Sydney news

A man who was stranded in a tree for two hours was among 16 flood rescues carried out by emergency services during heavy rain in parts of Sydney.

Canberra's inmate population is the most studious in the country, with a prisoner education rate more than double the national average, a report reveals.

Andy Murray overcomes frustration and a dangerous opponent in Milos Raonic to seal a place in his fifth Australian Open final against Novak Djokovic.

Sydney long-distance runner and cancer survivor Heather Hawkins has run seven marathons on seven continents in seven days.

The experts may not have foreseen Sydney FC's qualification for this year's W-League grand final, but Matildas striker Kyah Simon says her side plans to keep silencing the haters.

Tasmanian farmer Jamie Oliver is determined his cattle make it to market, despite contending with fires which hit the region.

A priest is saved from a burning church by jumping into the arms of police officers in Melbourne's north early this morning.

Former prime minister Julia Gillard will be part of the upcoming bicentenary celebrations for Australia's oldest continually running school in Newcastle.

Ship workers rally outside a Hunter aluminium smelter, slamming the loss of local jobs from an Australian ship.

The problem of overcrowding at NSW jails is not lost on Wallsend MP Sonia Hornery, who calls for urgent action.

Andy Murray will meet Novak Djokovic in an Australian Open final for the fourth time after posting a gruelling five-set win over an injury-hampered Milos Raonic.

India takes an insurmountable 2-0 lead in the Twenty20 series against Australia by cruising to a 27-run victory in the second game, at the MCG.

An anti-fracking activist is found guilty of trespass after entering a Buru Energy drilling compound near Broome to film evidence of a methane leak at one of its wells.

Western Sydney Wanderers have consolidated their position on top of the A-League ladder with an exciting 4-3 win over the second-placed Melbourne City at Parramatta Stadium.

Australian tennis great Rod Laver says 2016 should be the year Novak Djokovic goes all out in his bid to become the first man to win the Grand Slam in 47 years.

Ten years after a toxic virus devastated Victoria's lucrative abalone industry, embroiling the state government in a class-action lawsuit, industry leaders say recovery is still another decade away.

Labor's candidate in Malcolm Turnbull's seat of Wentworth, Evan Hughes, says he is running against the Prime Minister because Mr Turnbull has turned his back on causes he used to champion.

A bushfire alert is downgraded for a fire threatening the coastal community of Wedge, in the Shire of Dandaragan, about 170 kilometres north of Perth.

Three people have been killed and a fourth is believed dead after a plane crashed into the water at Barwon Heads on Victoria's Bellarine Peninsula.

A driver was repeatedly using her mobile phone before she hit and a killed a cyclist on Kings Park Road in West Perth, a court is told.

Clive Palmer's company Queensland Nickel is more than $100 million in debt and will need "tens of millions" injected into the company to continue trading beyond April 30, administrators say.

Sydney Roosters star Mitchell Pearce is travelling overseas to receive treatment in an intensive rehabilitation facility after a lewd video of him was leaked.

Working parents in New South Wales say they are struggling to find after-school care for their children amid a rising number of school enrolments.

India scores an upset series win over Australia's Southern Stars with victory in the rain-affected second Twenty20 match at the MCG.

Police are searching for a woman in relation to a multiple stabbing in inner Brisbane that left a man critically injured.

A Clovelly Park resident desperate to leave his contaminated suburb says the South Australian Government is still refusing to pay him reasonable compensation for his home.

Serial armed robber and prison escapee Brenden Abbott makes a fresh bid for freedom in a legal challenge against the Queensland Parole Board.

West Australian Premier Colin Barnett officially opens the $440 million Elizabeth Quay development in Perth's Central Business District.

Police drop a number of charges against an accountant in far west New South Wales who was accused of defrauding her employer of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

A mental health first aid course in Kalgoorlie is breaking down stigma by building awareness and understanding about mental illness across the region.

A storm system which caused flash flooding and high winds across Sydney has caused peak-hour headaches across the city, with train lines suspended and roads flooded

As the first cyclone warnings are sounded for Western Australia, Neil Bennett of the Bureau of Meteorology explains that storm names are carefully chosen.

The risk to workers who were exposed to asbestos on a maintenance project was low, the Water Corporation says, as an investigation finds the organisation failed to identify and communicate the danger adequately.

Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza back up their Wimbledon and US Open doubles titles by beating seventh-seeded Czech pair Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka in the Australian Open final.

Victoria's Country Fire Authority has been unfairly tainted by the Fiskville contamination scandal, its new chief executive says.

The Museum of Old and New Art's winter festival Dark MOFO will be held in June this year with financial help from both the State Government and the Hobart City Council.

A man who used an axe to kill a woman and her three daughters at their farmhouse in Western Australia should not have the right to apply for parole, a relative of the victims says.

To mark its 100th anniversary this year Sydney's Taronga Zoo is sponsoring conservation projects for 10 precious species in Australia and Indonesia. The creatures include corroboree frogs, marine turtles and Sumatran rhinos.

Traditional dancers in Wadeye officially welcome a gas-fired power station that is providing cleaner and cheaper electricity to their community.

A Families SA social worker allegedly "brushed off" concerns about sexualised behaviour in a toddler who was abused by paedophile carer Shannon McCoole, a royal commission is told.

A tropical low off Western Australia's north-west coast intensifies into a tropical cyclone, amid warnings it is likely to be upgraded to a category three before it makes landfall near Port Hedland.

A storm system which caused flash flooding and high winds across Sydney is set to cause peak-hour headaches across the city, with train lines suspended and traffic lights out of operation.

North Queensland great Matthew Bowen will turn out in Cowboys colours one more time in the NRL's preseason Nines competition.

Threatening phone calls which led to a number of schools in Victoria's east evacuating students today were a hoax, police say.

The sad story of young miner George Robertson is one of many to inspire historian Moya Sharp.

Transgender actress Jazmin Theadora, 77, will perform in a production of The Vagina Monologues in the northern New South Wales city of Lismore.

The BoM tells Northern Territory residents to expect another monsoonal system to arrive within days, bringing heavy rain and cooler temperatures to Darwin.

Australians are driving later and driving longer, with new research suggesting an 80-year-old is more likely to get behind the wheel than an 18-year-old.

An online seller of Australian beef to the Chinese market has visited a Central Australian cattle station, with positive reviews.

A paddock to plate festival that now pumps about $3 million into the regional economy around Orange celebrates a quarter of a century, and looks back at how the food and wine industry has grown.