Sydney news

Elizabeth Gilbert allows curiosity to guide her, as it does the heroine of her most recent novel. (R)

A controversial hunting festival on the New South Wales far south coast looks set to continue for at least another two years with the anti-gun lobby and environmentalists given little opportunity to object.

A record crop of 48,300 tonnes of nut-in-shell has been collected by Australian macadamia growers this year.

Sydney photographer Gary Heery's latest series is Birds, a departure from shooting stars like Cate Blanchett and Jodie Foster but a return to one of the most successful collections early in his career.

Joel Knott, who is riding 3,700km from Melbourne to Bunbury to raise funds for motor neurone disease, is greeted in Adelaide by friends and ex-students of his father who is battling the disease.

A man is charged with drug manufacturing and supply following the seizure of a large quantity of ice at a house in Gladesville.

Coffs Harbour airport to get a multi million dollar upgrade

A woman is taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after a car driven by a 50-year-old P-plater crashes into her house in Green Valley in Sydney's south west.

The Bathurst Regional Council is being urged to hold an external review into plans to remove trees from a street dubbed the gateway to the city.

Chinese consumers will soon be able to scan tins of infant milk formula with their mobile phone and trace the product back to a dairy factory in Victoria.

Cowra could be set to host an Australia-first pilot project which helps rehabilitate low-risk criminals and keep them out of jail.

Visy and Safe Work NSW are yet to respond to allegation's that Tumut's biggest employer, the Visy Paper and Pulp Mill, has had a string of potentially fatal incidents and near misses in recent weeks.

A teenage boy recovers in hospital after being stabbed in the back with a pair of scissors on a train in Sydney's west.

Police seek public help as they continue to investigate the deaths of an 11-year-old girl and her mother in Brisbane's inner west.

ACT Police say they hold grave concerns for the welfare of Woden man Robert Jacob, who has not been seen in more than a week.

A live export forum has been held to discuss resuming and growing the trade from Port Hedland port.

There are hopes former patients of a notorious Tasmanian psychiatric hospital will receive a parliamentary apology next year.

Christmas leg ham on sale at the Adelaide Central Market.

Retail competition is limiting price rises for customers as pig prices surge at livestock markets.

The new owner of the Lake Cowal gold mine in the New South Wales Central West is looking to extend the mine's life and is embarking on further exploration.

Further studies should be undertaken into unconventional gas, including a review into potential health impacts, before a decision is made on the industry's future, a Victorian parliamentary inquiry recommends.

Balranald Local Court will hold its final sitting today, after a long campaign to overturn its closure.

A state MP says funding to upgrade a remote airport will boost interest for a return of commercial flights.

As Clive Palmer seeks taxpayer assistance for Queensland Nickel, the ABC has been told an audit shows the company is able to trade out of its financial difficulties.

A boat breaks its moorings and washes onto rocks at Kangaroo Island, south of Adelaide, but police say three people on board are safe.

Victoria Police investigate allegations of sexual exploitation of children at a residential care unit in Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs.

Brad Haddin does not think the West Indies pose much of a threat to Australia, while he wonders why Coulter-Nile was called up.

An uninjured woman is rescued after her house is washed away during a flash flood in Victoria's north east.

Parents of Martins Creek Public School students have welcomed a decision not to close the school at the end of the year, saying it is a weight off their shoulders.

The final Newcastle Council meeting for 2015 has seen an attempt to reverse the sacking of the former general manager scuttled.

As TasFood considers its legal options over its failed bid for Van Diemen's Land Company (VDL), a Supreme Court judge says he is not convinced it has a strong case.

Newcastle Council has voted against a proposal to rezone land at Fletcher that would pave the way for a housing development.

E-commerce has unexpectedly extended its reach to the Upper Hunter's cattle industry.

A plan to transform the old Hamilton Bowling Club into a childcare centre has been given the green light by Newcastle Council.

A snapshot of China's last imperial dynasty will be presented through art of the time at the National Library of Australia through January.

The Hunter Local Land Services is hoping an information session will help local beef producers better understand the changing industry.

A notorious rock fishing spot near Lake Macquarie could become the first site in Australia to trial ocean lifebuoys in a bid to curb the number of drowning deaths.

A new cost of living report finds insurance is now out of reach for many low-income Territorians, with a rise in costs for Darwin residents that is higher than national average.

More than 30 projects costing nearly $15 million will get underway to improve water quality in a South West water catchment plagued by several massive fish kills.

A warning for an out-of-control bushfire north-west of Hopetoun is downgraded to watch and act, as a number of fires burn in western Victoria.

The case against a man accused of killing punk rock fan Nicholas Sofer-Schreiber is "a school of red herrings", his lawyer says.

The Queensland Treasurer says if Clive Palmer closes Queensland Nickel's Townsville refinery it "would be his decision alone", after Mr Palmer sought assistance to ensure its continuation while the nickel price is low.

Leonid Kulikovsky, the great grandson of Tsar Alexander III, is buried in Darwin alongside members of the pearling Paspaley family, after dying alone in Katherine.

Ashton Agar's second century of the Sheffield Shield season puts Western Australia in the box seat to win its match against Tasmania at the WACA.

A police interview with a man who was later acquitted of murdering his younger lover, Matthew Leveson, is played at the Glebe Coroner's court in Sydney.

NT police call for witnesses to armed robbery in Moil, less than 24 hours after a petrol station was held up by men brandishing a steel bar.

Unions tell a Victorian inquiry into the labour hire industry there needs to be tougher regulations on labour hire companies.

Fire crews are tackling several grassfires and a haystack blaze in South Australia.

Clive Palmer says his company Queensland Nickel seeks "minimal assistance" from the Queensland Government to ensure the continuation of the Townsville refinery while the nickel price is low.

Two men are charged with attempted murder after a man was shot in the stomach and found in a fast food car park in Melbourne's north-west.