Members of a NSW rugby league club who were photographed at an airport wearing offensive t-shirts emblazoned with a topless mermaid look set to face the wrath of the sport's officials.

NSW Police confirm two men, reported to be father and son, died in a plane crash west of Coffs Harbour.

Police are appealing for witnesses after a car hit two women in an "horrific" incident in Nambucca Heads on Saturday night, with the mother of one of the women later charged with manslaughter.

MORNING BRIEFING: A woman has been charged with murder after a man was found with multiple stab wounds in a Sydney apartment complex, while easing weather conditions have helped firefighters in Tenterfield gain the upper hand on a bushfire.

750-year-old Indigenous bones, discovered under a house on the New South Wales mid-north coast, are returned to the place where they were found.

The NSW Rural Fire Service downgrades an emergency warning for a fire at Backwater near Armidale, as hot and dry conditions continue to fuel bushfires in the area.

They were Australia's worst bus-crash tragedies and they happened within weeks of each other on the Pacific Highway. Fifty-six people were killed and 63 injured and 30 years on the pain still lingers for many.

There are reports of property damage in the town of Darawank, north of Forster-Tuncurry on the NSW north coast where a bushfire is burning at emergency level.

Irish empty-nesters Derek and Jackie Edwards are living the dream on the other side of the world, working on farms for food and board in Australia.

Emergency crews gain the upper hand in fighting 85 fires across NSW but two blazes near Forster-Tuncurry escalate again.

High temperatures and strong winds fuel blazes across the state, with at least two homes being destroyed near the town of Darawank on the NSW mid-north coast.

The Port Macquarie koala hospital fears more than 350 koalas may have died in a bushfire south of the town, with staff frustrated they cannot yet access the site.

The whitegoods repairman who became the chief suspect in one of Australia's biggest child abduction mysteries reveals for the first time how the ordeal "shattered" his life.

Injured koalas receive life-saving treatment after surviving devastating bushfires on the New South Wales mid-north coast.

More than 40 sawfish die in the Fitzroy River catchment, known to be the world's last stronghold for the species.

A private company has unveiled its plans to build a major off-stream dam in the Northern Territory so who is NT Water Pty Ltd?

Aboriginal native title holders in the Kimberley demand land clearing work stop on the Yakka Munga cattle station, claiming cultural sites are being damaged.

The discovery of endangered quolls, bilbies, and rock wallabies on islands of habitat in the Great Sandy Desert offers a rare glimmer of hope for wildlife managers.

A review of WA's cattle stations finds at least a dozen are at risk of animal welfare issues in coming months because of a lack of food and water.

A piece of land formerly part of the Durack pastoral empire handed back to traditional owners.

Farmers who rely on the Ord River say big-city bureaucrats are getting in the way of progress in the WA region's landmark irrigation scheme.

The WA Government has ordered Zenith Australia Investment Holding to stop clearing land at Yakka Munga station after a blockade by the area's native title holders.

Stories of families not being told when elderly relatives have died, old people found surrounded by food scraps and with maggots these are reasons why some people regard aged care in the regions a "death sentence".

Many Australians regard the beach as a place that belongs to everyone, where no-one can be excluded. But the truth of that notion will now be tested by the High Court.

At least 80 people were killed in a Japanese attack on Broome in 1942, and now the search is on for the wrecks of the flying boats where they died.

A health facility able to meet the needs of acclaimed Aboriginal playwright Jimmy Chi was not available at the time of his death, a coronial inquest has heard.

Conservation groups want harsher penalties for illegal land clearing, as the WA Government investigates a Chinese-owned company over the mysterious clearing of 120 hectares at a cattle station.

Diamonds so rare they never reach the open market are unveiled by Rio Tinto in a historic preview at the Argyle mine in Western Australia's far north.

A magnitude-6.6 earthquake off the West Australian coast is felt across large parts of the state, but there are no reports of major damage.

The 6.6 magnitude earthquake that rattled Broome was 100 times more powerful than the one which claimed 13 lives in Newcastle in 1989 but there were no deaths and very little damage.

The area off the north coast of Western Australia has been hit by more than 30 aftershocks following a magnitude 6.6 earthquake that struck off Broome and was felt as far away as Perth.

There are calls for clearer emergency information after residents fled their homes during the Kimberley earthquake.