Meredith Ireland has spent the last six years studying and working in the finance sector, but recently she has decided to put more time into her passion, textiles and weaving.

One year ago, Jai Balmer was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. With help from Make-A-Wish Australia, Jai's dream of becoming an aviation photographer is more determined than ever.

A number of businesses in Mackay's city heart are struggling to keep afloat since the Mackay Regional Council's City Centre Revitalisation Project commenced in August last year. The project aims to give the CBD an $18.6 million makeover by revitalising footpaths, street furniture and underground storm water drains, and is due to be completed by the end of 2015.

More overnight falls across the New England North West

Natalie Holt has built a 'she shed' in the backyard of her Bangalow home.

About 300 people took part in Saturday's Reclaim the Night rally, where women and girls marched through the town to Victory Park, sang and carried banners.

Wine flowed and cuisine was sampled at Queens Park when close to 30,000 people attended Mackay's Wine and Food Day. The annual event has been ongoing in Mackay for the past 28 years and this year event manager said it attracted bigger numbers than ever before.

There were some big margins in country football over the weekend as we roll closer towards September and football finals.

Milk bottles, plastic bags and electrical wire bound for the rubbish tip have been given a second life as part of Warwick's Jumpers and Jazz in July festival.

The Eden Aboriginal community don't just talk about closing the gap they make it happen. The Monaroo Bubberer Gudu Keeping Place is an impressive symbol of the Aboriginal community's determination to find their own solutions for preserving and teaching their culture, and creating education and employment opportunities.

There's more to shearing than just clipping wool, as these young hands learned at a shearing camp outside of Broken Hill.

While clothing manufacturing has declined in Australia, one factory in Dimboola is still going strong after 38 years.

The Norfolk Pines along Albany's Ellen Cove are looking snug this winter, thanks to the antics of local yarn bombers, the Purly Queens. The fuzzy activists are encouraging locals to hug a pine for the 20th anniversary of National Tree Day.

Family and friends have gathered in a Toowoomba park to unveil 'Roger Guard Lane' named after the avid runner and popular doctor who was killed along with his wife Jill twelve months ago in the MH17 disaster.

It was bitterly cold at Anzac Cove on the 25th April. In order to attend the Dawn Service marking 100 years since the landing at Gallipoli, Jeff Peirce went 34 hours without sleep.

Only a couple of weeks remain of minor round football. Find out who won what around Eyre Peninsula at the weekend.

Members of the Toowoomba Photographic Society are celebrating their 110th anniversary. President John Stewart says the garden city has provided wonderful inspiration and subject material for more than a century.

The plight of thousands of "blackbirds" is being highlighted in a short film and helping younger generations to understand the sacrifices of their relatives.

An innovative baiting method being trialled on Queensland's Cape York Peninsula could be used on a larger scale to reduce the impact feral pigs have on Australia's marine turtle populations.

CEO of a Bunbury freight company, Mark Mazza wants to see a nationally accredited training scheme for truck drivers.

From the outside, the Mackay Senior Citizen's Hall may not look like an overly exciting place. Step inside on a Wednesday night and the flashing lights, twirling bodies and loud music might just prove that wrong. For the past two decades, people of all ages have gathered to learn a thing or two about rock and roll dancing.

Researchers from the University of Western Australia (UWA) are spending their mornings chasing down the tiny marsupials to study their sugary diets.

Landscape, memory and Monet

It was a mixture of upsets and reunions over the weekend around Eyre Peninsula as clubs approach football finals.

For the first time in 10 years, the annual Queensland Variety Bash has departed from Cairns.

Hours of meticulous preparation go into every appearance on stage.

For the first time in 190 years the 16 pews inside St John's Anglican church in Launceston will be removed and replaced with long tables for a charity dinner for the St Giles organisation.

The sound of chatter and wind instruments being blown at different times fills the room at the Launceston College music centre as the band members warm up for rehearsals.

Cyril Summerton of Australind is the third generation of his family to collect stamps. He inherited a wonderful collection from his Grandfather but it was the people he met while fishing that really got him hooked on the hobby.

Far West's first semi final and all the other minor round results from Great Flinders, Mid West, Eastern Eyre and Port Lincoln.

A steam train puffing its way through regional New South Wales is delighting young and old and being used to educate schoolchildren about Australia's rail heritage and its role in their own history.

Flowers are more than just pretty objects to place in a vase. They are a medium with which to create innovative, contemporary art.

Duneira is a late Nineteenth Century country house in Mt Macedon - but it has a curious history.

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

A weekend of motoring celebration in Leyburn was capped off with record crowds and a new course record in the small Queensland town.

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

On a bitter winters night in north west Queensland, a small rural community braved the cold to support the finals of local touch football competition's return.

Toowoomba's Space Pilots club prides itself as the oldest model rocketry club in the world. Past and present members have returned to the paddock where the club has launched many rockets to celebrate 50 years.

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.

Teams from Nambour hip hop school House of Sole have competed in the Hip Hop Internationals in San Diego, known as the Olympics of hip hop.

Following the knock on effect from the mining downturn, Linda Palmer decided it was time to diversify from her family's construction business. Today Linda keeps herself busy with a different kind of construction - one that involves developing beer and cider instead.

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

Young actors made up to look like accident victims experience the life-changing process of getting into character as they aim to reduce the youth road toll. Warning: This story contains graphic imagery and content that may upset some people.

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.

In 1955 Derby celebrated the launch of the Royal Flying Doctor Service in the Kimberley. For the Diamond Jubilee, ABC Kimberley joined the celebrations in Derby's RFDS hangar and looked at some of its amazing history.

A sea of children wearing decorated socks rippled through the school gates at Mackay Central State School to witness the launch of a new statewide road safety campaign.

An outback Queensland grazier has organised a fine art photography workshop in the tiny town of Yaraka as a way to not only improve her skills but to escape the harsh reality of drought for a weekend.

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.