenous community has welcomed all new public school teachers to the area with a cultural induction they hope will improve education for all students.

Heavy rainfall across south-west New South Wales has provided some farmers with much-needed relief, many measuring the best falls they have seen in over two years.

Taxi driver Reg Kelly will bear the scars of a murder attempt for the rest of his life, but he wants to thank his home town for rallying to his side.

Flights resume arriving and departing from Adelaide Airport after delays and diversions this morning because of the heaviest fog since 2003.

A new art exhibition opening in Sydney today brings together some of the nation's leading artists who offer an urgent message about the destruction of the beleaguered Murray-Darling basin.

Once an outback oasis, Copi Hollow is now almost all that's left of the Menindee lakes system, but its future is uncertain.

An Albany man has been sentenced to an immediate jail term after admitting operating a clandestine drug laboratory from a Milpara home.

The City of Albany says it will be just a few hundred thousand dollars out of pocket from investments in failed US investment bank Lehman Brothers, after the latest settlement agreement.

Western Australian gold explorer Ausgold is launching a capital raising effort, which it says will facilitate further expansion of its Katanning project.

A former West Australian Football League player, charged with assaulting another player during a country match, has had the charge against him dropped in a Narrogin court.

Officials involved in the construction of Katanning's new sheep saleyards say the first sale at the facility will have to be pushed back to next autumn due to project delays.

Western Australia's bulk grain handler says it has already received about 12.5 million tonnes of grain during this year's harvest and there is still more to come from southern areas.

Police are investigating the second robbery from an Albany volunteer bushfire brigade within weeks.

A new strategy to reduce fatal shark attacks is being implemented with baited drum lines to be set along popular beaches in Perth and the South West. Sharks will also be caught and killed if they enter zones near those beaches because they will be considered an imminent threat. The measures follow six fatal attacks by sharks in WA in two years. Opponents say sharks deserve respect and protection.

An investor, who has been left waiting months for the return of rare bank notes he owned through a collapsed Albany dealer, says further delays to that process are distressing.

A campaign is being launched to improve public awareness of the dangers of rock fishing in an effort to substantially reduce the number of fatalities across Western Australia.

The plan to set out bait for large sharks near popular WA beaches has been criticised over concerns it could attract them into swimming areas, but others back the move.

Clubs WA has hit out at the recommendations in a review of Western Australia's liquor laws released yesterday, claiming its interests have been ignored. The review of the Liquor Control Act released by the State Government makes 141 recommendations, including the introduction of secondary supply laws which make it an offence to supply liquor to a juvenile on an unlicensed premise without parental consent.

The Fair Work Ombudsman will be auditing retailers across Perth and regional Western Australia, in response to a spike in complaints.

Leaseholders in the Western Australian south coast holiday community of Peaceful Bay have expressed concerns over a proposal to transfer their property leases to more conventional ownership titles.

"We'd rather be taken by a grey nurse than a nursing home."

A prominent businessman on Western Australia's south coast has been sentenced to eight years and six months in jail for attempting to hire a hitman to murder his estranged daughter-in-law. Brian Vincent Attwell paid $10,000 to an undercover police officer who had posed as a hitman in September last year. The court heard the 74-year-old was angry over legal action after his son's divorce and he was motivated by "sheer hatred" of Michelle Attwell. The trial was played recordings of the businessman saying his daughter-in-law had cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars, and he wanted her "strangled and buried".

Research into doctors in regional Western Australia has found there is an increase in city-based medical students working in country postings after enjoying training in the regions.

The Local Government Advisory Board says its decision to terminate the proposed merger of four Western Australian Wheatbelt shires was driven in part by financial concerns, a lack of common goals and the community's reaction.

The State Government says it has sent a serious warning to the owners of one of Albany's prime vacant lots, by signing off on a plan that would allow it to forcibly reclaim the site.

The State Government says it's sent a serious threat to the owners of one of Albany's prime vacant lots, by signing off on a plan that would allow it to reclaim the site. But the Opposition maintains it's a hollow threat.

Agricultural lobby group WA Farmers has urged the Federal Government not to forget struggling growers in parts of Western Australia, in talks over a drought assistance package.

There has been a mixed reaction from Western Australia's two biggest farm lobby groups to the release of further details of the Federal Government's agricultural white paper.

A Narrogin man, who admitted to indecent dealing with his underage stepdaughter, has avoided an immediate jail term.