For the first time, the long-term outlook for the Great Barrier Reef is downgraded to "very poor", with the impacts of climate change, including coral bleaching and record-breaking warm water, deteriorating its overall health.

Houses intended to keep eligible Queensland teenagers out of the youth detention system are not cost-effective and may not have the desired results, a damning report finds.

The departure of some of north Queensland's best and brightest students is worrying the region's leaders and prompting them to devise a retention solution.

The case against Queensland man Ronald John Toft, who was accused of trying to kidnap a six-year-old girl at an Adelaide caravan park earlier this year, is dropped.

After a sharp rise in complaints at a state-run nursing home facility in north Queensland, health officials move to overhaul the nursing home's management.

Time has run out for the owners of 14 holiday shacks near Ingham in north Queensland with the State Government ordering their removal by the end of the month.

Farmers in Western Australia's far north have carved a spot in the niche Halloween pumpkin market growing in popularity around the country.

A five-year-old boy has died in North Queensland after he was hit by a car overnight while riding his bicycle along the footpath with his father.

Thousands of Townsville locals have gathered to break the world record for 'the most people wearing high-visibility vests at a single venue'.

An award-winning barramundi farmer says the product can be the equal of wild-catch with careful water management, smashing the stigma around freshwater fish.

One of the original mining towns in the famous Bowen Basin, Collinsville, marks 100 years of coal dominating the local economy.

Leaks from one of Adani's most significant contractors for its Carmichael coal mine, engineering firm GHD, show it has been rocked by internal dissent and management has been bombarded with complaints and questions about its work on the mine.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un orders the removal of all "shabby" facilities at the Mount Kumgang tourist site the current resting place of Townsville's former Barrier Reef Floating Resort.

A Townsville boy, whose mother was murdered by his father, and who has been in court over 26 matters in just five months is denied bail after being linked to a crime spree involving recklessly driven stolen cars.

A female teacher is in hospital with a shoulder injury after being stabbed at a Townsville primary school by an 11-year-old female student, Queensland police say. The student was tasered by police and detained.

The father of an 11-year-old Townsville girl, who was tasered by police, after allegedly stabbing a teacher, apologises saying he has "no idea" what was going through his daughter's mind.

A team of citizen scientists join in the effort to restore the balance in inshore reefs and save threatened corals by clearing them of choking algae and seeding them with coral larvae.

Two holidaying nurses want to have a beer with two "cool" English tourists who managed to keep positive minutes after being attacked by a shark. The nurses provided first aid which is credited with saving the men's lives.

In the north-west Queensland town of Ravenswood, two heritage-listed buildings at a school have been moved due to an expansion of the local gold mine.

Communities, harvesters and AgForce are shocked by a decision to cease the 2020 kangaroo harvest as millions of the animals starve during drought.

Eric Ebatarintja escaped from the prison for the second time after removing his electronic monitoring bracelet. Although his sentence had expired, he was being held on an ongoing basis under the Serious Sex Offenders Act because the court deemed him to be at high risk of reoffending.

No charges will be laid against the organisers of a car festival that left Chaise Bouchere with horrific burns to his face and limbs, after the Northern Territory safety watchdog decided that funding future safety initiatives would be more beneficial.

One of the world's most dangerous desert tracks claims a victim, with five-time champion Toby Price bowing out due to mechanical problems paving the way for a hometown hero to take the gold.

A key element of the NT Government's budget repair plan is in limbo, with a union saying it has received legal advice that public service executives cannot be forced to sign pay freeze agreements.

A mistake made more than 40 years ago has created a powerful voting bloc that some experts believe will railroad any Territory Government plan to bring its budget back into the black.

Prosecutor Stephen Robson says he does not accept the version of events given to police by Mr Deighton that he went to answer the door while changing baby Michael, returned to find him falling from the change table and then caught him.

Four Northern Territory public service executives are being paid more than $200,000 a year to facilitate a planned gas industry that some experts doubt will ever stack up economically, particularly as terminals for importing gas from "wherever's cheapest" secure approval on the nation's east coast.

A novice cameleer and three boys are on a six-month trek from the red centre to the east coast and they want to pick up a group of followers along the way.

The Federal Government's overhaul of billions of dollars in spending on Indigenous disadvantage is still only in the "early stages" of evaluation, five years after a funding shake-up that was found to be rushed and flawed.

A man accused of manslaughter and unlawful sexual intercourse with a baby will argue there is no proof of any crimes alleged against him, an Alice Springs court hears.

Questions are being asked about what will be done to keep visitor numbers up once the option of ascending the ancient monolith is axed.

A school in the heart of the desert has been covered with thousands of icicles, as the mercury plummets to new lows across the the NT