The departure of some of north Queensland's best and brightest students is worrying the region's leaders and prompting them to devise a retention solution.

Rain, and lots of it, has fallen across the south-east and is expected to continue for the next few days but what will it mean for the southern cropping season and the drought?

Commemorating his love for trains, Tim Fischer's coffin was transported by rail to Albury where a state funeral will be held.

The sister of missing hiker Niels Becker hopes he will be found with an "epic story" to tell after failing to return from five-day hike in cold conditions in Victoria's alpine region.

Authorities were warned that a teenage boy with severe cognitive impairments was deteriorating in Darwin's Don Dale youth detention centre and needed help, before he joined in on a riot for which he may now go to adult jail.

A historic train carriage is destroyed in a suspicious fire at the Canberra Railway Museum, just hours before its reopening. The 1930s passenger carriage was gutted in the blaze and two adjacent cars were also damaged.

Bradley Lester Grey, 54, pleads not guilty in the ACT Supreme Court to charges of allegedly telling prospective sex workers they would need to perform acts with him to prove they were right for the role.

A remote Cape York community is in the fight of its life to save a unique rainforest that was devastated by a cyclone.

A woman is recovering in hospital after a wild dog, believed to be a dingo, burst into her Cape York house and attacked her while she was cooking dinner.

Scientists fear Cape York's Iron Range (Kutini-Payamu) National Park could take decades to recover after weekend fires.

Health professionals who say they have seen an increase in the number of "very young children" under the influence of solvents and inhalants warn the consequences of their actions are irreversible.

The world's second-deadliest fungus, the poison fire coral, is found in Far North Queensland for the first time, a long way from its usual home in the mountains of Japan and Korea, and can cause a "horrifying array of symptoms".

A report by Human Rights Watch says new regulations to tighten the use of chemical restraints on dementia patients has actually normalised the treatment to the detriment of patients.

A man is dead and a woman seriously injured after falling more than 10 metres from a zipline in the Daintree rainforest in Far North Queensland, police say.

Former Commonwealth Games competitor Matthew Levings trained for years alongside Sun Yang. Now the Gold Coast tradie says China's Australian coach, Denis Cotterell, would never train swimmers he knew to be doping.

An endangered marsupial known for mating itself to death disappears from one of its most prominent Queensland habitats.

Half of the residents of troubled Gold Coast nursing home Earle Haven were being physically restrained, and 71 per cent received medical restraint, in the weeks before it abruptly closed its doors last month, the aged care Royal Commission hears.

A novel idea to paint stairs the colours of a rainbow at Queensland's Rainbow Beach is at the centre of a two-year dispute after four words were added to the artwork.

Acting Queensland Premier Jackie Trad says the Gold Coast hinterland fire that swept through the area over the weekend included areas of rainforest a highly unusual event, but one that experts say is occurring more frequently in recent times.

Firefighters from South Australia arrive in Queensland to give local crews a rest from battling bushfires, but the break may be short-lived with conditions forecast to get worse in the state later in the week.

Thunderstorms have rolled west across Queensland's southern inland, bringing more rain than expected to the Gold Coast hinterland as well as numerous lightning strikes raising concerns about the possibility of new bushfires.

Accountants based in regional areas receive mental health training to help them work with clients whose financial pressures are causing emotional distress.

A drenching is on its way for Queensland, with parts of the state set to receive their best rainfall in months today and on Saturday, with the potential for severe thunderstorms and damaging hail in some areas.

Far north Queensland's largest and oldest piggery is closing after 49 years, impacted by drought, cheap imports, and rising costs as the agricultural profile of the area changes.

A private rideshare-style service to move people between their doorstep and the train station will be trialled in Sydney and on the Central Coast, the New South Wales Government announces.

Transport Minister Andrew Constance admits it will be impossible to find alternatives to move more than 1 million passengers on Sydney's train strike day.

In what's being described as an "extraordinary" move, train workers in New South Wales plan to strike for 24 hours later in the month, potentially plunging the struggling Sydney rail network into further chaos.

No agreement is reached to avert the planned train strike at the end of this month, despite four hours of negotiations between Sydney Trains and unions.

The tone of talks may have improved, but a pay deal is yet to be thrashed out ahead of a planned rail strike that will cause commuter chaos later this month.

Young men detained for assault, theft and drug offences are training guide dogs in a program they say is changing their lives.

Usain Bolt has taken part in his first training session with the Central Coast Mariners, in a trial period seeking an A-League contract.

John Burrows died at his mother's garage in Portland near Lithgow in 2015, with a bomb expert telling his murder trial he had never seen a device like the one used to kill the 58-year-old.

As the drought continues, water is being carted by train for the first time in decades to keep production on track at a NSW coal mine and secure 140 full-time jobs.

While many grain silos around Australia are getting large-scale mural makeovers, one century-old structure is still operational, little-known and unadorned.