The free cuppa and bikkie offered at the once-popular Driver Reviver sites on the nation's major highways have been slowly losing their appeal to tired motorists.

The Mini Minor car was a symbol of the Swinging Sixties and now it is helping one veteran dairy farmer keep a perspective on the rigours of family life and work.

MORNING BRIEFING: Police investigate what is believed to be a human bone discovered by passers-by at a Port Macquarie beach, while a Sydney northern beach road is closed after a pedestrian was killed by a car overnight.

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.

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.

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.

Lou Brown used meditation and shear effort to clip about one sheep a minute for eight hours and claim the new world record.

Arm wrestling is often associated with a casual competition at the local pub, but professionals like Ryan 'The Milkman' Scott compete internationally and are working hard to grow the sport in regional communities.

Among the old-growth gums and wildlife of Milford Forest are two critically endangered orchids that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. But their habitat could be at risk due to a planned highway upgrade.

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.

A regional Victorian city that nearly lost its tram network in the 1970s is set to become a national hub for historic tram restoration.

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.

For the first time, dairy farmers in the Bega Valley could have the opportunity to supply the fresh milk market as Lactalis and Saputo look to secure new suppliers.

A wooden ketch picked up on eBay for $4,128 is returning to its namesake home of Metung to be restored by members of the family and community that built her.

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.

Albert H. Fox, who restored and rebuilt close to 6,000 pianos and tuned several thousand more, has now restored a famous 145-year-old Pleyel piano.

An unlikely partnership involving scientists and the fishing industry is at the centre of efforts to restore seagrass stocks in Corner Inlet.

A priceless 17th-century map of Australia is back on display after being painstakingly restored.

It's been 30 years since the Daintree rainforest was World Heritage-listed, signalling the end of one industry and the birth of another.

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.

Bottle shops in Darwin have eased voluntary restrictions on the sale of cask wine, saying Government policies have made them superfluous. But the move has prompted criticism from police, and a major supermarket giant has already backtracked.

The custody notification system, designed to help prevent Aboriginal deaths in custody, has been rolled out in the Northern Territory but there are concerns the people most at risk of harm have been excluded from its operation.

More than 1,000 pipes from Albury's St Matthew's Church's renowned Letourneau organ will be removed and restored after being damaged by fire three years ago.

As farming groups lobby the Federal Government to take action on soaring water prices, water brokers warn some irrigators will be worse off if the Government intervenes in the trade.

A convicted violent rapist who was found to be at risk of reoffending was on the run for a week before being arrested in the Northern Territory, with no public notifications or warnings issued by NT Police.

Police say charges for a 14-year-old boy are expected after an aggressive episode lasting five hours in Darwin's northern suburbs.

A judge has delivered a scathing assessment of two police officers who dragged a man from a car and threatened to arrest him "for being a smart-arse", saying their conduct was in "dramatic disproportion" to the situation.

A man is arrested in Canberra's south, after a woman was shot in the head this morning as she sat in her parked car in a "random" and "untargeted" attack.

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.

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.