After denying responsibility for years, billionaire Clive Palmer has agreed to repay millions of dollars over the Queensland Nickel collapse, but he still faces a civil trial that may see him take the witness stand.

Cassandra Smith* found herself in hospital and on an IV line directly to her heart when mould took hold of her body, seeping in after her Townsville home was inundated during major flooding, with an expert saying mould in the city is the most extreme she has ever seen.

Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill says homelessness charities providing food and laundry services are "enabling people to live a lifestyle" without doing anything to stop antisocial behaviour.

There are fewer than 1,000 black-throated finches in the wild, but one north Queensland primary school has bred 120 as part of a science class.

A 53-year-old man accused of lighting up to four bushfires in north Queensland will undergo a mental health assessment, after a dramatic arrest where he allegedly rammed a police car and officers fired shots at his vehicle.

A businessman and his pastoralist partners launch court action against Origin Energy over its plan for gas exploration on a Northern Territory cattle station.

A lack of aged care facilities has been badly impacting on the remote Northern Territory's elderly, but many of their stories will not reach the ears of royal commissioners.

The custody notification system, designed to help prevent Aboriginal deaths in custody, has been rolled out in the Northern Territory but there are concerns the people most at risk of harm have been excluded from its operation.

Two young South Australian entrepreneurs launch their own social enterprise selling sanitary products whose profits will go to disadvantaged women fighting period poverty around the world.

Despite the Earl of Wessex's decades of royal training, nothing could prepare him for a crash course in Aussie Rules football in the sizzling Top End sun.

Josh Meredith lives with Down syndrome and is helping change community attitudes towards disability in the workplace.

Helen Haines is set to make history by becoming the first independent to succeed another in Federal Parliament, replacing Cathy McGowan in the northern Victorian seat of Indi.

A program supporting the homeless with a mentor once they're housed is being hailed as a way to reduce the number of people sleeping rough.

Legal group Slater and Gordon reaches an agreement with the former milk processing co-operative on behalf of 1,300 investors.

More than 700,000 people could lose their primary connection to the outside world as the NDIS rollout leaves Vision Australia Radio without essential government funding to stay on air.

Farmers Stephen Black and Melissa Portingale were so desperate for water they put a rare ooshie up for sale. That's when the trouble started.

Albury supermarket owner Bob Mathews says the scheme has cost his business.

Before he retires, Bishop John Parkes in north-east Victoria is pushing for same-sex marriages to be blessed by the Anglican Church.

The Government believes the projects will create more than 600 jobs and generate enough clean energy to power more than 80,000 homes, while farmers have labelled the decision as "gutless".

Tim Fischer highlights education, leadership, bold thinking, and towns working together as his tips for a successful regional Australia in his final pre-recorded video speech.

A north-east Victorian Anglican diocese has voted to bless same-sex marriages, a move that may provoke a crisis in the church.

A significant move by the Anglican Church to bless the marriage of two gay priests at a ceremony this week has been postponed due to a legal challenge.

Eighteen months after being diagnosed with breast cancer, Regan Lions is fundraising as a way of saying thanks to the centre where she had some of her treatment.

The Victorian Government's historic treaty negotiations with the state's Aboriginal communities are one step closer this week, with the election of the First Peoples' Assembly. But the toughest yards to meaningful treaties still lie ahead.

A report says the process for a $12 million grandstand at Darwin Turf Club was "independent and fair", but the Chief Minister wants rules tightened.

From humble beginnings, Dan Kimberley has developed the Northern Territory's first coral and fish export business.

Paula Thornton journeyed through 20 countries in 14 months, and where some may consider relying on hand gestures rude or disrespectful of culture and language, for Ms Thornton this is her everyday.

Haberdasheries, record stores, comic book halls, model train showrooms, and flag shops have hobby stores gone out of fashion? Ron Strachan has run his flag store for more than 20 years, and discussing his retirement is taboo.

Just how easy is it for scammers to access your superannuation? Trevor Riessen is still waiting for answers after cyber criminals raided his savings through myGov.

Professor Thomas Madsen with a dead water python

The Coalition's cashless welfare card is compared to the intervention and "mission" times by Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory

There had been hopes of recovery at the site of Australia's worst recorded mangrove dieback in the Gulf of Carpentaria. But during a recent visit to the area, traditional owner Patsy Evans said she was devastated by the scene.

The Supreme Court of Victoria dismisses a bid by union boss John Setka to stop a vote to have him expelled from the Australian Labor Party, with the court ruling it does not have the jurisdiction to decide the matter.

It would end in the High Court, but it began as an agreement between two friends. Robert donated his sperm to conceive a child with his friend Susan, but when she and her wife decided to move overseas, everything changed.

A former Australian Federal Police employee who messaged his partner's 11-year-old daughter over Instagram in order to groom her into having sex with him, avoids jail.

A jury finds a former Canberra police officer who improperly used police data to impersonate his neighbour, in order to call authorities about a suburban dispute, acted reasonably and did not commit a crime.

Barnaby Joyce sees "no problems" with extending cashless welfare to families receiving the Farm Household Allowance.

The second stage of the ACT's light rail project will see a centrepiece of Canberra's city transformed, with the southern end of London Circuit raised in order to accommodate a tram line traversing down to Lake Burley Griffin.

Speeches were on the record for the first time at this year's Midwinter Ball, following several years in which the speeches have been leaked.

A judge has delivered a scathing assessment of two police officers who dragged a man from a car and threatened to arrest him "for being a smart-arse", saying their conduct was in "dramatic disproportion" to the situation.