Sydney news

Hollywood stars Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston surprise patients at the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital in Brisbane.

Scientists in Sydney, Adelaide and Belgium develop an enhanced method of fertility treatment that researchers hope will one day provide a more affordable option to couples, without the need for hormone injections.

Peanut butter may be back on the menu in schools, hospitals and airlines, after Australian researchers develop an almost identical peanut-like but non-allergic product made out of the humble mung bean.

The Victorian Government announces mandatory electronic tags for sheep and goats, despite strong opposition from national industry groups.

A Christian street preacher who created controversy in Adelaide moves his fight to Tasmania and claims to have achieved some success in the Federal Court on his right to preach in malls.

The historic Noonkanbah station in the Kimberley region of Western Australia is looking to start up its own irrigation project.

A woman is dead and a man is critically injured after a stabbing in Home Hill, south of Townsville, overnight.

Follow along as Australia's Olympic athletes are welcomed back home following their Rio 2016 exploits in our live blog.

Police say two men pulled a 76-year-old driver from his ute and stole his wallet before driving off.

The Australia Day public concert held each year on the lawns of Parliament House in Canberra is cancelled, with organisers citing storms as one of the reasons for the decision.

Using reformed offenders to mentor inmates could help reduce reoffending and cut Australia's growing prison population, research suggests.

An Australian-made short film on domestic violence seen through the eyes of two victims could become a tool in helping judges deal with family violence.

Plans for the long-awaited Macquarie Point redevelopment project in Hobart hit another hurdle after TasWater announces it will not fund the relocation of the sewerage plant.

Hollywood stars Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston surprise patients at the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital in Brisbane.

Sydney police confirm they are examining footage that appears to show former Auburn councillor Salim Mehajer threatening his estranged wife and her family in an expletive-laden message.

The Brisbane City Council will contribute $870,000 to a feasibility study for a south-east Queensland bid to host the 2028 Olympic Games, but the Gold Coast City Council has voted against committing any money to the process.

The WA Education Department will assume direct control of high school hostels across the state under legislation introduced into State Parliament, in response to a report on the systemic sexual abuse by serial paedophile Dennis McKenna.

We catch up with Derryn Hinch and other new senators as they arrive in Canberra for the first sitting of parliament since the election.

The NSW Opposition presents a letter from the Finance Minister to Premier Mike Baird as it accuses the Government of deliberately sitting on a report on how to make compulsory land acquisitions fairer.

A 28-year-old Norlane man dies of injuries sustained when his car collides with a train near Bairnsdale, in eastern Victoria.

A diagnostic tool that attaches to a mobile phone and enables accurate self-diagnosis will replace the role of a GP, says Professor Kirill Alexandrov from Queensland's Institute for Molecular Bioscience.

A Brisbane-based scientist is developing a tool that can immediately detect viruses and bacteria across the world.

An 18-year-old and a 19-year-old are sentenced to 11 and 12 years' jail respectively for killing and robbing Rick Berry, who was working at the remote Aboriginal community of Yuendumu.

Perth's residential rental vacancy rate hits a record high of 5.2 per cent according to new figures from property group SQM Research, which found 10,738 houses and units available for lease.

Planning experts are urging Australian governments to develop a national approach to coastal development, after an expensive court case over coastal erosion. A decade-long battle has ended in the Byron Shire Council and its insurers agreeing to pay costs to beachfront home owners, and scrapping a plan to remove their rock wall.

A 41-year-old Bridgewater man who tattooed "family" across the cheek of a 17-year-old girl as her mother watched on becomes one of the first people convicted under a state law banning under-18s from getting tattoos or body piercings.

Sydney Fox Rescue launches a campaign to overturn a ban on the rescue and re-homing of wild foxes.

A descendant of an Aboriginal man confronted by Captain Cook on the shores of Botany Bay is getting closer to owning his ancestor's shield, after a motion passes NSW Parliament to have artefacts from two British museums repatriated.

A man accused of killing his partner told police "I don't regret it at all" during a recorded conversation, a Darwin court is told.

A pregnant woman who stabbed her husband twice in the neck should be treated like any other domestic violence offender, despite herself suffering from PTSD as a result of the attack, an Adelaide court hears.

Western Australia's Health Minister insists a contract that is making the state pay $500,000 a month for the management of hundreds of unused parking bays at the delayed Perth Children's Hospital is a good deal for taxpayers.

Small teams of volunteers around the Pacific Islands fight to save coral reefs from the dreaded crown-of-thorns starfish.

A female pygmy hippopotamus dies at Melbourne Zoo after suffering partial paralysis following a cerebral haemorrhage.

High cattle prices, mechanical issues with ships, and delays to shipments create challenging trading circumstances on the ASX for WA-based livestock exporter Wellard.

Locals in the outback Queensland town of Blackall have banded together and raised enough money to save their small independent newspaper from closing.

The mother of a Melbourne toddler who was allegedly murdered by the mother's boyfriend was seen laughing on the phone the day after her death, a court is told.

A man found guilty of murdering another whom he said had spoken of paying him for sex was "evil" and a "coward", family members of victim Andrew Negre tell the South Australian Supreme Court.

A 15-year-old girl is charged with robbing a woman allegedly murdered on the same night and her body dumped outside a Perth hospital.

Scientists are rolling out new cameras across north Queensland to better protect beachgoers from jellyfish this summer.

A self-confessed murderer claims she was "manipulated" and "seduced" by a mother and daughter into helping to kill Perth man Travis Mills, whose body was found in the boot of a burnt-out car.

A young girl attacked by a kangaroo on Queensland's Fraser Coast suffers head and chest injuries.

The family of an Adelaide man charged in Dubai after sharing a charity's post on Facebook say they are relieved he is no longer in the notorious Al Murraqabat Police Station.

Firecrackers will be detonated underwater by professional fishing crews to try and scare fur seals from the lower Murray and Coorong regions south of Adelaide.

A 27-year-old woman is fined $543 and issued with a police barring order after she threw a banana in the direction of Eddie Betts at Adelaide Oval.

West Australian Premier Colin Barnett rejects any suggestion of a conflict of interest between his tourism portfolio and a luxury camping development proposed by his son Sam.

The Denpasar police chief says the partner of an Australian woman held over the alleged murder of Bali policeman "went on a rage", hitting the victim with a smashed beer bottle. The dead man, Wyan Sudarsa, was found on Kuta Beach with 42 wounds to his body.

Being linked with racism is painful for any club, but the hurt is particularly deep at Port Adelaide, a club with a rich and celebrated history of Indigenous players and supporters.

Australian woman Sara Connor and her British boyfriend David Taylor are accused of murdering a Bali policemanbut their version of events have been inconsistent and changing.

Victoria's planning umpire has approved a controversial multi-million dollar broiler farm for central Gippsland.

A Queensland horticulture lobby group says it would take an "optimistic" five years to fill the labour shortages that would result from the Federal Government's proposed backpacker tax.