Sydney news

Police say no criminal charges will be laid over the deadly Pinery bushfire in South Australia following a year-long investigation, which found a car battery left in a paddock started the blaze.

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Three men in their 20s and a teenage boy die in a road crash near Penola in South Australia's south-east after their car rolled early this morning.

Normally Schoolies is a time to cut loose but it inspired one girl to chase her dream of becoming a paramedic.

Elyse Perry masterminded a tense two-wicket Australian win against South Africa in the women's one-day international in Canberra on Friday.

Rumbling around a farm on an ex-World War II tank is a lot of fun, but the Busted Arse Tank Repairs and Co has a more serious aim as wellto keep these vehicles running to honour their history.

It is much easier to get a liquor licence in New South Wales, with new figures showing authorities have refused just one application in six months.

Perth Glory striker Andy Keogh scores two goals in a spiteful win over Adelaide United at nib Stadium.

A late own-goal from Melbourne City midfielder Neil Kilkenny cancels a goal from teammate Tim Cahill during the Socceroos veteran's highly-anticipated hometown comeback.

A fruit tree farmer blames "contaminated" water from the local scheme for wiping out much of his jujube orchard in the West Australian Wheatbelt town of Beverley.

A man in his 60s dies while diving off Port Douglas in far north Queensland, just two days after a pair of French tourists suffered fatal heart attacks while snorkelling east of Cairns.

A 25-year-old man is charged following an alleged hit-and-run collision which left a cyclist with life-threatening injuries in West Melbourne.

Taronga Zoo is now home to three baby short-beaked echidnas, known as puggles, for the first time in 30 years.

Scientists at a Melbourne cancer institute say a new "liquid biopsy" blood test will prove life saving for sufferers of certain types of cancer by saving precious time between diagnosis and treatment.

An internal police review into how one of four boys accused of damaging a school in WA's Goldfields was bitten by a dog concludes the attack complied with guidelines and the law.

One Nation senator Rod Culleton tells 7.30 he will now attend a directions hearing about the validity of his election, despite earlier ruling out turning up.

A non-contact order for a woman who was allegedly murdered by her partner was delayed because police lost the paperwork, a Darwin murder trial hears.

Authorities return to the scene of a helicopter crash in far north Queensland where a pilot was earlier rescued, following reports there may have been a passenger on board.

With final votes counted and preferences distributed, Shooters, Fishers and Farmers candidate looks to win the NSW seat of Orange in the NSW by-election held last weekendbut the Nationals have asked for a re-count.

A woman who pleaded guilty in court to bestiality, stabbing a woman with a fork and biting a child will spend the weekend behind bars ahead of her sentencing next week.

A 25-year-old man has handed himself in to police following a hit-and-run collision this morning, which left a cyclist with life-threatening injuries in West Melbourne.

WA Police seize more than 150 packages containing illicit drugs, in a four day blitz in the lead up to Leaver's week.

The meat workers union says exploitation of backpackers by unscrupulous labour hire companies is a bigger disincentive to work in Australia, than an increase in the tax rate.

Dangerous sex offender Warren John Ugle is back behind bars after allegedly testing positive to methamphetamine, in breach of a prison release order.

A man who had "overall control" of a multi-million-dollar drug cartel is sentenced to 10 years in jail by a Brisbane court.

A 21-year-old man is under police guard after allegedly setting fire to a bank in suburban Melbourne, with witnesses describing hearing an explosion before victims, some badly burned, fled screaming from the building.

A disgraced former Anglican dean facing allegations of child sexual abuse has emphatically denied any wrongdoing to a royal commission during a dramatic afternoon of questioning.

Inmates at a Queensland jail take centre stage in a production of Macbeth, in a "beautiful escape" from prison life.

Newcastle battler James Nitties emerges from the golfing wilderness to snare the Australian Open halfway lead at Royal Sydney.

"Thirty-five years later this story has no bad news. I sometimes think I must be the luckiest man."

A community-based order compelling John to undertake drug counselling was a turning point for the former drug addict.

Police believe a man who jumped from a train into Melbourne's Yarra River this afternoon was taking part in thrill-seeking behaviour.

A rally driver and his navigator escape unhurt after their car rolls on a corner during the Classic Adelaide Rally.

Millionaire environmentalist Graeme Wood finally lodges an application for a tourism development at a former woodchip mill in Southern Tasmania.

Tarek Assaad, 30, the brother of murdered Sydney gangland figure Hamad Assaad, is arrested on gun charges when detectives.

South Africa captain Faf du Plessis will plead not guilty to charges of ball tampering handed down by the ICC, which team-mates call "a joke".

Nineteen-year-old Curnow boys Tom and Riley are harvesting their first crop after losing father Kym in 2015 Esperance bushfires.

It is hoped new permanent and seasonal closures will revive Queensland's ailing scallop fishery after catch rates hit a 39-year low.

Queensland criminologist Paul Wilson denies allegations he played sex games with young girls at his Brisbane home in the 1970s.

A male pilot survives a helicopter crash which creates an "intense" fire in Mount Windsor National Park in far north Queensland, police say.

A Canberra man who violently assaulted and racially abused a taxi driver, telling him to "go back to your country", narrowly avoids jail.

There are $30 billion worth of $100 notes in circulation in Australia, but who actually has them and are they worth keeping?

Four decades after the Australian movie Storm Boy premiered in Adelaide and led what was later considered by many to have been a renaissance for the nation's film industry, a remake is in the planning.

Steve and Bill take a look at an innovative new research program being run out of the Royal Children's Hospital and Melbourne lawyer Caroline Counsel talks family law.

The Australian Medical Association in Queensland says the expansion of a hangover clinic is a concerning acknowledgment of the drinking culture that's entrenched in the Sunshine Coast.

The Western Australian Cricket Association appears unlikely to get its wish of nearly $200 million in State Government funding to redevelop the WACA Ground, with both sides of politics indicating reluctance to provide the money.

While Australian wine exporters enjoy the surge in the value of their sales to China, cellar doors at home are also noticing a greater number of eager Chinese tourists.

Horticulture lobby group AUSVEG pushes for more treated water to be made available to existing Northern Adelaide Plains horticulture producers.

Despite the stereotype, hostels are not just for Europeans sleeping in bunk beds, but act as boarding facilities for rural students in central Queensland.

Once the place for "drunks and has-beens", the obituary page of one of the United States' biggest newspapers is embracing the digital age.