Shadow Local Government Minister Tim Smith and Ratepayers Victoria president Dean Hurlston are calling for rates to be frozen and for the State Government to do more to help council staff, May 6, 2020.

Cardinal George Pell accuses the child sexual abuse royal commission of making findings "not supported by evidence" in its unredacted report, which found he was explicitly told in 1982 of the reason paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale was being moved between parishes.

Australia's largest sawmill has stood down 51 workers in the south west Victorian town of Colac, as it prepares for a slow down in demand for its products.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says the state's total has been brought up to 1,454 confirmed cases of coronavirus with 106,000 tests conducted over the past week and a half.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, immunity has never been such a hot topic. It's meant a family-run dairy that produces colostrum is being overrun with enquiries.

A Lifeline volunteer counts her work as a privilege and urges more people to volunteer, as calls to the support line jump to record highs.

The small West Australian town of Donnybrook is celebrating its reinvention more than 25 years after it was named the ugliest in Australia.

Giant fibreglass dinosaur Big Kev has escaped extinction after a community outside Darwin demanded it be saved.

A man who assaulted a South Australian paramedic while she attempted to help him while he was having a mental episode has avoided jail time.

Alan Clarke thought completing a 500km run across some of Australia's roughest terrain would be his biggest challenge. But that all changed when he spotted something in the shallows.

The Coalition's candidate for the marginal South Australian seat of Mayo moderates her previous position that the minimum wage and penalty rates should be abolished.

The Cordillo Downs woolshed is the biggest of its kind in the world and a reminder of when Australia rode on the sheep's back. Now help is being sought to guarantee its future.

Bungala Aboriginal Corporation chief executive blames funding changes for Emeroo Indigenous station closure.

A man is charged with the murder of another man at a home in South Australia's Mid North region in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Two Labor MPs are still waiting to get offices within their electorates more than a year after the state election, with one labelling the delay as a "clamp down on democracy".

Australian creatives who have lived through devastating natural disasters turn their trauma into beautiful pieces of art.

Quad bike manufacturers claim ACCC-favoured mandatory rollover protection will not improve safety as another child dies in rural NSW on Monday.

Koala chlamydia has had devastating effects in Queensland and New South Wales, but a population believed to entirely free of the disease on Kangaroo Island is being heralded as a potential lifeline.

A country hospital in South Australia is offering free, local training in the hopes of raising the status and the quality of its aged care workforce.

A patient bringing a loaded gun into the Royal Adelaide Hospital and nurses being threatened with knives are just some of the concerning incidents plaguing staff at South Australian hospitals, the union for nurses says.

A contentious ecotourism project on Kangaroo Island has been approved and could lead the way for similar projects that will open up South Australian national parks currently "under lock and key".

A former military pilot from WA is being praised after switching his light plane's engine off when it flipped during a landing on a remote SA airstrip. He and his wife are in a stable condition in hospital in Adelaide.

Adelaide councils are considering a range of options to address the problem of abandoned shopping trolleys including GPS tracking, locking systems and a bounty for returned trolleys.

Holowiliena Station is in the grip of a horror drought, but reviving an ancient trade is proving a lifeline to this farming family.

After allegations of misconduct and violent behaviour at a South Australian fire station were revealed by the ABC, some staff are now facing fresh claims of a serious conflict of interest as calls for a public inquiry intensify.

Isaac Doman could not talk until he was eight years old. Now he's directing his own short films for an award-winning company.

A popular roadside attraction featuring about 2,000 teddy bears and other soft toys could secure a reprieve after an intervention from the SA Premier but two local councils remain concerned about the risk it poses to drivers.

NAIDOC Lifetime Achievement Award winner and Indigenous rights advocate Tauto Sansbury has died at his home in Adelaide, aged 70. WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this story contains images of a person who has died.

The SA Government says a three-year statewide ban on snapper fishing will come into effect within weeks, despite a backlash from fishers and charter boat operators.

A South Australian woman who posted "vile, vicious and vitriolic" comments about sexual impropriety, incest and drunkenness that were directed at another user of an online political forum is convicted of stalking.

A controversial teddy bear fence, which stretches for more than a kilometre on South Australia's Copper Coast Highway, is being deliberately hacked apart by knife-wielding "haters", its creator claims.

A controversial teddy bear fence featuring thousands of teddy bears alongside one of SA's major highways has been destroyed, with many condemning the actions of vandals.

Regulations aimed at ensuring the safety of remote nurses in South Australia are struck down in Parliament after being criticised by nurses and the family of murdered outback nurse Gayle Woodford.

The SA Government has ordered a review into the Environmental Protection Authority's policies over notification of environmental incidents, following an ABC investigation into two chemical spills at Port Pirie's Nyrstar smelter.

Wallaroo locals welcome news that a cruise ship will visit three times over summer, but wonder what happened to their ferry service that was suspended two years ago.

Authorities are fed up with a Taiwanese shipping company's slow response to salvaging containers it lost at sea near Newcastle one year ago, with one commercial fisherman saying he is still catching up to 20 push bikes in nets.

Health authorities in Newcastle, NSW, have developed a vaccine safety tracking system, now a world-leader in monitoring the rollout of vaccines in Australia.

A former police officer who suffered "horrific and graphic traumas" after being trapped in a crashed squad car has launched criminal action after being forced to wait more than a year for a workers' compensation payout.

NSW Police say four residents helped rescue a 31-year-old woman and a child from a house fire in Singleton in which three other children died.

Former Anglican Dean of Newcastle Graeme Lawrence "avoided" answering questions when giving his evidence about allegations he sexually assaulted a teenager at his home in the early 1990s, a court has heard.

Former rugby league star Jarryd Hayne is committed to stand trial on charges of aggravated sexual assault of a woman in the NSW Hunter region.

The former NRL player has pleaded not guilty to aggravated sexual assault.

Former Dean of Newcastle Graeme Lawrence is convicted over the aggravated sexual assault of a 15-year-old boy, after a judge found his evidence was not credible.

A champion surf lifesaver who was paralysed in a surfing accident while on holidays with friends last year has taken her first steps with the aid of a sci-fi-like robotic suit.

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.

A 26-year-old woman is charged with 11 offences after allegedly stabbing members of the public, as well as her daughter, in Salamander Bay near Port Stephens.