In the early hours of Friday morning when most people were waking and getting ready for work or school, 200 military personnel in north Queensland were close to finishing 24 hours of hard work.

A gallery of some of the best winter ocean-themed photos submitted by locals to ABC Open's Pic of the Week project.

What do you when you come across something that has been lost? The natural instinct would be to return it to its home, but what if that lost thing made no sense at all?

A Toowoomba artist says art has a valuable part to play in helping understand scientific concepts.

Tulips, daffodils, tulips and more tulips. You know you're at the Nannup Flower and Garden Festival in August when there are tulips everywhere

Mount Panorama has made the most experienced racing driver and their team shudder, but it hasn't stopped a group of TAFE students taking on the mountain.

On a soft, misty morning, all was quiet and still on the swamp except for a piercing whistle and splashing of water.

From fast paced horses to tracking the blood moon, the skills of Tasmanian Photographic Federation members from around the state are now on display in an exhibition for the next few months.

Memories of sporting glory, last-minute comebacks, old friendships and rivalries are hidden in plain sight behind a few coats of paint.

More than 40 years after the conclusion of the Vietnam War many of those who served still bear physical and psychological scars as a result of the conflict. On Vietnam Veterans' Day members of the far north Queensland community paused to pay tribute to those who fought in the name of their country.

The athletes do get a little competitive with each other from time to time but at the Barcaldine Elder Olympics the main aim of the game is socialising. The small outback Queensland town has held the event for 21 years with dozens of older residents travelling from nearby towns to compete.

A 7-year stint in the Navy wasn't enough to stop a Kalgoorlie-Boulder race horse trainer following in the family trade. Paddy Birmingham doesn't mind the early mornings when he gets to see his horses cross the line.

The month long festival showcases contemporary professional Australian and international photographers alongside amateur photographers.

With shorelines shifting around the globe, communities in low lying areas along the Mid West & Wheatbelt coastline are experiencing the brunt of coastal erosion.

The saddlery and produce business is a fixture of Bunbury. It has sat opposite the old railway station for 120 years and hardly seems to have changed at all.

It's hoped that a fossil hunting expedition to Lightning Ridge will lead to the discovery of new Australian dinosaurs.

The shooting of Nambour director Chris Sun's fourth horror epic is underway in the small country town of Kandanga in the Mary Valley. If you are lucky enough to pass through the one street hamlet in the next month you will see some of Australia's finest actors. ABC Sunshine Coast spoke to a few of them about the experience.

Tom Duddy's passion for collecting dates back to his days as a young boy hanging around shearing sheds. Now he has used that passion to turn the Prairie Hotel into a one of a kind outback museum.

Some of the participants were ten years old while others were pushing 90, but the age gap did not seem to matter when primary school students and nursing home residents came together for a dance class in western Queensland.

Batemans Bay was once an isolated coastal frontier settlement that grew on the back of oyster farming, timber cutting, and as a port servicing nearby goldfields. As the closest coastal town to Canberra it's now dominated by large shopping malls servicing surrounding suburbs of retirees and holiday homes. The architecture of its heritage has been lost, but two of its earliest and most significant buildings remain hidden and unknown behind 1960s shopfront facades. Will they be saved and restored?

Colourful artwork, vibrant food and a dazzling array of traditional dress are on display in Cairns as far north Queensland's Indonesian community celebrates Multicultural Week.

Lyndhurst is a tiny village set amid rolling green hills in central west New South Wales but it's just produced a world champion who is the latest in a long and proud tradition of country rifle shooting.

It's been a dry winter for south east wetland Bool Lagoon, which hasn't seen high water levels since January last year.

The Tweed Valley Banana Festival will crown its 60th queen this year.

Bells have rung out across Australia to mark the 70th anniversary of Victory in the Pacific Day, including at a church in Orange, NSW where the ancient art of bellringing is alive and well.

Comic book characters were brought to life when cosplayer's converged on Mackay's annual pop-culture convention. Witnessing the event was like entering a portal into a different dimension - a world where super heroes and villains get along.

What does the future hold for regional towns? To some, it's about change. For others, it's about things staying much the same.

A quirky, German-styled house at Orange in central west New South Wales tells of the city's heritage of migrants and their close ties with the Electrolux refrigeration factory.

The north Queensland town of Ingham has no shortage of pasta makers. A large number of the town's residents are of Italian heritage - but the owners of the local pasta manufacturing business are not. Despite this they still have the approval of the local nonnas.

When John Spunner bought his first rusted horse-led dray 35 years ago, he didn't know he was beginning what would become a hobby, or what could be called an obsession.

Ex-dance cast member from the film Strictly Ballroom, Dede Williams, takes the locals through not only new dance steps, but the psychology and communication required when mastering the art of dancing.

Moss Vale photographer Ashley Mackevicius couldn't compete with his school friend Nick Cave for music or poetry skills, so he switched to photography. Cave went on to become one of Australia's greatest ever musicians, and Mackevicius did the same for photography.

Shoppers and workers could try their hand at tapestry, badge making, and flag making during the first Art Break event organised by the City of Bunbury

The Anzac Commemoration Postcards Exhibition features 90 hand-embroidered postcards compiled by the ladies from NSW Embroiderers' Guild. The travelling exhibition includes embroidered replicas of postcards sent to and from the war front during World War I as well as postcards designed by the guild.

A large dusty shed full of curiosities is a gold mine of colourful stories of the objects and their past owners and gives its owner an extensive repertoire of yarns to spin.

A candlelight vigil has been held in central Newcastle aiming to raise awareness of the plight of refugees around the world.

The life of colonial military leader Edward Charles Close is a story that stretches from England to the Illawarra, with a long legacy for the Hunter. Southern Highlands historian Ann Beaumont has delved deep into his history as she writes his biography and publishes his comprehensive diary.

It was a chance encounter with a scrap metal truck that led to a 15 year journey of collecting historical New South Wales fire fighting equipment.

For the first time ever, environmental water is being pumped into the dry and extremely saline wetland at Lyrup Forest near Berri in the hope it will turn into a 'sea monkey soup' that will provide a food source for bird and marine life.

Cyclists have converged on the Darling Downs for the annual Cycle Queensland tour. They have become experts on our back roads, riding past road trains, and dodging cranky magpies.

Young people aged 12-25 from across the Bendigo region gathered for the second Bendigo Youth Summit. It is a forum where young people can provide feedback to parents, schools, youth agencies and the City of Greater Bendigo on the big issues they face and how to address them.

The shearers' quarters on Barenya Station, between Hughenden and Muttaburra in north west Queensland, was filled with talk and laughter recently, when local grazing families took some time out to have health checks, de-stress and socialise for a Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) field day.

It has been three years in the making: Justyn Atkins from Launceston is now putting the finishing touches on his trusty ute in preparation for the 2015 Deni Ute Muster.

Hare Krishna school, Bhaktivedanta Swami Gurukula, has gone from failing several NAPLAN categories to performing above the national average in all of them.

Every year at the start of spring the streets of Port Pirie are filled with the colour, sounds and sights of a festival with its roots in a medieval Italian fishing community.

A young New Zealand fur seal has taken a shining to the Walpole Town Jetty just days after it was opened for public use. Frankland District authorities have asked locals to keep a respectful distance until the marine mammal decides to move on.

The brightly painted Chill'n Beanz trailer is not just another place to score a shot of caffeine in Toowoomba, it is also a place for young people to learn skills and confidence, all during school hours.

While their families celebrated back home, Papua New Guinean students marked the 40th anniversary of their country's independence from Australia with a colourful performance at TAFE Queensland North in Townsville.

He's been a popular artist on the local Gippsland scene for a number of years and has received a number of awards from regional art shows, but admirers might be surprised to know Jason Foster never officially trained as an artist. Jason taught himself how to depict Gippsland's rolling hills after falling in love with them and making South Gippsland his home five years ago.

On a cattle property near the outback Queensland town of Barcaldine, Jocelyn Chandler has created a spectacular green oasis with her own bare hands. Her garden has undergone a dramatic transformation since she and her husband bought the property in 1979, when there was just one mango tree, one kurrajong tree, and a couple of shrubs near the house.