The hunt for the missing Belgian backpacker, who disappeared after a night out on May 31, is formally referred to the NSW coroner in a move that ends the official police search.

The bashing was so violent, a nurse at the hospital couldn't do a blood test when the 79-year-old was first admitted because he'd "lost that much blood". His grandson was later convicted of assault.

Logies organisers say the "challenges of COVID-19" have forced them to write off the 2020 Australian television awards, but "an even bigger event" will be held on the Gold Coast next year.

A man accused of murdering his 45-year-old ex-partner at a home north of Brisbane, picked up a sledgehammer and hit her over the back of the head, police allege.

Nicholas John Crilley is sentenced to life in prison for what prosecutors said was the "sadistic" torture of a woman that left her with broken facial bones and burns to almost half her body.

Suzanne Miller earnt a high wage but in a "gross abuse of high office" she also illegally spent a further $75,000 in taxpayer funds on personal purchases, a Brisbane court hears.

Firefighters have praised the "gutsy" efforts of police who helped them rescue an 18-month-old boy from a burning house in Rockhampton last night.

A family warns that compassionate exemptions to the coronavirus ban on interstate travel are unclear after dad was turned back at the border.

Ms Berejiklian says there needs to be better communication between aged care facilities and relatives after a 13th person has died from coronavirus at the Newmarch House.

Police search a Mooball property as they investigate the disappearance of 42-year-old Thea Liddle who has been missing since October.

A man is jailed for circling a family in his car and hurling anti-Islamic abuse at them on the New South Wales south coast last year.

Smoking rates have dropped massively since the 70s down from 40 per cent to only 14 per cent but some areas of the country are not getting the message.

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.

A teenager pleads guilty to manslaughter, saying he is "honestly sorry for what I have put everyone through" and admitting he fatally punched a university academic at a Hobart nightclub in 2019.

The chair of Australia's Bushfire Royal Commission says the evidence from those affected by the nation's catastrophic bushfire season will be critical in "applying the lessons learnt so that we can do things better in the future".

A Tasmanian police officer is charged over a car crash that killed a pedestrian from New South Wales earlier this year.

Laura Sullivan spent 32 years in an Australian group she now believes is a cult, because of its controlling nature. But she didn't choose that path she was born into it.

The Riverina car dealership says it takes '100 per cent takes responsibility' for the incident, and has improved work health and safety culture.

New Zealand man Cody Frost is sentenced to 10-and-a-half years in jail for manslaughter after he gave a stranger his last cigarette, called him mate and then stabbed him outside a Melbourne train station in 2017.

Letters, flowers and stuffed toys are placed outside the Kiddy Palace childcare centre in Melbourne's north where police say a three-year-old girl was killed after she was accidentally hit by a car.

Police believe a woman was helping children in the back of the car when it began to reverse, hitting and killing a three-year-old girl at the Kiddy Palace childcare centre in Melbourne's north.

A woman who worked as a financial officer at the since-failed SKM Recycling has been sentenced to six months' jail after siphoning more than $168,000 from the business into her own accounts.

When Lily Yan first walked into an Australian pub, locals stopped and stared. But she hasn't let a few odd looks deter her.

A judge describes the attack on 21-year-old Aiia Maasarwe as "unsophisticated and opportunistic" in sentencing her killer to 36 years' prison, with a non-parole period of 30, as the victim's father and sister watch on in court.

Furious connections demand answers from Racing Victoria after two fancied horses were withdrawn from the Melbourne Cup over fears they have incomplete leg fractures.

Japanese Caulfield Cup winner Mer De Glace is the new favourite for Tuesday's Melbourne Cup after the barrier draw is completed at Flemington.

The long-term boyfriend of a Dutch woman who died in Melbourne last year after a hit-and-run tells her killer's court hearing that he feels completely alone and mourns the children they would have had.

Milk bottles, plastic bags and electrical wire bound for the rubbish tip have been given a second life as part of Warwick's Jumpers and Jazz in July festival.

Graffiti artists in Tamworth are now able to legally paint on two walls at the skate park after talks with Tamworth Regional Council deliver 6 month trial.

Kimberley historian Dion Marinis has travelled to the US to meet the families of an air crew who died at Broome during the 1942 Japanese air raid on the remote town.

The former South Australian Premier said it's now time for states and territories to take control of childcare and treat them more like schools.

Cardinal Pell said in a statement yesterday that he was "surprised" by some of the views of the royal commission about his actions, and that "these views are not supported by evidence".

The life of a 92-year-old woman bashed in her own home in Mount Isa in north-west Queensland has been completely ruined, family say, as her attacker is sentenced to seven years in jail for the violent assault.

A Ballarat magistrate dismisses an assault charge against a police sergeant, agreeing his use of force was "reasonable" during an altercation in which he punched his neighbour in the face.

The disgraced Cardinal faces claims he knew of child sex abuse by notorious paedophile Edward "Ted" Dowlan and was involved in moving him from school to school, allowing the abuse to continue.

A Christian Brother who sexually assaulted boys at some of Victoria's most prestigious Catholic schools is sentenced to four and a half years in prison.

A man disqualified from driving and tested positive to methamphetamines has been jailed for at least two years for dangerous driving causing the death of a former regional Victorian mayor near Ballarat in 2017.

A former Catholic priest who showed pornographic images to children and assaulted a teenager while he slept is jailed for two years and two months.

Tours of the 152-year-old Aradale Mental Asylum have been cancelled due to lead paint contamination. Operators fear this may be the end of the road for the historic site.

The ABC understands the Victorian Department of Corrections considers the Hopkins Correctional Centre in Ararat, 200 kilometres west of Melbourne, to be the most appropriate place to send the high-profile cleric.

Once touted as a $300 million solution to regional Victoria's waste woes, plans to build a waste-to-energy facility have stalled, with some in the industry left scratching their heads.

The family of former AFL star and coach Danny Frawley say they are "totally shocked and devastated" by the loss of "a remarkable man who touched the lives of many", a day after he died in a car crash in western Victoria.

A former private investigator is using her skills to try to crack a cold case murder in her own family.

The trial of Lorraine Nicholson, who is charged with culpable driving causing the death of four women in their 60s and 70s, begins in Ballarat.

A jury hears of the moment the woman accused of causing a crash that killed four people in western Victoria realised the deceased were "probably grandmothers" as well.

Purebred or mixed-breed Staffordshire terriers have killed at least four people in Australia in the past six months but the RSPCA says a dog's breed alone is not a reliable predictor of aggressive behaviour.