Parched parts of NSW received a welcome dump of rain over the weekend.

The most senior police officer on the Sunshine Coast is warning would-be tourists that breaching the 50km travel limit for a Mother's Day picnic is a bad idea and could cost a $1,334 fine.

The Mount Isa Medical Centre is taking over the testing service to ensure people with respiratory symptoms are checked, despite no cases being recorded in the city.

NSW's social-distancing shutdown will remain unchanged for the foreseeable future, despite just two new coronavirus infections being recorded yesterday and some other states relaxing their laws.

Water restrictions have been eased for residents of the Macquarie Valley, but it's unlikely affected councils will move back to unrestricted water usage anytime soon.

Communities in western New South Wales are mourning the suspension of their local newspapers with some saying the publications are the "heart" of the communities.

The Holmes family will continue staying home even after COVID-19 lockdown rules are relaxed — with good reason.

On March 31, the Premier enacted stricter social-distancing measures "for our own good" — here's how people in Australia's worst-affected coronavirus state survived, and thrived amid the lockdown.

The Illawarra union movement pays tribute to a Dapto man who has not missed a May Day march in 88 years.

Six local artists, including four old friends in life and in art practice, have come together with an exhibition well timed for International Women's Day at Lone Goat Gallery in Byron Bay. The theme, Essence of Woman was put to the artists to freely interpret, and the six women have done just that.

With towns across New South Wales at risk of running out of water within months, there are renewed calls for an urgent upgrade of water storage infrastructure.

Small businesses are struggling across Australia as the coronavirus outbreak unfolds. But there are ways you can help keep them going — and stick to social isolation guidelines.

As coronavirus restrictions tighten and public venues close around the country, egg producers turn to other avenues of income to get by.

Nursing homes have been locked down to protect vulnerable older people from the coronavirus but families who provide basic care, like feeding, say they need access because their loved ones may not survive without it.

A ship that sank in 1852 off Rye in Victoria has given archaeologists new insights into early Australian boatbuilding.

Residents are finding ways to cope as a full lockdown looms over the region, with one woman banging pots and pans in support of essential workers, while another considers whether to shut up shop.

Kat Jackson does not play a brass instrument, and neither does her eight-year-old daughter, Neve, but they plan to sound the Last Post in their driveway this Anzac Day.

With many children home from school during lockdowns parents are learning to balance work and life balances.

On her country mail run Jocelyn Flint delivers letters, boxes of wine, flat pack queen-size beds, asthma puffers and even biscuits for morning tea and she's a welcome sight in Tasmania's coronavirus hotspot.

Whisky the kelpie and Diamond the sheep are making a splash at Karoonda in South Australia's Mallee region, after being painted on the town's silos.

The family and friends of Naomi Williams, who died, along with her unborn son, after 20 attempts to get help, say the apology they have received via a statement from the health district is not good enough.

An irrigation channel used to release water into a forest along the Murray River in NSW is filled with earth and rocks, with an irrigator saying it's a sign of frustration boiling over in the area.

Business owners at Ivanhoe in outback NSW are staring down closure if a plan to shut the jail goes ahead, and say the jail inmates make a huge contribution to the community.

A musician with a penchant for nostalgia and 1990s web design has recreated 'George' the Talking Clock, a service recently unplugged by Telstra after 66 years.

When 40,000 seedlings propagated by prisoners at Loddon Prison were not going to be planted, locals stepped in to make sure the trees would find a home.

Gippsland residents are enjoying conceptual and abstract art from Melbourne and revelling in local artist contributions along the way, in the exhibition Synthetica.

On a bitter winters night in north west Queensland, a small rural community braved the cold to support the finals of local touch football competition's return.

At the far end of the campsite and caravan city in the Amamoor State forest at the Great Australian Music Hall, ABC Local Radio helped to kick off the 2015 Gympie Muster with the inaugural Muster Showcase. Eight different musical acts took to the stage giving gathered crowds a taste of what is to come at the four day music festival.

What does the future hold for regional towns? To some, it's about change. For others, it's about things staying much the same.

Spring is in the air in Newcastle, with the season's racing carnival officially launched.

The north Queensland town of Ingham has no shortage of pasta makers. A large number of the town's residents are of Italian heritage - but the owners of the local pasta manufacturing business are not. Despite this they still have the approval of the local nonnas.

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.

Making it through the night in a dark cell surrounded by spirits, ghost-seekers, psychics and spooky storytellers.

In Maffra's memorial hall almost a million Lego pieces are being constructed into dragons, landmarks and streetscapes in an exhibition to raise money for the Central Gippsland Health Service.

Leigh and Geoff Coggins' garden is a mixture of formal areas, rare plants, and relaxing spaces, and this weekend it will be open to visitors.

Visitors to the City of Greater Geraldton's council chambers earlier this week were greeted with a display of more than 200 pink silhouettes strategically placed on the grassed area near the main entrance .

At least eight US states are blocking health clinics from providing abortions, describing the procedure as non-essential during the pandemic.

It's the holy month of Ramadan, which usually means Muslims don't eat or drink during the day and gather at night at food markets and mosques to break the fast.

The national cabinet is looking at a range of strategies to get us out of lockdown, ahead of a crunch meeting tomorrow.

The Couch Choir is a digital initiative that's grown out of the Brisbane-based Pub Choir, which has cancelled all it's events because of the COVID-19 restrictions.

The small rural community of Torrita fights to keep safe speed limits through their town, and to acknowledge their existence.

Alison Whitehead ran up and down a local hill until she reached the equivalent elevation of Mount Everest's peak