A team of volunteer dog owners are faithfully visiting aged-care homes with their canine companions, bringing much joy and contentment to many of the residents.

Congratulations to the winners of the ABC categories in the 2015 Toowoomba Chronicle Carnival of Flowers Garden Competition.

Kimberley historian Dion Marinis has travelled to the US to meet the families of an air crew who died at Broome during the 1942 Japanese air raid on the remote town.

Cowboys fever is ramping up in Townsville in north Queensland in anticipation of Saturday night's elimination final against the Cronulla Sharks. Meet some of the fans who will be cheering the Cowboys to victory.

The sound of soft chatter and the occasional clink as a ball is hit across the short green turf is what fills the air at the St Leonards Croquet Club in Launceston for part of the national championships of the sport.

In the end Mines Rovers were too good for Railways, securing their 42nd Goldfields Football League flag with a thumping 64-point win.

After 25 years of entering Toowoomba's Carnival of Flowers garden competition, two 72-year olds have won grand champion.

An array of spectacular orchid displays attracted more than 2,500 people from across Queensland to the Australian Orchid Council conference and show in Mackay at the weekend.

The Mallee Park Peckers have taken out the 2015 A Grade football premiership in Port Lincoln, getting up over the Boston Tigers by 7 goals at Centenary oval.

When horse racing began in the outback Queensland town of Longreach in 1890 Australia had never had a Prime Minister, the Sydney Harbour Bridge was still decades away from being built and motorcars were just a dream for the future of the country. One hundred and twenty-five years later the Longreach Jockey Club has survived and prospered - and even made history when it appointed Australia's first female racing club president.

Powerful surf, cool winds and sporadic pockets of heavy rain has swept across the Hunter.

Making it through the night in a dark cell surrounded by spirits, ghost-seekers, psychics and spooky storytellers.

Food that would otherwise be thrown out is cooked up and served to the community at a Bendigo park.

Australia and New Zealand share a long history of sporting rivalry. Last weekend both nations' competitive sides were brought to light in a basketball game between Indigenous Australian and Maori players.

For a week, knights, elves and fairies made the rolling hills of Gippsland their home as they battled for glory. Meanwhile, a dragon-decorated castle is becoming a popular choice for weddings.

Launceston Country Women's Association (CWA) shop in Launceston is celebrating 60 years of operation in 2015.

From late August every year, wildflowers blanket the south west corner of Western Australia. The ABC Great Southern's wildflower photo competition showcases the most beautiful blooms of the season, submitted by audience members.

Some refer to them as silent ninjas, others call them dive bombers. But the common name for the iconic black and white bird is a magpie.

Bonalbo Memorial Hall, Broadwater Riley's Hill Community Hall, Eatonsville Hall, Eureka Hall, Meerschaum Vale Hall, The Channon Hall and Tumbulgum Hall have all been announced as the lucky winners of the Arts Northern Rivers project called 'If These Halls Could Talk'.

Oktoberfest celebrations took over Gladstone in Queensland, with hundreds of people turning out for the annual event. But it's not all about beer and sausages. Over the event's history it has raised thousands of dollars for local charities and helped people new to the area make connections in the city.

After a sublime performance by the Vampires, some were saying that the newly constructed Pavilion at Bermagui may be the highest quality music venue between Nowra and Melbourne. The concert, presented by a local community group in a venue built by another local community group, combined a world-class band with an acoustically designed world-class venue.

That was the call of the Cooee Marchers, or "Cooees" who left Gilgandra looking for recruits to join the ANZACS during World War I.

Coffs photographer Dan Stewart won the local Pic of the Week competition with this magnificent photo of a rainbow.

When Jean-Luc Devere's elderly mum ran over his beloved motorbike, he thought it was time to reveal his love of the controversial Japanese subculture, Bosozoku. But he is reluctant to take it too seriously when he travels to Japan this year.

Visitors to the City of Greater Geraldton's council chambers earlier this week were greeted with a display of more than 200 pink silhouettes strategically placed on the grassed area near the main entrance .

Townsville children can get a head start ahead of school, with a new mobile playgroup.

Zombies walk the corridors as a chill fills the air. In Bundaberg that means the air conditioning is set to 'high' in the local shopping centre for the annual Zombie Walk.

It's been two years in construction at a cost of $91.3 million but the first phase of the redevelopment of Dubbo Base Hospital is about to open.

It takes a lot to put six television programs, and a host of radio shows, to air from a regional city, but that is what the ABC did in Toowoomba.

There is no shortage of heritage to celebrate and preserve at the New Norcia Monastery in Western Australia's Mid West.

Amidst the reflections of cars and signs in the Toowoomba CBD, 12 faces of residents have appeared in empty shop fronts to celebrate the diversity of people who call the garden city home.

Want to grow herbs and keep fish in your kitchen? Aquaculture could be for you.

Day two of the 2015 Great Victorian Bike Ride was also our first official day of riding, and it was a near perfect day.

Day five of this year's Great Victorian Bike Ride took us along more country backroads as we made our way to Bendigo for the rest day.

National Cabinet is due to meet again this week to decide on the easing of nationwide COVID-19 restrictions on movement and businesses.

Treasury forecasting an 85 per cent plunge in net arrivals next financial year if border restrictions continue beyond Christmas.

While the National Cabinet has shown considerable unity throughout the COVID-19 crisis, the one point of tension has been schools and whether they should be open for face-to-face lessons.

The COVID-19 death toll at the Newmarch nursing home rose to 14 over the weekend, while a further 63 infections have been linked to staff and other residents.

The Auckland-based club arrived in Tamworth in the New England region of NSW yesterday for a 14-day period of training and quarantine.

Over the next couple of days we'll pass through the densest part of the long trail of ancient dust left by Halley's comet.

Two reviews are already underway but the tragedy has led to calls for the Aged Care Royal Commission to investigate.

Labor's Home Affairs spokesperson Kristina Keneally has sparked controversy after declaring the COVID-19 crisis should force a revamp of the temporary migration program.

News Corp Australia claimed CSIRO's Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness in Geelong Victoria has been collaborating with the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

National Cabinet will meet on Friday to start lifting restrictions in a three stage process to lock in what the Prime Minister is calling "a sustainable COVID safe economy".

The Prime Minister is laying the groundwork for Australia to re-open for business and wants what he calls a "COVID-19 safe economy" by July.

The former South Australian Premier said it's now time for states and territories to take control of childcare and treat them more like schools.

Since late March, Alex Dekker has provided more than 10,000 meals to frontline workers in Victoria and New South Wales.

It's the holy month of Ramadan, which usually means Muslims don't eat or drink during the day and gather at night at food markets and mosques to break the fast.