Colin Crane, a life member of the Rebels bikie club, appears in court charged with the murder of Clint Starkey at a Peats Ridge service station last year.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is investigating allegations of unconscionable conduct towards growers by one of the country's major vegetable processors.

A man is charged over the death of a woman after he allegedly implanted a plastic snowflake under her skin at a NSW Central Coast tattoo shop.

The eight-time Olympic gold medallist did not set the world alight at his first training session, but will be given all the time he needs to prove himself from Mariners coach Mike Mulvey.

A Berejiklian Government MP has revolted against his own party's policy, backing his "local fishing community" over his Government's plan to introduce 25 new marine park sites across the state.

A 19-year-old university student from the New South Wales Central Coast dies from meningococcal disease, the region's second death from the illness in as many months, prompting authorities to issue a warning.

Usain Bolt has turned down a two-year deal to play in Europe, but that won't make Mike Mulvey and the Central Coast Mariners rush into offering the eight-time Olympic champion a deal.

Usain Bolt leaves the Central Coast Mariners after a trial, with the A-League club and Olympic sprint legend unable to come to a deal that would have extended the sporting experiment.

Eve van Grafhorst was almost three when she was diagnosed with HIV in 1985. Then she was banned from childcare, and eventually her family was hounded to New Zealand where they started a new life.

A NSW woman has started an anti-discrimination campaign demanding changes to the way people in wheelchairs can buy tickets to major events and access good seating.

BackTrack, an organisation dedicated to helping disengaged youth, wants to provide education for 60 students in NSW's far west who were left in limbo when their alternative school shut down.

NSW Police say they had worked extensively with the organisers of Lost Paradise to ensure the festival was drug-free. They say they're frustrated that drugs were still able to be taken into the event where a 22-year-old man has died.

A 22-year-old Queensland man dies after attending the Lost Paradise music festival on the NSW Central Coast as police reveal the sophisticated and bizarre ways revellers attempt to smuggle drugs in including inside a barbecue chicken.

A man is charged with supplying the drugs police believe 19-year-old Alex Ross-King took before she died from a suspected fatal overdose at a dance festival in western Sydney at the weekend.

Almost two years after the death of a five-year-old schoolgirl, who was hit and killed by a passing truck on the NSW Central Coast, an investigator fights to make sure it never happens again.

Low pay, long hours and a cashless society threaten the viability of making music, as musicians are forced to look for new ways of marketing their bands.

Central coast residents have launched a scathing attack on the NSW Government after recent works let tonnes of silt, clay and rocks wash into Bangalow Creek, renowned for its wildlife.

Convicted Bali Nine drug smuggler, Renae Lawrence, has avoided a prison sentence for stealing a car and leading police on a high-speed car chase in 2005.

Betty, the piglet born with just two hind hooves, is saved from slaughter just in time for the Lunar Year of the Pig.

Thousands of homes are still without power this morning as a series of severe thunderstorms dumped heavy rain across parts of Sydney, the central coast and Wollongong last night.

Music festival organisers and the NSW Police lock horns over the reason for the sudden cancellation of a Central Coast event, with organisers denying it was plagued by "mismanagement".

A disease that could potentially wipe out Australia's multi-billion-dollar livestock industry has been detected at Australian airports.

Police are describing a deceased baby boy's injuries as 'horrific' and 'horrendous' following his death on Sunday. A 28-year-old man has been charged with murder and reckless grievous bodily harm.

Two regional Australian doctors are at the forefront of an international effort to eliminate a horrendous childbirth injury, and say they could succeed within a decade.

Coal ash is commonly mixed with wastewater and collected at an ash dam near the power station.

The Central Coast Mariners have won one game from 21 starts and sacked their coach. The days of Usain Bolt's ill-fated trial with the team seem a lifetime ago, but are we still seeing the effects?

Another Bupa aged care home is sanctioned over what the Department of Health identified as a "severe risk to the health, safety and wellbeing of care recipients".

ABC Rural asks a group of industry leaders at this year's NT Cattlemen's Association conference to share their views on challenges and opportunities in 2019.

A man in his 40s is in a critical condition, and four people are on the run, after a "horrific" stabbing in a convenience store on the NSW Central Coast.

Families are increasingly taking caravan and camping holidays, enjoying a sense of community and a temporary return to a more carefree parenting style and a childhood freedom reminiscent of decades gone by.

A woman receives 28 demerit points enough to have a driver's licence suspended twice over during a single police stop north of Sydney at the weekend, after officers issue her with four separate infringement notices.

The Quaker religion was founded on political protest. Today its followers are keeping that tradition alive from nannas knitting against gas to American farmers saving refugees.

Bill Shorten draws a rockstar welcome in enemy territory, Scott Morrison argues with Labor over its support for a Coalition policy and Clive Palmer is personally, yet noticeably, absent from the campaign trail.

A New South Wales community has a new plan for addressing the region's skyrocketing homelessness especially for vulnerable women.

Evans Head topped a New South Wales drone trial for shark sightings last summer. Where does your beach sit on therankings?

After two serious assaults in the past two days, one in which an officer was punched eight times by an offender, staff from most NSW juvenile justice centres stop work to demand action for their safety.

The dismantling of Big Kev, Darwin's resident brachiosaurus, has become the latest example of the lengths communities will go to to protect a local icon.

Teenagers were seen atop the roof of the Kariong detention centre after reports of an escape attempt.

MORNING BRIEFING: A woman is charged after allegedly driving while almost nine times over the legal blood alcohol limit, and the NSW Government introduces fines of up to $440,000 for animal rights activists trespassing on farms.

Teenagers were seen atop the roof of the Kariong detention centre after reports of an escape attempt.

Police storm Kariong's Frank Baxter Centre, bringing all offenders off the rooftop to end a riot at the facility that lasted for almost 24 hours.

MORNING BRIEFING: A pair of boys are "met by their parents and spoken to by police" after climbing a 111-metre communications tower, and 21 people are charged after a violent riot and police siege at a youth detention centre.

Children as young as 10 years old are being routinely strip searched in juvenile detention in NSW with minimal or no contraband found, according to new data, and former inmates claim the searches trigger mental illness issues.

MORNING BRIEFING: A bushfire that threatened homes near Newcastle last night is brought under control, and nine detainees at a juvenile detention centre are charged over a June riot.

The father of murder victim Danielle Easey says he is waiting to come face-to-face with the man accused of the violent death of his daughter whose body was found wrapped in plastic and dumped in a Newcastle creek.