Sydney news

The mental health impact of a deadly bushfire that swept across a wide area north of Adelaide will likely hit early next year, an expert warns, urging people to think "realistically".

Two people are killed when the car they are travelling in hits a tree and splits in half, shortly after a high-speed pursuit in Cockburn is abandoned by police.

Record-breaking Queensland State of Origin coach Mal Meninga is set to be announced as Australian coach this morning.

The New South Wales Government has come under fire for assessing a development application for a controversial sand mine in the red zone of Williamtown's chemical contamination crisis.

Brazen thieves in Melbourne's CBD are stealing people's mobile phones right out of their hands, often while they are texting, Victoria Police say.

Family and friends have paid tribute to the chief executive of Albury's SS&A Club, Tim Levesque, who died in hospital yesterday.

Security may be tightened at Mid North Coast hospital EDs to cope with ice epidemic

Plans for a rail freight hub in Goulburn have been given the green light.

The NSW Government is being urged to provide direct financial relief to drought-affected farmers by waiving certain taxes and levies.

A search is underway after a man disappears while snorkelling at Lord Howe Island, off the New South Wales coast.

A University of New England researcher has put insects other than bees on the map when it comes to the effective pollination of crops.

Local disposal of nuclear waste in South Australia would be the best option for medical facilities and research, a radiation oncology researcher says.

A man is shot and another has his hands cut, possibly with a machete, during a home invasion at Liverpool in Sydney's south-west.

Sugar millers claim Queensland's new sugar marketing legislation is the beginning, not the end, of the war.

High optimism among eastern cattle producers has pushed a price indicator to a record level.

The union representing shipbuilders has launched a stinging attack on Hunter MP Bob Baldwin, labelling him a hypocrite and "performing seal".

A former Newcastle NRL player, who says his career was cut down by Lyme disease, says a Senate inquiry into the tick-borne disease gives sufferers much needed hope.

A body is found inside a burnt-out house in Ringwood in Melbourne's east.

The Police Association said the number of patrol cars on Wagga Wagga's roads has almost doubled thanks to an increase in staff numbers.

A proposed helipad at Condobolin hospital is set to become a reality after securing state funding.

There is a call for the establishment of an economic development corporation to help the Upper Hunter weather the current downturn in the mining industry.

Exposing animal cruelty will become harder once a surveillance devices bill passes the South Australian Parliament, the Law Society says.

A four hour strike is planned on Thursday over fears about the privatisation or outsourcing of 250 New South Wales Government run group homes.

Morpeth residents are banding together to try to save a parcel of land in the community from development.

Staff at the Stockton Centre will walk off the job today over the New South Wales government's plans to privatise the disability services sector.

Tasmania's Northern Midlands Council will today meet with the Federal Government over a long-running dispute with the Launceston Airport over unpaid rates.

More than 20 journalist and editorial positions are set to be axed at eight newspapers in the western region.

A Newcastle residents group says while it welcomes the findings of a consultation program into the city's future, the scope of the project was always limited.

A man has been charged with nearly a dozen drug and firearms offences after police searched a Lake Macquarie home.

Wagga Wagga Local Aboriginal Land Council (LALC) CEO, Lorraine Lyons, is shattered by criticism of the Land Council as a self-serving organisation.

The Rural Fire Service (RFS) is planning to conduct a hazard reduction burn in Lake Macquarie today.

A man is charged after a body is found in a creek in Sunshine in Melbourne's north-west.

On the last parliamentary sitting day here in Canberra, the new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will have to decide whether to stand by his special minister of state Mal Brough or cut him loose as the Opposition has demanded. Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese told AM that Mal Brough should go because he committed a crime, and that the issue goes to the Prime Minister's judgement.

Owners believe it is the longest-running gay club in the southern hemisphere and this week the iconic and colourful Connections Nightclub in Perth is celebrating its 40th birthday.

Firefighters downgrade the threat of a bushfire burning about 25 kilometres west of Gascoyne Junction, in the shires of Upper Gascoyne and Carnarvon as weather conditions improve.

Coast bats pose health risk

Life-saving wireless heart pacemakers could actually be ticking time bombs at risk of cyber attack, a Perth conference is told.

So-called "Super coral" in Western Australia's north is more resistant to fluctuations in temperature, providing researchers with hope they may recover faster from bleaching events linked to global warming.

The commission named former houseparent at Darwin's Retta Dixon Home as one of the worst child abusers and the man adopted from that institution as a child speaks out.

Three Perth police officers who tested positive to drugs while on duty have been stood down.

Police seize hundreds of dollars worth of banana-shaped ecstasy pills in the WA town of Geraldton and charge a 20-year-old man with possessing a prohibited drug with intent to supply.

Miners at Queensland's Grasstree coal mine walked off the job over health concerns, their union says, after it was revealed four coal miners have been diagnosed with black lung, a disease thought eradicated in Australia.

WA's Agriculture Minister admits he has a conflict of interest over the sale of a major state asset, with Labor branding him a "disgrace" for not publicly revealing it earlier.

An Islamic school embroiled in controversy over its alleged hardline approach with students suffers a significant drop in enrolments for 2016.

A toddler who died after ingesting a powerful antidepressant also had injuries that were not typical for a young child, a coronial inquest hears.

"All I remember was him being on top of me saying 'don't tell anybody, this is our secret'."

Fire almost wipes out the habitat of Australia's most endangered marsupial, the Gilbert's potoroo, at the picturesque Two Peoples Bay in southern Western Australia.

Homicide squad detectives are interviewing a man over the "vicious" death of another man whose body was found in a creek in Melbourne's west.

The Tasmanian Greens welcome moves by the aquaculture industry towards a more environmentally friendly fish hatchery system.

Finding a missing collection of artefacts gathered during a French explorer's expedition to Australia becomes the "holy grail" for a group of researchers, more than 200 years since his ship arrived.