A new willingness to open up about personal struggles and finding a rural sanctuary is empowering Richmond defender Dylan Grimes and his teammates.

For players of the Balloon Football League, or BFL, the passion and competitiveness is just as intense as AFL the only difference being the players are disabled.

A local council warns Victoria's "culture of recycling" is at risk as the state's waste crisis deepens and an estimated 780 rubbish trucks' worth of recyclable material is sent to landfill in a week.

The Swan Hill and Robinvale regions produce more $800 million in agricultural goods each year, but a "dangerous" C-class road connects them to Melbourne. The community says the lack of funding is a "human rights issue" and the system "needs to change".

Three men accused of attacking staff at a youth justice centre in central Victoria with a plastic cricket bat will be sent to adult prison. It follows another incident earlier this week when an inmate allegedly attacked a worker with a makeshift knife.

A Victorian woman who entered a sexualised relationship with a 14-year-old WA boy has been jailed but immediately released after a judge deemed her past had left her with "clouded boundaries".

A judge indicates a woman who pleaded guilty to dangerous driving over the death of cyclist Jason Lowndes, who was killed when he was struck from behind while on a training run in 2017, is unlikely to go to jail.

Buried among the hundreds of witness statements submitted to the aged care royal commission is a table showing how one of the country's biggest for-profit chains employs just one registered nurse for 106 residents on the night shift.

A refresher course is helping older drivers increase their confidence and safety on the road, often many decades after they first sat a licence test. But when the time comes, how do you tell a loved one it might be time to give up driving for good?

The 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, is celebrated worldwide and for the first time in Bendigo.

A Melbourne doctor is banned from practising after sparking outrage with online chat room posts, including one that said "some women deserve to be raped" and another that said his marriage "would end in murder" if it fell apart.

From sky-high water costs to prohibitively expensive livestock feed, new forecasts show how drought will impact Australia's exports and agricultural production.

James Day died from complications caused by influenza eight days after he was admitted to hospital in eastern Victoria. He is one of 37 people killed so far this year.

Traditional custodian at the Aboriginal Trust in Lake Tyers Victoria, Wayne Thorpe, is learning as much about the traditional science and stories of the stars as he can.

An Indian Catholic priest who claims parents' adultery and masturbation causes autism in children, and who claims to have "cured" autism through prayer, cancels a series of religious retreats in Australia.

A sergeant at a rural Victorian police station has been committed to stand trial over an alleged assault in an interview room.

More than 60 people search for missing Melbourne man Jeremy Boyden and his dog, Rocky, who were last seen on a road in Victoria's high country three days ago.

The search for missing hiker Jeremy Boyden and his dog Rocky enters its fourth day, as rescue teams focus on searching the large network of alpine huts scattered across Victoria's high country amid worsening weather.

For the first time, dairy farmers in the Bega Valley could have the opportunity to supply the fresh milk market as Lactalis and Saputo look to secure new suppliers.

Victorian public housing tenants say residents could forgo medication or heating because of higher rental prices after the State Government's market review.

A wooden ketch picked up on eBay for $4,128 is returning to its namesake home of Metung to be restored by members of the family and community that built her.

A man has been ordered to stand trial over the death of his partner, who was hit by a car in the driveway of her Traralgon home.

Jesse Reid reached speeds of up to 200kph before he veered onto the wrong side on the road and crashed into a veteran policeman's motorcycle.

Briagolong

Lado Alphonse says he was a "reject in society" before being recruited by the Cora Lynn Cobras. Now, he is among several players bringing new life to the regional Victorian football community.

Drunk and high-on-ice driver Jesse Reid is sentenced to 10 years in prison over the 2018 death of policeman Victor Kostiuk, who was taking part in a charity motorbike ride in Victoria.

The mother of a two-year-old boy who died in Melbourne's outer-south-east on Monday speaks of her grief as the man charged with his murder is remanded in custody.

Teachers will be offered up to $50,000 to relocate from Melbourne to rural and regional schools desperate for qualified teachers, as part of a new Victorian Government plan to tackle flagging results.

In regional Victoria, palliative care patients are waiting hours and sometimes days for much-needed medications to help with pain and quality of life.

Luke Williams driving

Bev Hetherington and Sandra Kleinetzt

A new food truck is empowering disadvantaged Gippsland families to choose their own fresh produce and is also allowing for more efficient delivery.

Police find the bodies of Caleb Forbes and Shannon Lowden in their car, almost a week after they went missing near the Baw Baw National Park in eastern Victoria.

Latrobe Regional Hospital in Victoria's Gippsland has been ordered to pay more than $31,000 to a former security guard who was sacked last year.

Storms and erosion at Inverloch reveal never-before-seen parts of a 155-year-old shipwreck, the Amazon.

A threat to close the Yallourn coal-fired power station earlier than planned has some asking whether Australia should look to Germany as a model for transition.

Vic Roads and Zoos Victoria

Victoria's Environment Protection Authority finds 5 litres of dye from a Brooklyn company caused the discolouration of Melbourne's Stony Creek but the chemical content has not been confirmed.

The Victorian Government investigates the scale of a ransomware attack by "sophisticated cyber criminals" on some of the state's major regional hospitals that has forced healthcare providers to go offline.

Farmers struggling in the driest parts of Victoria will have access to an extra $31m in relief funds, days after the Federal Government announced an extension in drought support.

Victoria finally has a permanent kangaroo pet food program, but farmers are concerned red tape will result in carcasses left to rot in paddocks.