Sydney news

A West Australian police officer convicted two years ago of unlawfully using a tracking device to monitor a mate's girlfriend is awarded almost $15,000 in legal costs after successfully appealing against the decision.

A new era in cattle showing begins in Tasmania with the inaugural Tasmanian Junior Beef Expo.

Farm lobby groups across the US are gearing up for another round of farm bill negotiations.

The people responsible for deliberately killing kangaroos in eastern Victoria at the weekend could face up to a year in jail, the state's environment department says.

One of Sydney's most prominent examples of brutalist architecture, the almost deserted Sirius building at The Rocks, is opened to the public for the first time in almost 40 years.

Smoke blankets Melbourne's north after a massive fire broke out at a recycling factory, leading authorities to issue health warnings for the surrounding suburbs.

Former Bandido Lionel Patea, who was sentenced to life in prison for murdering Tara Brown, has a history of breaching domestic violence orders and attacked the young Gold Coast mother a week before killing her.

Bega Cheese will sell facilities at Tatura and Derrimut for $200 million to help fund its purchase of Vegemite.

The options for the inaugural AFL Women's grand final are becoming clearer as the season enters its latter stages.

A drug trafficker is awarded $100,000 in compensation after he says his diabetes worsened while in prison, but crime victims and lawyers might get all of that money.

A man is charged with attempted murder, and four others are charged with drug offences, following police raids in Melbourne over an alleged international drug trafficking syndicate.

The LNP says it cannot support an independent MP's bid to decriminalise abortion in Queensland because the proposed laws are flawed and could create "further risk and uncertainty".

About 100 firefighters a battling a massive factory blaze in Melbourne's north, sending smoke billowing into the air and forcing dozens of overnight staff to flee.

This weekend Nick Percat will attempt to match his Supercars heroics from last year when he won his home-town race while battling wild weather conditions at the Clipsal 500.

The echidna population at Mulligans Flat Woodlands Sanctuary in Canberra is so strong, researchers are considering introducing goannas and carpet pythons to keep the environment in balance by eating puggles.

A tourism and "wellbeing centre" project on the Tasman Peninsula looks likely to go ahead, almost a decade after its developer, entrepreneur Dick Smith, shelved the proposal due to local opposition.

Organisers of an animal shelter for pets of domestic violence victims in Victoria say they are struggling to meet the high demands on their service, meaning women and children are staying in high-risk and violent homes for longer.

New research shows the number of regional students across Australia moving to cities for university is on the rise, and much higher than previously thought. Those involved in the study say this could be intensifying a regional brain drain, if students are deciding not to return home.

Some $140 million will be spent on flood mitigation in Adelaide's inner-south and south-west over the next 20 years after an agreement was met between the State Government and five local councils.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is blaming Tony Abbott's recent attacks for the latest drop in the polls, with the Federal Government now trailing Labor by ten points in two-party preferred terms in the latest Newspoll.

WA Labor's election commitment to move students from the state's only academically selective school to a high-rise building is being met with fierce opposition from hundreds of parents and alumni.

A woman who killed her abusive husband in Western Australia's Mid West is set to be released from prison within days after her parole was approved.

Former One Nation candidate Dane Sorensen takes aim at Pauline Hanson's chief of staff James Ashby.

A senior territory lawyer urges the Government to take a proactive approach to helping children, saying if you can compare their wellbeing to those in under-developed countries "something is very, very wrong".

After years of delays and cost blow-outs, the controversial Joint Strike Fighter arrives on Australian soil for the first time.

Thousands of Midnight Oil fans are left disappointed as tickets for a Melbourne concert appear for resale, minutes after they are released, at many times the original price.

Dog owners are finding more opportunities to include their pooches in all aspects of life, with Adelaide's increasingly popular Pets in the Pub drawing hundreds of people to pet-friendly venues.

Sugarcane farmers in Queensland concerned about a payment dispute give a not-so-sweet message to Canberra.

Riverland growers should enjoy some much-needed relief this season, thanks to small increases in the price of both red and white wine grapes.

Former One Nation candidate Dane Sorensen takes aim at Pauline Hanson's chief of staff James Ashby.

Westpac says it will compensate customers "who have experienced a financial loss as a direct result of the branch system issue" due to a major outage that disrupted transactions at a majority of its branches today.

Get your garden to grow the right way and have a laugh while you're at it with the Perth Gardening Roots and Shoots podcast.

Former One Nation candidate Dane Sorensen has taken aim at Pauline Hanson's chief of staff, labelling him a "bully" with "no qualifications".

There's been a heartening story of environmental clean-up in Melbourne, where Darebin Creek in Heidelberg West has gone from little more than a rubbish dump and stormwater drain, to a potential platypus habitat. A recent sighting of the platypus in the creek has raised the hopes of volunteers and workers who've spent decades restoring the area to its former health.

Signs are being installed around Wilcannia in far-west New South Wales in an effort to increase visibility of Indigenous perspectives of the town.

A WA Liberal candidate has been caught out using an alias to call into talkback radio to criticise WA Labor leader Mark McGowan about his debt reduction plan.

An inquest into the death of Indigenous inmate Steven Freeman has heard he was admitted to the prison methadone program two days before he died, despite no record he was ever using heroin.

Key Collingwood pair Daniel Wells and Ben Reid will wait until the final pre-season JLT match for this first proper match of he pre-season.

Melbourne lord mayor Robert Doyle could secure a voting majority at Town Hall and a small business owner lose his seat, following an order to recount almost 74,000 votes cast in municipal elections.

Company profits have surged to record highs at the same time wages suffered their sharpest decline in eight years.

A 21-year-old man has been arrested in Greensborough after a restaurant worker was allegedly stabbed on Yarra Promenade at Southbank on Friday night.

Embattled Labor MP Don Nardella will walk away with a taxpayer-funded golden handshake worth more than $100,000 a year when he decides to leave Parliament.

Drivers be warned: New speed camera locations in Melbourne revealed

University of Sydney aeronautical engineering student Caroline Hamilton Smith loves measuring rocket trajectories.

A wine expert who pilfered up to $300,000 worth of plonk from Melbourne wholesaler CellarHand will avoid a police investigation after reaching an extraordinary agreement with his former employer and friend.

A woman has been bitten on the hand by a bull shark at Coral Bay over the weekend while snorkeling.

An air and water search has continued at Lake Wivenhoe on Monday.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has delivered a stinging rebuke to his predecessor, Tony Abbott, accusing the former prime minister of deliberately sabotaging the government to do maximum damage to the Coalition's standing in the polls.

The first ball Virat Kohli faced as captain of India was from Mitch Johnson at the Adelaide Oval, and it hit him in the head. That was less than two weeks after the death of Phil Hughes, and it  sent an alarmed shiver down every spine, not least Johnson's.

The owner of a heritage-listed Hobart property containing asbestos will feel the "full force" of the council, the Lord Mayor says, after the home was demolished without a permit and even after locals tried to intervene.