Mary Kathleen's shuttered uranium mine is bright blue, incredibly Instagram-worthy, radioactive and Queensland's latest hotspot.

Burketown, a town in north-west Queensland, can be cut off from the world for months at a time during the wet season, but it's got better internet than in Sydney according to a textile designer.

Bull riders will still tell you the Mount Isa Rodeo isn't a social event they go to win. But as conditions in country Australia worsen, they're not the only ones hanging on.

Bats have been migrating earlier than usual this year due to inland drought and a lack of food in Queensland's south-east, with red flying foxes seen covering Mount Isa's sky.

Australian researchers find a new species of pterosaur in outback Queensland. The apex aerial predator had a 4-metre wingspan and walked on all four limbs when on land.

Annastacia Palaszczuk is forced to apologise to Parliament over her threats to strip Katter's Australian Party MPs of resources when they refused to denounce former colleague Fraser Anning's speech calling for a Muslim immigration ban.

If people who arrive in Australia on the working holiday visa want to stay a second year, they have to do 88 days of work in regional parts of the country. Some report exploitation and abuse.

Digital disruption has changed the craft of writing, and crime writing in particular, according to those in the industry, but has not caused the death of print books.

Rural Victorian voters are frustrated as the electoral commission decides to abolish more than 25 polling booths in the Mallee and Wannon electorates without consultation.

Over the course of his life, Maurice Cole, a legend of the surfing world, has absorbed damage, inflicted it and come face-to-face with death more than once. Now he is helping his son try and reverse the damage his generation has done.

This used to be the quiet time of year on Victoria's famous stretch of coastline, but locals say that's changing.

UK-based charity the Eden Project has released its vision for a disused coal mine near Victoria's Great Ocean Road. They plan to transform it into a $150 million eco-tourism attraction a celebration of the natural environment on what is now a barren site.

It felt as if the winds of change were blowing through the Catholic Church after the royal commission. But a new defence has rejected some of its key findings in relation to one of its most notorious paedophile priests, writes Louise Milligan.

George Pell's lawyer tells an appeals court there are "questions of probability" over whether the child sex abuse offences the Cardinal is convicted of occurred, and a jury should have found him not guilty even if they believed his victim.

The trial of a man accused of murdering a Victorian grandmother is aborted after a local TV news bulletin broadcast inaccurate information, and details that had not been heard by the jury.

Consumers are increasingly asking for it and Meat and Livestock Australia says it's achievable carbon neutrality by 2030.

A central Victorian woman is one of only three accredited teachers of a Japanese form of freestyle weaving that is beginning to grow in popularity.

When farmer Alistair Gabb fell into depression his doctor prescribed him medication and referred him to a psychiatrist for 10 free therapy sessions but it was far from enough.

A Christian Brother who sexually assaulted boys at some of Victoria's most prestigious Catholic schools is sentenced to four and a half years in prison.

A prominent urban researcher warns that Ballarat is heading towards a "social disaster" unless it can curb urban sprawl.

A man disqualified from driving and tested positive to methamphetamines has been jailed for at least two years for dangerous driving causing the death of a former regional Victorian mayor near Ballarat in 2017.

The Carisbrook Roadhouse flooded in 2011.

A scoreline of 79.41 (515) to 1.0 (6) has reversed a country AFL team's own, regular weekly triple-figure defeats. But is this just another tally of country footy's troubles?

Every night Allanah Morel packs her daughter's school bag ahead of time because she knows that by the next morning she could be in too much pain to get out of bed.

Dozens of Victorians shared their painful and powerful stories during the state's royal commission into its broken mental health system. Commissioners now have the difficult task of finding a way forward, write Zalika Rizmal and James Bennett.

A former Catholic priest who showed pornographic images to children and assaulted a teenager while he slept is jailed for two years and two months.

Senior Constable Edward Barnett was shot and killed attempting to stop an armed robber in 1858. Now he has finally been honoured with one of Victoria Police's most prestigious medals.

Cardinal George Pell could be released from custody, ordered to face a new trial or sent back to prison when the Court of Appeal hands down its ruling next Wednesday. We explain the possible outcomes and what will happen next.

George Pell could walk from court today or be sent back to prison to serve the rest of his six-year term, depending on the outcome of his appeal against his child sex abuse convictions.

The former choirboy sexually abused by Cardinal George Pell welcomes the dismissal of Pell's appeal and says he hopes the "stressful" court process has come to an end.

In the end, just as in the beginning, this was a case about two little boys and their battle with the world's third most-senior Catholic. And today, child protection won, writes Louise Milligan.

Ararat parish priest Father Andrew Hayes says the church should accept a court's decision to dismiss George Pell's appeal against his convictions, but the Melbourne Bishop is standing by the disgraced Cardinal.

In August 1978, someone entered Ballarat's art gallery, grabbed a 92-year-old painting off the wall, and walked out the front door. Now, the once cash-strapped gallery hosts international artists.

When the Victorian Court of Appeal upheld George Pell's convictions for abusing two choirboys, the decision was not unanimous. While two of the judges said Pell's victim was a "witness of truth", a third wanted to acquit the cardinal of his charges. Here's why.