A cluster of coronavirus cases at a Melbourne meatworks rises to 49, as two Victorian aged care homes go into lockdown after workers test positive to the virus.

In 1979, the CSIRO imported a boutique wine grape from France. Since then the drop has been celebrated by growers and experts alike — but it turns out they've been enjoying a different variety all along.

Shadow Local Government Minister Tim Smith and Ratepayers Victoria president Dean Hurlston are calling for rates to be frozen and for the State Government to do more to help council staff, May 6, 2020.

The findings are expected to reveal what the royal commission made of the evidence put before it about whether Cardinal Pell could or should have done more to prevent children from being abused by priests in the 1970s and 80s.

Cardinal George Pell accuses the child sexual abuse royal commission of making findings "not supported by evidence" in its unredacted report, which found he was explicitly told in 1982 of the reason paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale was being moved between parishes.

A Catholic order settles out of court paying $4 million to survivors of historic sex abuse and apologising to them, their families and the Latrobe Valley community.

Scott Alan Murdoch, the man who stabbed Melbourne woman Kylie Blackwood and left her bleeding to death to be found by her 11-year-old twins, will have to serve at least 36 years before he is eligible for parole.

Police investigating the death of 26-year-old Ellie Price in South Melbourne are calling for help from the public to find Ricardo Barbaro, who they want to speak with about the death.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says the state's total has been brought up to 1,454 confirmed cases of coronavirus with 106,000 tests conducted over the past week and a half.

Police are appealing for public assistance in the search for Ricardo Barbaro, who is wanted over the death of Ellie Price in South Melbourne.

An aged care facility says robotic pets are lighting up the lives of its residents and bringing comfort during isolation from the coronavirus pandemic.

It has been an exotic jujube harvest boom for a Victorian grower, but COVID-19 restrictions have slowed down sales and squashed market prices.

For more than 1,400 days, the victims waited to discover what a Prince of the Church knew about the paedophile priests who would ruin their young lives. Now the answer has finally been revealed, writes Louise Milligan.

Doctors label medicinal cannabis prescriptions a "bureaucratic nightmare" requiring "a massive learning curve", as patients say people in pain cannot wait months for relief.

Australian scientists develop a tool that could help students learn better in the virtual classroom, as remote education during the coronavirus pandemic highlights issues with current methods.

Police are still searching for a man after homicide squad detectives found the Mercedes-Benz belonging to Ellie Price in Diggers Rest, about 40 kilometres from her home, overnight.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the National Cabinet's plan to reopen Australia, but it will be up to each state and territory to decide how to roll it out. Here's what will change (or not) where you live.

A woman who suffered a miscarriage in mandatory COVID-19 quarantine was forced to stay in a hotel room for five days after the traumatic event because the Victorian Health Department failed to act on an order to release her.

A Lifeline volunteer counts her work as a privilege and urges more people to volunteer, as calls to the support line jump to record highs.

The Victorian Government launches a new campaign against family violence, as St Vincent's Hospital records a doubling of family violence victims presenting to its emergency department during the coronavirus pandemic.

There are plenty of ways to celebrate Mother's Day without even leaving the house, even if your family is spread across the country. Here's how some families are celebrating.

A sixth-generation farming family living on the urban fringes of Melbourne are watching farming properties around them disappear because of the urban sprawl.

A teacher having just returned from China still holds lessons while in precautionary quarantine by using technology that's educating in more ways than one.

Transforming a hearse into something resembling a Transylvanian castle on wheels is not something you can Google for instructions, but artist Karl Claydon made it work.

Buggerlugs the lost Bulwer's petrel is released from Darwin NT after he was found at a Cronulla RSL balcony in NSW.

A rarely seen Bulwer's petrel, nicknamed Buggerlugs, which lost its way and ended up on a pub balcony in Sydney, is flown north and released back into its natural habitat.

He's worn many hats in his days, including that of world barefoot mud crab tying champion and Top End buffalo shooter. But Billy Lowery really just wishes he'd worn more hats more often.

A snake catcher believes the 80-kilogram monster is likely to have been imported illegally and may be euthanased due to the threat it poses to native ecosystems.

If you think being stuck in short quarters with your family is hard, this family has have been living afloat overseas since September and 'boatschooling'.

Prickles the merino sheep has been on the run from her Dunalley farm since the 2013 Tasmanian bushfires, but now she's out of self-isolation and ready for a trim.

Why do old books smell like chocolate, vanilla, grass clippings and old socks? There's a scientific explanation.

The magpie and the kookaburra are two of Australia's favourite birds and, although they're not endangered yet, concerns for their wellbeing and survival are beginning to grow.

After years of drought, drenching rain in March gives farmers in Queensland's south-west a reprieve from paddocks of dust and destocking.

The Coalition has promised to fix 1,600km of SA's dog fence if it returns to government, an announcement warmly received after almost 20,000 sheep were lost to wild dogs last year.

The Coalition's candidate for the marginal South Australian seat of Mayo moderates her previous position that the minimum wage and penalty rates should be abolished.

In a backyard shed, artist Kerrie Taylor makes jewellery out of cutlery.

A flight school is forced to improve its safety regime after a student pilot who was sleep deprived and sick flew into Adelaide's controlled airspace after falling unconscious at the controls.

A world-leading agriculture business that uses sunlight and seawater to grow tomatoes has been sold but the final price is a closely-guarded secret.

Journalist Andrew McGarry covered the trial of one of Australia's most notorious serial killings. Two decades since police made the gruesome discovery in a disused bank vault, he looks at the similarities between the actions of ringleader, John Bunting, and George Orwell's novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Outback drillers find water 90 metres below the surface of SA's APY Lands in an underground valley millions of years old and remote communities are hoping it will provide a much-needed economic boost.

Two Labor MPs are still waiting to get offices within their electorates more than a year after the state election, with one labelling the delay as a "clamp down on democracy".

Part of the Port Augusta Prison has been evacuated after a letter containing a mystery white powder was opened by staff.

Horse sanctuaries close and horse owners are forced to consider putting their horses down amid an "unprecedented shortage of hay".

A patient bringing a loaded gun into the Royal Adelaide Hospital and nurses being threatened with knives are just some of the concerning incidents plaguing staff at South Australian hospitals, the union for nurses says.

It's been 55 years since Geoff Prime was diagnosed with Bell's palsy and told he wouldn't work on the family farm again. He's now retiring from the farm, aged 94.

As the drought drives Australia's sheep flock to historic lows, a South Australian sheep sale has been called off three times due to a lack of animals.

A woman and a man aged in their 50s are in a stable condition after the light plane they were flying in flipped upon landing at the William Creek Airport.

A man pleads guilty to killing a relative whose bones were found in a fireplace of a home in South Australia's Mid North eight years after the man went missing.