How do you like your avo? On toast with salt and pepper, or perhaps you simply just scoop out the creamy flesh with a spoon?

This week's backyard farmer believes that every family needs a cow - and that getting up at 4am to do the milking is great fun.

The passionfruit vine is a typical grievance for those with a green thumb, a temperamental plant that just won't do what it's told.

This week on backyard farmer, find out how to keep your fruit and veges in the cupboard all year round, and snag a great recipe for chilli jam!

Twenty eight Australian vessels and ten New Zealand ships left Western Australia in 1914, destined for war. These are their stories.

This week on Backyard Farmer, we are delving into the strange and wonderful world of alpacas.

A Western Australian Nationals' MP has labelled "ridiculous" a Liberal backbencher's call for the Royalties for Regions scheme to be abolished.

We're almost in the third month of the year, and it's likely that your garden is looking a little on the tired side. Never fear, help is here!

The commission, sitting in Mudgee, hears how home care providers are charging for services that haven't been delivered in rural and remote areas.

Pool blogger Simon Duffin says Yamba is in his top four ocean pools in Australia

Pool blogger Simon Duffin says Yamba is in his top four ocean pools in Australia

Fire pits are popping up in backyards across the country, but as one Brisbane mother found out maybe you're not allowed to actually light them.

The five men suffered upper torso and airway burns in the explosion.

Zulya is a singing, guitar playing, native of Tartazan in Russia

Byron Shire musician Gyan has again joined forces with cartoonist Leunig

Canada's prolific hit-writer opens his Australian tour in the Illawarra with a full house.

Mark Grentell's celebration of an Aussie tradition is low on budget and rough around the edges, but is ultimately an affectionate tale with plenty of laughs.

Paris Whibley has made the 1,200-kilometre round trip from her family's farm near Moree in NSW to Sydney three times during her school holidays to compete at the Royal Easter Show.

The Prime Minister and NSW Premier announce a $1 billion joint investment to upgrade the Wyangala Dam and build a new one at Dungowan to help drought-devastated NSW regional communities.

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 man suffers head injuries when he is hit by a car that mounted a tram stop outside the Royal Adelaide Hospital, narrowly avoiding other bystanders.

Ryan Chambers disappeared 13 years ago. Today his face, frozen in time, adorns the side of a shop in South Australia's Riverland, imploring people not to forget the young man who hasn't been seen or heard from since.

The Royal is the most commonly used name for hotels in Australia, but the story behind the popularity of this pub name is a curious mix of colonial communications and aspirational marketing.

Thousands of bottles, soy sauce containers, wrappers and microplastics that have been fished out of Melbourne's iconic river will be melted down to create seats along the water's edge.

It's early morning and Ernie Poloni is lying in his nursing home bed. Two carers enter his room, unaware that the digital clock on the table holds a hidden camera, writes Anne Connolly

Richard Tracey QC is remembered as wise, selfless and admired as the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety is told of the "complete shock" of his sudden death.

Submissions to the aged care royal commission called for better staffing and training in aged care facilities around the country.

More than half of Australian nursing homes are understaffed, with residents having less access to qualified nurses than ever before, the aged care royal commission hears.

A senior manager of a Melbourne aged care home initially refused to act on video footage of elder abuse for a month due to the Christmas break, the aged care royal commission hears.

A worker who mistreated six elderly residents at a Melbourne home was suspended three times but allowed to continue working after he passed an elder abuse questionnaire, the aged care royal commission hears.

The aged care royal commission hears chronic short-staffing is compromising the care of nursing home residents, leaving some workers to question whether they want to stay in the sector.

A senior police officer tells the royal commission Nicola Gobbo agreed to make a statement against Paul Dale in the murders of Terence and Christine Hodson because she did not want it to look like she was involved in the murder.

When the temperatures drop in southern Queensland yarn bombers descend on Warwick for the annual Jumpers and Jazz festival. This year the centrepiece is a work created by 80 knitters dubbed the 'woollow tree'.

The Norfolk Pines along Albany's Ellen Cove are looking snug this winter, thanks to the antics of local yarn bombers, the Purly Queens. The fuzzy activists are encouraging locals to hug a pine for the 20th anniversary of National Tree Day.

An outback Queensland grazier has organised a fine art photography workshop in the tiny town of Yaraka as a way to not only improve her skills but to escape the harsh reality of drought for a weekend.

Spring is the busy season for WA Sea Bird Rescue rehabilitator Carol Biddulph, who cares for a menagerie of injured and orphaned birds at her Torbay home.

Miniature yacht racing brings men together at Lake Weeroona for Bendigo Men's Health Week.

The shearers' quarters on Barenya Station, between Hughenden and Muttaburra in north west Queensland, was filled with talk and laughter recently, when local grazing families took some time out to have health checks, de-stress and socialise for a Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) field day.

Sixth generation dairy farmers in Yandoit in central Victoria's bushland stick to what they know and love.

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".