A controversial plan to reopen a 'mothballed' coal mine in the New South Wales Upper Hunter Valley is approved, but a five-year extension on the mine's life is denied.

A rugby league player is handed a jail term for a "ferocious" on-field assault that left an opponent with major facial injuries, but immediately appeals against the severity of the sentence.

The United Wambo coal mine in the NSW Hunter Valley gets the go-ahead, but on the condition that its coal can only be exported to countries that have ratified the Paris climate agreement.

Homicide detectives say 29-year-old Danielle Easey, whose body was discovered wrapped in plastic in a creek near Lake Macquarie at the weekend, had become involved in drugs and was likely killed in mid-August.

A Newcastle pub has apologised for promoting a Wolf of Wall Street-style "midget-tossing" game during a casino-themed night later this month, saying they only planned to throw a doll, not a real person.

The former Silverchair frontman sues the publisher of Sydney tabloid The Sunday Telegraph for defamation over a report claiming he frequented a brothel called The Kastle.

Camera tapes, used by police to identify Star Hotel rioters 40 years ago, have resurfaced and show that fire hoses were used to subdue the crowds.

A New South Wales woman says apprehended domestic violence orders are a joke and she fears she will be killed if her ex-partner keeps breaching them.

The Independent Planning Commission will be reviewed after a 21-year mining lease near Singleton was approved before public submissions closed a blunder the Opposition says will call the system's integrity into question.

A man who previously admitted to the kidnap and sexual abuse of an 11-year-old girl in Newcastle has pleaded guilty to three further offences.

An inquest has heard that a New South Wales teen spent a week in agony after being diagnosed with gastroenteritis, rather than the ruptured appendix that led to his death.

People living with disabilities in regional Australia say having their own cars would make a huge difference to their lives but access to a vehicle is simply too expensive.

The NSW Education Department investigates after a video emerges online of a teacher telling her class that if a woman is raped, her clothing should be held partly accountable.

Social media went into meltdown after images emerged of a power pole in the middle of a Newcastle street.

With a rapidly ageing population, few Australians have been left untouched from navigating the vast and often complicated aged-care system be it for a parent, partner or themselves.

The company proposing a coal mine for NSW's Manning Valley, refused by an environment court on the grounds of its contribution to climate change, will not appeal the decision.

More than 20 Pixie O'Harris artworks are being restored for an exhibition after the final paintings, which had been missing since the 1950s, mysteriously turn up without note or explanation.

What would happen to the dynamic in a school if the students locked away their mobile phones for the day? A lot, it turns out and it's all positive.

MORNING BRIEFING: A guest is taken to hospital after fire guts a backpacker hostel in Coogee, while Mert Ney is due back in court over the alleged murder of Michaela Dunn and stabbing of Linda Bo.

Experts say bushfires coupled with decreasing habitat in an urbanised landscape is taking its toll on wildlife and improved land management is crucial.

Police recapture prisoner Matthew Furner, who escaped from custody at Port Macquarie Base Hospital on the NSW Mid North Coast and fled into nearby bushland.

Whitegoods repairman Bill Spedding tells an inquest into the disappearance of William Tyrrell he was having coffee with his wife on the day the toddler vanished, before revealing the "devastating impact" of the police investigation on his life.

A prisoner recaptured after being on the run for nearly 12 hours on Sunday has been too injured to front court on the NSW mid-north coast.

Members of a NSW rugby league club who were photographed at an airport wearing offensive t-shirts emblazoned with a topless mermaid look set to face the wrath of the sport's officials.

Wazza the koala has left carers astounded after she was collected by a car and endured a 10km trip down a major NSW roadway, only to bolt up a tree afterwards.

The whitegoods repairman who became the chief suspect in one of Australia's biggest child abduction mysteries reveals for the first time how the ordeal "shattered" his life.

A health facility able to meet the needs of acclaimed Aboriginal playwright Jimmy Chi was not available at the time of his death, a coronial inquest has heard.

In the process of becoming Australia's first-ever published Indigenous graphic-novel author and publishing his epic three-volume magnum opus, Brenton E McKenna was battered physically and emotionally.

Now that Western Australia's moratorium on fracking has been lifted, can gas from the Kimberley prove that it is economically viable?

An arrest warrant has been issued after a man who served 12 years in prison for bashing and raping two tourists in WA's far north breached his post-sentence supervision order and failed to appear in court.

Satellite images have captured a usually invisible phenomenon known as atmospheric gravity waves pulsing through clouds off Western Australia's north-west.

Ocean lover Adam Western was sick of picking up Mentos mint wrappers from his favourite beach so he decided it was time somebody challenged the global confectionery company.

A social media video of a tourist hanging off a notorious WA cliff on Easter Sunday has prompted a furious response from a sea rescue group.

Asian demand for the humble yabby has boomed in the last decade, but a lack of dam-filling rainfall threatens to pull them from the menu.

Eighty-two per cent of tourists to WA want an Aboriginal cultural experience when they visit, but only 26 per cent get what they want.

As it makes what could be a last-ditch effort to ensure its future, collapsed wave energy hopeful Carnegie Clean Energy is still not disclosing the performance of its most valuable asset, its CETOwave technology.

Concerns have been raised in Australia over the online sale of accessories that turn handguns into automatic weapons.

A West Australian man has captured on camera what may be one of the first documented cases of a redback spider capturing a mouse.