Tonight, we're heading all the way to Dublin, Ireland, where the football stadium has become a drive-through testing clinic and medical students have had their exams fast-tracked so they can become doctors sooner.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced kinder students, and those in years Prep, One, 11 and 12 will go back to school from May 11.

Uchida's measured approach reaps rewards, capturing the joy in this life-affirming music.

If your government failed to provide running water, electricity, roads, safety from gender violence, or other staples of everyday life, what would you do? In the Solomon Islands people are taking matters into their own hands, even schoolgirls. If their government can’t provide, they’ll try.

Floodwaters more than 50 kilometres wide came through Queensland's Channel Country earlier this year, but the extended weather forecast is not promising a return to average rainfalls.

The outback Queensland town of Barcaldine has officially set a new world record for the longest line of motorhomes.

When outback pioneering single mother Mary Emmott started rainfall records in 1914 she had no idea how important they would be.

Emus have once again mobbed the streets of Longreach in search of food and water. While some locals say the number of chicks is a good omen for the wet season, an expert says the birds simply "lay and hope for the best."

The first fall in the small town of Ilfracombe in Central West Queensland since 3mm was measured in March

Authorities downgrade the alert for a fire in Tasmania's Central Highlands which has destroyed more than 100 hectares.

Tourism operators on one of Tasmania's breathtaking islands are riding a wave of untapped beauty and are reeling in visitors with locally grown produce.

The meat industry says a Melbourne council's decision to take meat off its menu on Mondays could damage regional economies for little environmental gain.

Fonterra has announced a loss of more than half a billion dollars and called on its Australian business to "stand on its own two feet" as the dairy company shifts its focus to its New Zealand operations.

Oddball might have been the movie star, but Tula the maremma is the real hero of Middle Island's famed penguin protection program, and she's retiring after almost a decade of service.

A man that suffered a shark attack at Norval Park, north of Bundaberg, has called for the State Government to consider a shark cull or implementing shark nets.

Industry figures say unstable weather, a lack of infrastructure investment and poor international prices are hampering sugar sector confidence as mills open for crushing.

Calculating the road toll is "extraordinarily complicated", according to Queensland police as loved ones say the confusion is compounding their grief following a horror few weeks on the state's roads.

Big business is set to be hit with hundreds of millions of dollars in extra taxes and royalties as the Palaszczuk Government seeks to tap the top end of town to deliver payroll tax relief to small- and medium-sized businesses, in the hope of boosting jobs particularly in regional Queensland.

A horror summer season has seen fruit and vegetable growers in Queensland go to extraordinary lengths to grow crops.

Queensland landholders are afraid that new government mapping of threatened species could lock up their land and force them to stop farming and grazing.

Australia watched with sadness earlier this year as cattle country in north-west Queensland and hundreds of thousands of cattle died. Four months later, in drought-and-flood ravaged Julia Creek, families are desperately trying to adapt to their new normal.

Queensland foreign-owned companies warn a new tax will put regional jobs at risk and challenge the viability of their businesses.

A former bank that was the birthplace of Mary Poppins creator P.L. Travers has been converted into a museum in Maryborough, Queensland, where it is hoped it will prove a drawcard for tourists.

Running 500 kilometres no problem. Completing a bush course with 1,000 obstacles sign her up. Stopping to breastfeed in between dragging tyres and crossing creeks Jessica Ehrlich is your woman. The mother of three triumphs over what may be the world's longest solo obstacle course.

The Indigenous owners of Fraser Island, the world's largest sand island, are frustrated by delays in their claim for compensation from the Queensland Government.

The family of a boy with ADHD that sometimes causes him to "bite, punch" and "kick" is suing Education Queensland for alleged discrimination by teachers who restrained him when he became "disruptive" and "aggressive".

The corporate regulator is taking the Bank of Queensland (BOQ) and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank to court for imposing "unfair" contract terms on their small business customers.

Their parents and grandparents were forcibly removed from their home, but now the Woppaburra people have returned to the Keppel Islands as partners in a project that could help heal the Great Barrier Reef in the future.

A genus of Queensland marsupial lion that, in its heyday, would have had other animals "shaking in their boots", is reclassified to be entirely new.

The government of Poland wants to go ahead with a presidential election conducted entirely by postal vote, on May 10, despite widespread opposition and public health concerns.

Police say they've found a man reported missing on Sunday morning after launching a search and public appeal for him at Illawong Beach, South Mackay.

The Landgate deal represents a sizeable change in position by WA Labor, a party that spent years fighting tooth and nail against privatisations but just locked in one of the state's biggest-ever deals with the private sector, writes Jacob Kagi.

A community of just 600 people isolated in the Indian Ocean is being inundated with the world's plastic waste. It is now finding innovative ways to fight back.

The number of people infected with measles in Perth rises to eight in an outbreak West Australian health authorities believe was sparked by an infected visitor from New Zealand.

School leavers celebrations have been canned on Western Australia's Rottnest Island this year, with thousands of graduates expected to flock to the state's South West instead.

A team of WA Police officers will be deployed to Japan as part of a revived investigation into former trade commissioner Craig Peacock, accused of misusing his position to pocket $540,000 in taxpayer funds.

ABC North Coast resident arts reviewer Jeanti St Clair looks at the latest music and theatre to hit the region

The coral haven of the Houtman Abrolhos island chain off the coast of WA has been officially listed as a national park, with plans to protect the area and make it more accessible to tourists.

Port Beach's Coast pub and surf life saving rooms should be moved and some Rottnest Island holiday bungalows should be pushed back from the beach in the long term, a report into WA coastal erosion hotspots says.

Two men are charged with trying to smuggle more than a tonne of cocaine and ecstasy into WA, after their yacht hit a reef and they were found on an island in the Houtman Abrolhos allegedly hiding the drugs with seaweed.

While dishes at Parkes and Honeysuckle Creek take the credit for beaming the vision of the first steps on the Moon to the world, staff known as 'Creekers' at Cooby Creek in Queensland say it was their work that made the whole project possible.

The dog squad catches five teenage boys hiding in a shed, bringing to an end an alleged crime spree that included car theft, armed robbery and break-ins at two supermarkets and three service stations.

Jacinta Foulds's husband shares his grief just hours after the 35-year-old's death to warn others how suddenly influenza A can kill, saying: "I've lost my soul mate and the mother of my children. If you're sick, go to the doctor".