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.

People who experience homelessness are more likely to be exposed to trauma, but experts say creative therapies could help them heal.

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

After staging an against-the-odds survival after a boat capsize in remote far north Queensland waters, one man is issuing a stern warning to fellow fishermen.

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.

TV personality Ernie Dingo is travelling around Australia to improve Indigenous men's health by taking them camping in the bush.

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.

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.

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

Three people killed in a "freak" skydiving accident in Far North Queensland died in mid-air when a solo sports jumper's parachute opened prematurely and caused them to collide, a coroner finds.

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".

A potential vaccine for streptococcal infections is being tipped as a game changer in remote communities after a recent outbreak was detected in Cape York.

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

Locals in far-north Queensland say it's "ludicrous" to install an Optus satellite small cell service in a remote Telstra-dominated area.

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

Scientists fear Cape York's Iron Range (Kutini-Payamu) National Park could take decades to recover after weekend fires.

What's driving Australian families overseas to gamble on "magical" stem cell treatments at sky-high prices?

A Far North Queensland tourist island, left lying in ruins for years, will undergo a multi-million-dollar redevelopment in an effort to create an international tourism drawcard.

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.

Environmental groups say plans to save marine animals from harm and drowning in discarded fishing nets are not being implemented where it is needed the most.

Health professionals who say they have seen an increase in the number of "very young children" under the influence of solvents and inhalants warn the consequences of their actions are irreversible.

The makers of Rexona, the deodorant identified by retailers and police as the product most misused by Queensland children, acknowledges its product was implicated in five deaths across two states through misuse but says there is "nothing that currently exists" to fix the problem.

Scientists say after running an eradication program for the past eight years, Far North Queensland can be declared free of dengue fever for the first time in more than 100 years.

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.

One squid, most likely the diamondback squid, lays an estimated 40,000 free-floating eggs into Great Barrier Reef waters, in an event for the species that experts say lives fast and dies young.

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.

Queensland's youngest gorge has been bridged entirely with glass, providing tourists with 360-degree views of an ancient oasis.

A research trip to far north Queensland was supposed to find dozens of Australia's endangered sawfish but they didn't find a single one.

The Mornington Island Raiders love their footy, but the remote community team are paying exorbitant costs in flights, fuel and accommodation just to attend their matches.

A year after her murder, Toyah Cordingley's name still hangs in shop windows, on posters strung up on trees, and stickers on car bumpers in nearly every street in Cairns.

Astronaut screening programs have inspired a group of Australian scientists to study the individual personalities of 50 native rats and how they cope with environmental stresses.

The family of the man who died while zip-lining in Far North Queensland has described him as a "loving husband, father, son, brother and friend to all".

Robyn Hausler continued paying her mortgage and rates for six years, not realising the house she'd lived in for 20 years wasn't hers anymore. Now a court has ruled she can have her property back.

A high-speed stolen car chase that allegedly included a woman being dragged from her car and a man being threatened with a syringe reignites anger over youth crime in Townsville and prompts demands for action.

Four crocodiles one nicknamed Pugly by locals are killed in abandoned fishing nets in Queensland's Cape York, infuriating locals.

The deaths of Evan Fielder, 19, and his girlfriend Lauren Quabba, 16, in a head-on crash sends shockwaves through a Far North Queensland community.

Driven out of society by the cost of living and life-changing events, a growing number of people are going bush on the NSW coast but their presence is drawing the ire of traditional owners and authorities.

An estimated 75,000 backpackers working, or that have worked in Australia, could be back-paid hundreds of millions of dollars after the Federal Court ruled the so-called backpacker tax invalid.

A father who threatened to kill a Federal Circuit Court Judge in a late night, expletive-laden phone call walks free from a Far North Queensland court.

The woman, 32, and man, 24, were reported missing in the Cairns area yesterday after they both failed to show up for work.