Queensland has beaten NSW 18-14 in the first fame of the State of Origin series.

Sydney Swans forward Lance Franklin has kicked a bag of five goals against West Coast at the SCG to hand the Eagles a surprise 45-point loss.

A group of 1,000 protesters gathered in Sydney on Sunday to urge the Australian Government to condemn a proposed new law in Hong Kong which would allow criminals to be extradited to mainland China.

The company has chosen Dallas, Los Angeles and Melbourne to launch the aerial taxi trial.

The former prime minister says the CMMFEU should consider the wider implications of the controversy.

US surfer Kelly Slater says he's still "coming to terms" with the grief following Sunny Garcia's attempt to take his own life

Premier Daniel Andrews says more than 100 doctors have already undertaken intensive specialist training ahead of Victoria's voluntary assisted dying laws taking effect on June 19.

A dramatic daylight high-speed chase in suburban Adelaide involving two allegedly stolen cars has culminated in several arrests, with one of the suspects climbing onto the roof of a home in an effort to evade police.

Anthony Albanese says the Government must explain how the contract for Paladin to operate Manus Island was awarded.

Assistant Commissioner Bob Hill urged two brothers who allegedly assaulted off-duty Assistant Commissioner Chris O'Neill near a Melbourne train station to turn themselves in.

South Australia Police raid a sex worker's unit in Adelaide.

Federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese told Afternoon Briefing host Patricia Karvelas he was not concerned by the Victorian construction union's threat to cut financial ties with Labor.

Players Jack Ziebell and Heath Shaw were wrestling near the boundary line at Bellerive Oval when a security guard approached the pair.

The Victorian Parliament will debate a bill which would allow people to change their gender on their birth certificate without needing to undergo surgery.

Police have located a car belonging to Zixi Wang, who police say may be able to help with their inquiries into the death of a woman who fell from a high-rise complex in the Sydney suburb of Zetland.

Disgraced former drug detective Paul Dale tells the Royal Commission into Management of Police Informants he has waited years to expose what he says is "corruption" within the highest ranks of Victoria Police over the use of Nicola Gobbo as a police informer.

Finally, the secret's out! Former foreign correspondent Lisa Millar will be joining Michael on the couch permanently from August, replacing Virginia when she moves to ABC Radio Melbourne.

Three remote Western Australian Indigenous communities say they have been disadvantaged because their homes lie within national park and reserve areas and they want out.

A tiny wasp enlisted to save Christmas Island's famous red crabs from extinction is showing promising results in the battle against the crustaceans' crazy ant foes.

When an outback town in WA was faced with the unusual problem of cows leaving their paddocks and roaming their streets by night in search of food, two men were tasked with doing something about it.

Australia's biggest new gold mine, the $621 million Gruyere project in WA's Great Victoria Desert, pours its first gold bar as the precious metal continues to trade near record highs but the mood in the industry is not all good.

The closure of an historic brothel has provided another nail in the coffin for one of Australia's most famous red-light districts, which has operated illegally for more than a century.

American college basketballers are increasingly turning to opportunities to play in regional Australian towns, but in Kalgoorlie they have long been a part of the town's rich basketball culture.

A team of scientists in Western Australia will investigate how to turn an iconic lake pink in a project believed to be an Australian first.

Hidden in outback scrubland lies a once legendary racetrack, where speed records were broken, sometimes even in the nude.

It is not every day that the rise and fall of an obscure Adelaide mining company mirrors the plot of a deeply trashy 1970s disaster movie but, happily, for this story, the comparison works.

A Japanese multinational agreed to pay its workers a 2 per cent annual bonus. It ended up in court blaming an errant keystroke after filing paperwork agreeing to pay a 10 per cent bonus.

Police say half a tonne of gold concentrate found in a Kalgoorlie man's backyard came from a commercial mine. The 48-year-old says he found it at the local rubbish tip.

After a devastating bushfire, one remote WA farming community takes steps towards a solar solution and it's cheaper, safer, and more reliable.

Residents in one of Australia's most famous gold rush towns are divided over plans to explore for the precious metal beneath its streets, amid record prices for gold which have injected new life into Coolgardie.

A 24-year-old Kalgoorlie woman who crashed into an old courthouse building and fled the scene has avoided jail for reckless driving, telling a Magistrate she had "poor recollection" of the incident after hitting her head.

The find at a dam in outback Western Australia is even more incredible considering the number of fossickers who camp there while prospecting in the Goldfields.

The Victorian County Court criticises Gippsland Grammar for not sacking a 21-year-old tutor months before he had sex with an underage student.

Max Hill spent his police career hunting cannabis suppliers. Now he's seeking drug dealers out again, but this time as a customer — to help his son David ease his post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms.