Moorabool Shire Mayor David Edwards says he fears his council is being shut out of any decisions around the dumping of contaminated soil from the West Gate Tunnel project.

As the National Horse Traceability Scheme awaits an official launch, experts say horse welfare is falling short while volunteers take the lead.

Venezuela's Chief Prosecutor Tarek Saab requests the detention and extradition of US military veteran Jordan Goudreau and two Venezuelans accused of involvement in a failed armed incursion earlier this week.

Europe is in its early stage of summer but is in the middle of an intense heatwave and scientists say it's a preview of what climate change has in store.

A new report has found climate change is having some unexpected consequences for people living in the Asia Pacific region.

Millions of people from more than 150 countries have taken to the streets calling for action to combat climate change.

Climate change concerns raised by former fire chiefs during the NSW bushfire crisis were dismissed as "unpalatable" by the responsible minister David Elliott.

Some predators, including red foxes, move into burnt areas after fires pass through. But what about other predators?

The United Nations is warning hotter temperatures will influence extreme weather conditions this year and into the future.

Ahead of the resumption of federal parliament, climate scientists and natural history museum directors are urging leaders to take more action to tackle the impact of climate change.

Politicians, scientists, business leaders and artists will take part in the five-day public reading of a more than 500-page landmark climate change report this week.

Climate change and sea-level rise are currently on track to wipe out half the world's sandy beaches by 2100, researchers warn.

As a new year of tertiary education gets underway and Australia recovers from a summer of bushfires, Australian universities have told SBS News there has been increasing interest in their environment courses. Here, three students share their motivations.

Climate experts say the way Australia chooses to rebuild its economy after the COVID-19 pandemic will seal its climate change fate.

MORE than 20,000 calls to Victoria’s child abuse hotline went unanswered in an 18-month period, with some callers waiting more than two hours for an operator.

SUGAR has been found to shorten the lives of flies, prompting fears a diet rich in the sweet stuff could also be reducing our own longevity.

MORE than 50 firefighters on the ground and in the air were needed to tackle a huge factory fire in Melbourne’s west overnight.

TWO more Melbourne real estate agencies have been punished for underquoting, with one caught telling a client the practice was “just a little (marketing) ploy” to “get people through the door”.

A WOMAN is dead after a truck failed to stop at a red light and ploughed into the back of her stationary motorcycle in Melbourne’s outer east.

Falling demand for electricity caused by the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic could leave WA's main electricity system at risk of a solar power overload within months, experts have warned.

With the shutdown of an estimated 100 film and TV shoots, many of the sector's 30,000 workers lost their entire income overnight and say they can't access the Government's job assistance schemes.

In what appears to be a lax enforcement by China of UN sanctions, North Korean vessels — some carrying illicit coal shipments — are seen anchored in Chinese waters last year in photos from a UN report.

Historians will look back on this period as an epoch in capitalism, when oil-producing nations were powerful because they were necessary to keep the whole engine running. But the global shift towards renewable energy will change all that, Gareth Hutchens writes.

The Australian Department of Health says it does not endorse any cleaning company in relation to COVID-19 and warns businesses not to use a free online course in their marketing materials.

Experts say going back to the normal gridlock on city transport networks in a post-coronavirus world is not only unappealing — it's unnecessary.

With tourism ground to a halt, industry experts say Cairns will be one of the regions hardest hit by coronavirus, estimating it is on track to lose $500 million in visitor spending by April.

Fancy your home as an "hermetically sealed space ship" this winter, and keeping warm to boot? Here's how you can do both and not pump out more electricity, gas or wood smoke.

The US President warns China that it should face consequences if it was "knowingly responsible" for the coronavirus pandemic, as protests about strict stay-at-home measures spread across America.

The competition and consumer watchdog has launched an inquiry into whether tractor manufacturers are failing farmers who want the right to repair their own machinery.

Workers say the supermarket giant is not providing them with the best possible protection against coronavirus after their complaints were dismissed by the head office.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says a mandatory code will help "level the playing field" by requiring digital platforms such as Google and Facebook to pay news media businesses for the content they produce.

Anxious parents express their relief as kids in the Northern Territory head back into the classroom for term two after homeschooling when the COVID-19 crisis first hit.

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton reveals theoretical modelling which suggests 36,000 people could have been killed by coronavirus in Victoria if no physical-distancing measures were put in place.

The funding for services like the RFDS will allow them to evacuate coronavirus patients to larger medical centres and fly in medical workers and equipment for regional respiratory clinics.

A new survey from the ABS shows the extreme effect of coronavirus social-distancing measures on employment, with well over a million workers losing their incomes in the space of a month.

Virgin Australia captain George Kailis has been flying planes for almost 20 years, but fears for himself and co-workers as the company looks likely to enter into voluntary administration.

In an open letter to Virgin employees, Sir Richard Branson calls on the UK Government to help save Virgin Atlantic, while warning against allowing Qantas "a monopoly" should Virgin Australia "disappear".

The benchmark price for US crude plummeted to negative $US35.20 a barrel as traders sought to avoid owning crude with nowhere to store it.

Changes necessary for the Victorian Government to deal with the coronavirus pandemic include plans to hold judge-only trials and giving councils the power to hold meetings online.

Backpacker workers are losing their jobs and being told to "go home" by local community members amid fears they will spread coronavirus.

On this day 50 years ago, WA farmer Leonard Casley "stuck his nose up" at the Federal Government and seceded from Australia, forming the micronation the Principality of Hutt River.

The Federal Government has thrown airline Regional Express a funding lifeline to continue servicing airports in regional Australia during the ongoing pandemic.

Police and paramedics are at the scene of a fatal industrial accident at Truro north of Adelaide, where a man has been killed.

One of Adelaide's most historic music venues, which has hosted some of the world's biggest artists, could be forced to close due to a lack of support amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Regional centres are concerned they could be badly hit by the potential collapse of Virgin Australia, with higher airfares and less competition.

The live cattle trade out of northern Australia has its biggest price crash since 2011, with key markets such as Indonesia and Vietnam struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The modelling predicts more than a quarter of a million jobs could be lost in Victoria due to the coronavirus pandemic in what Premier Daniel Andrews says is the perhaps the "biggest economic and employment challenge" in the state's history.

Health professionals are incensed by dramatic price increases for face masks and other protective equipment by one of Australia's largest medical supply companies.

With the world experiencing "the biggest supply and demand disparity in history", benchmark Brent oil futures fall to their lowest level since November 2001.