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.

The price of Australian minerals used in batteries and electronic components is falling, despite rising local and international demand for the renewable energy projects that rely on them.

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.

One high-tech regional library hosts a "zoom room" for video conferencing, an interactive jumping floor for kids, eBooks and eAudiobooks and yes, plenty of good, old-fashioned printed books.

Steers drink from a water trough at Glenagra Station

A self-generating power pod trial on a cattle property in north-west Queensland aims to provide rural properties with a more reliable, cheaper, and renewable power source.

The hardy desert rose is rising in popularity, with nurseries unable to keep up with demand, as green thumbs seek drought-tolerant colour in the dry outback.

Experts say the landmark High Court 'Crocodile case', which granted Indigenous Australians the right to fish and hunt for traditional foods, is still significant 20 years later.

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.

An Australian fiddlemaker is helping to spice up the dying craft by creating Hardanger fiddles, a Norwegian instrument that gained international fame in The Lord of the Rings soundtracks.

Despite Labor's belief in a "mood for change" in Victoria, the only seats in the state likely to switch parties are those where boundaries had been redrawn since the last election.

The Central Victorian community of Baringhup finally sees the end to a seven-year battle to stop the development of major chicken farm.

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.

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.

Trading at around $2,500 per kilogram, more growers are entering the truffle industry as demand for the unique fungi remains high.

Hundreds of abuse survivors could benefit from reforms that will allow them to sue their abusers, even if they signed "unfair" agreements not to take legal action.

Two homicides in two months last year rocked Maryborough in regional Victoria, a town whose residents already felt they'd become too accustomed to putting themselves down over the years.

Budget cuts, funding freezes, and tight rental markets put pressure on homeless services as more people end up on the street.

A man has pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of a former regional Victorian mayor near Ballarat in 2017.

A rise in the number of assaults against local government employees prompts Victorian councils to call for a change in sentencing laws to better protect their staff.

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 judge says Victorian paedophile priest Robert Claffey "mocked" his priestly authority to access and abuse children, while sentencing him to more jail time.

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 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.

School principal Michelle Wilson spent a stressful two hours on the phone, convinced she owed $8,000 and could soon be arrested if she didn't pay up. Then she realised the whole thing was an elaborate hoax.

The Carisbrook Roadhouse flooded in 2011.

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.

Once the staple of regional travel, motels are facing an increasingly uncertain future as online alternatives bite away at revenue.

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.