A decade of dry conditions and lower rainfall has left parts of northern Australia facing an early and "above normal" bushfire risk in parts of northern Queensland and the Northern Territory.

Rape victims are being made to wait for hours in the clothes they were assaulted in before being examined, or sometimes not examined at all, a damning auditor-general report reveals, highlighting the lack of qualified staff.

A hipster's heaven in regional Queensland is putting the sword to counterculture capitals such as Sydney and Melbourne by embracing its man buns, skinny jeans and coffee shops.

A social media project inspired by the Humans of New York photoblog helps transform perceptions about Queensland's largest Aboriginal community, which was being torn apart by fights and bad press.

A remote Cape York community is in the fight of its life to save a unique rainforest that was devastated by a cyclone.

The standard of care provided to an elderly man, often found in soiled pants, at a regional Queensland aged care facility was so appalling even his own granddaughter was too distressed to visit, the royal commission into aged care hears.

Running or riding hundreds of kilometres for fun, sport, and a physical and mental challenge.

In the depths of rural Queensland is a fossil deposit so amazing that Sir David Attenborough regards it as one of the most important palaeontological sites in the world.

The team at Neville's Garden Site: Phil Creaser, Karen Roberts, Liz Price, Sue Hand, Kenny Travouillon, Dr Mike Archer, Arthur White, and John Scan

Police have released new images of a fugitive's tools in a fresh appeal for information to find one of the country's most wanted, on the run for nine years.

Queensland's Native Mounted Police massacred thousands of Indigenous people on the colonial frontier, and most of its troopers were Indigenous themselves. It's a difficult legacy for their descendants to come to terms with.

Polystyrene balls were strewn across three bays on a pristine north Queensland island after coming in with the tide from an unknown source, forcing locals into action with vacuums and dustpans.

After pleading guilty to drug possession and admitting he uses steroids, Afghanistan veteran and former Invictus Games competitor Tyrone Gawthorne is handed a suspended sentence for steroid and cocaine possession.

Running outside and swimming in the ocean is a rare luxury for eight students who lived through the terror of the tsunami that hit the Fukushima nuclear plant in 2011.

Workplace Health and Safety is investigating after a crane comes into contact with powerlines in Far North Queensland, injuring two people and killing one.

Two men are critically injured after a crane overturns near Mareeba in Far North Queensland this morning. The crash follows the death of a man in a separate crane incident on Sunday.

A 21-year-old woman suffers serious leg injuries in an attack by what is believed to be two sharks in Great Barrier Reef waters off Cape York Peninsula.

Health authorities urge more than 500 patients of a dental clinic in Far North Queensland to be tested for HIV and hepatitis as the clinic is investigated over its infection control practices.

They travelled across the world in the 1950s and '60s to build a new life cutting cane in the steamy paddocks of north Queensland. Now Basques return to learn the story of their ancestors.

The 7-metre boat left Badu Island on Wednesday afternoon bound for Dauan island, just south of Papua New Guinea, with two men, two women and a nine-year-old boy on board, but it never arrived.

Lego is being used in both informal and clinical sessions to improve the communication and cooperation skills of children with autism.

Police call off the search for five people missing in the Torres Strait since Wednesday after they set off by boat from Badu Island to Dauan Island, prompting a large-scale operation.

Ronald Shirley is jailed for ripping off an an intellectually impaired patient in north Queensland, leaving the client with so little money he can no longer go on a planned bucket-list trip.

Researchers find a common disease in honey bees can be transmitted to native bees through flowers, causing them to die about three times the rate of the normal mortality.

Australias largest barramundi farm is calling for a halt in whole-fish imports from Asia not because around 60 per cent is imported, but for biosecurity reasons.

State and territory leaders have agreed to establish a timetable to work towards a waste export ban.

A luxury superyacht has crashed while attempting to moor at a Cairns marina, narrowly avoiding a potential disaster on the busy tourist strip.

Questions are raised over a Northern Territory university's continued ownership of a loss-making private business colleges in Cairns, at a time when the university is being offered a multi-million-dollar NT Government bailout to keep its training sector afloat.

A man accused of murdering a woman in Far North Queensland changes his plea to guilty two days into his Supreme Court trial and will face sentencing this morning.

A court releases the video of a police interview that shows the murder confession of Matthew White, who strangled Cooktown woman Donna Steele in a botched extortion bid and has been sentenced to life in jail.

An island of floating rock known as a pumice raft is gradually heading for Australian shores across the Coral Sea and is so expansive it can be tracked via satellite.

More dead wallabies have been found on a Cairns sporting field, taking the total number of carcasses in the past week to more than 30.

Cardwell residents band together to save a large tree that arborists have declared unsafe due to beach erosion during the recent heavy wet season.

Drought has collided with high demand for soybeans, lifting prices by around $500 a tonne, prompting warnings of a price hike for soymilk, tofu and tempeh.

Hundreds of farmers have rallied in Queensland to protest against proposed new laws to protect the Great Barrier Reef, saying they are being treated as "guilty until proven innocent".

Farmers build bioreactors on their farms to reduce run-off of fertilisers that have been blamed for declining coral health.

Queensland's Royal Flying Doctor Service trades training for loyalty in a new program to bring in more pilots.

Also known as huffing, sniffing or rexing, chroming is the practice of inhaling solvents or other household chemicals to get high. It's caused the death of several children across the country and happens often on public transport but it's not illegal and this is why.

A marine physicist, who was awarded more than $1.2 million for his wrongful sacking earlier this month, has now raised more than half a million dollars to fight an appeal by James Cook University.

A Cape York mayor says a perpetual cycle of death is ripping his community apart and more can be done to detect chronic diseases earlier.

This self-employed labourer was doing casual work earning a couple of hundred dollars a week. Then he received a letter from his super fund saying his retirement savings had shrunk.

It's estimated that African swine fever has killed 25 per cent of the world's pig population. The deadly disease has now reached Timor-Leste, about 650 kilometres from Darwin.

Mango fans get ready, because the season is ramping up in the Northern Territory with more than 200,000 trays picked last week.

Queenslanders who are visually impaired say they're at risk of serious injury in busy carparks and on roads because they don't have the right to use disability parking spaces.

Mardi Liebelt was next in line to take a flying fox through the rainforest canopy when the zip-line snapped, watching in horror as a 50-year-old South Australian man fall to his death and his wife writhed in pain.