Sydney news

The Star Wars force is alive in regional New South Wales as Jedi masters teach the art of lightsaber combat.

The Devonport City Council's plan to transform the city moves a step closer with $70 million in funding announced.

The Calder Highway, south of Ouyen, in north-west Victoria, remains closed this morning, as police investigate the scene of a head-on crash which left an 18-year-old woman in hospital with life threatening injuries.

Authorities have resumed searching for a British tourist who was swept away at Josephine Falls, south of Cairns in far north Queensland late on Tuesday.

Federal Labor MP Alannah MacTiernan has missed a deadline for expressions of interest in WA Upper House preselection but says she is open to a return to state politics if the party wants her.

Australian stocks of an essential equine vaccine have been completely depleted, placing thoroughbred breeders in the New South Wales Hunter Valley on edge.

Newcastle Knights halfback Trent Hodkinson is confident his partnership with Jarrod Mullen will develop quickly, despite the pair yet to play a game together.

A New South Wales cattleman sells only Hereford cattle at his butcher shop in a bid to make breed the household name that Angus is.

A Lake Macquarie man currently in Fiji says going through Cyclone Winston was the most frightening experience of his life.

The 17 active AFL players banned as a result of the Essendon drug saga knock back Mick Malthouse's offer to coach them this season.

Administrators move to sell assets owned by companies belonging to federal MP Clive Palmer, including a Bombardier Global Express aircraft that is the property of Palmer Aviation, which owes $26 million.

A volunteer firefighter accused of starting two blazes in bushland in western New South Wales was part of the response team battling both fires.

Emergency defibrillators will be installed in public buildings across Adelaide in a 12-month trial to gauge whether people will use the machines and the best places to have them.

A man has died and two lanes of Canterbury Road are closed after a car crashed into a power pole in Sydney's south west about 3:40am.

The South Australian Parliament remains divided on laws to overhaul the state's planning system that would remove local councillors from assessment panels.

Harvest has started on the Northern Territory's largest pineapple farm, which continues to expand towards year-round production.

Two homes were destroyed and one damaged in a bushfire that burned out of control at Mount Bolton, north-west of Ballarat, on Tuesday, the Country Fire Authority says.

Almost 20,000 Canberrans compromise spending on essentials like healthcare, education and food in order to meet the cost of housing, according to a survey.

The story of five female Muslim boxers from one of the UK's roughest cities makes its Australian debut at the Perth International Arts Festival.

A drug syndicate suspected of supplying ice to up to 120 people a day has been uncovered in Sydney, police say.

Communities in South Australia's Flinders Ranges remain deeply divided over whether nuclear waste should be stored near Hawker.

The WA Premier rejects calls for the Government to investigate the probity of its employees following a jump in the share price of a Forrestfield Airport Link contractor, saying that is the role of the ASX.

New legislation to reform the way Western Australia's health system is planned, managed and run will also overhaul measures to deal with poor performance by staff.

Federal Labor MP Alannah MacTiernan fails to express an interest in WA Upper House preselection but says she is open to a return to state politics if the party wants her.

A four-year-old boy receives significant burns to his neck, back and an arm after falling into a campfire north of Brisbane.

A Supreme Court judge in Perth reserves his decision in a dispute over the validity of the board of the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation.

The lawyer for a Geraldton doctor who killed her husband after an ongoing abusive relationship says his client believes she will be deported to Sri Lanka once she is released on parole.

CSIRO scientists discover why bats do not get sick from viruses like Ebola, which could provide the key to combating the deadly diseases in humans.

Labor says the Transport Minister's idea of constructing tunnels under Perth's main roads to ease congestion shows the Government's transport planning is chaotic.

Some 13 hospital staff in South Australia are sanctioned after being caught accessing the medical records of the man accused of killing Adelaide Crows coach Phil Walsh in 2015.

Federal Labor MP Alannah MacTiernan fails to express an interest in WA Upper House preselection but says she is open to a return to state politics if the party wants her.

The Victorian Government pleads for $4.5 billion in Federal Government funding for Melbourne Metro Rail, to match its contribution to the country's biggest public transport project.

Six patients at a NSW practice were indecently assaulted by a physiotherapist who convinced them it was legitimate treatment for him to massage their breasts, a court hears.

The mother of a newborn baby boy found abandoned on a doorstep in Griffith, New South Wales, at the weekend is found safe and well.

Victoria Police and VicRoads are being sued for negligence by a police officer who responded to an incident in which four-year-old Darcey Freeman was thrown from the West Gate Bridge.

A man once named as a possible suspect in the murder of Corryn Rayney pleads guilty to making threats against her husband, Perth barrister Lloyd Rayney.

There has been a dramatic increase in the number of women applying to become firefighters in Canberra following a recruitment campaign, ACT Fire and Rescue says.

NSW Health launches a probe into the incorrect dosing of head and neck cancer patients by an oncologist at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital.

The maritime union's preferred Labor candidate for Fremantle hits back at criticism by former premier Carmen Lawrence, accusing her of stigmatising the union and wanting to anoint a successor in her old seat.

Six patients at a NSW practice were indecently assaulted by a physiotherapist who convinced them it was legitimate treatment for him to massage their breasts, a court hears.

Emergency warnings for fires burning at Somerville, on the Mornington Peninsula and at Mount Bolton, north-west of Ballarat, are downgraded.

There has been a dramatic increase in the number of women applying to become firefighters in Canberra following a recruitment campaign, ACT Fire and Rescue says.

Royal Life Saving Society Australia warns dams are not the only risk to young children on rural properties.

The chief executive officer of the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation is accused of giving inconsistent evidence to a hearing into the validity of its board.

Tasmania's hospitality industry backs efforts by Federal Group to entice more young people into the sector.

A National Party MP has urged his government to rethink its backpacker tax changes, and has proposed what he calls a "measured and sensible" alternative.

A crane catches fire and collapses at a construction site on St Kilda Road near the corner of Moubray Street in Melbourne.

Police at the Broome lock-up were too busy to carry out all required welfare checks, a coronial inquiry into the death of an Aboriginal woman hears.

The Sunshine Coast Council will decide on a proposal to spend thousands of dollars relocating a school of large bull sharks from a popular landlocked canal this week.

The AFL warns that a warning might not apply the next time it catches a player using a mobile phone in a restricted area.