Along the Victorian coastline, residents in booming seaside towns fear the rapid rate of development is ruining the character of the communities. The Government has promised to strike a balance between growth and protection, but residents fear it may be too little, too late.

Health Minister Jenny Mikakos announces that Epping's Meadowglen Primary School will be closed for three days as the state confirms 13 new coronavirus cases.

Heavy, early season snow has fallen across the high country in Victoria and NSW, driven by a wintry cold front.

The Gippsland dairy farming town of Yarram has received a colourful makeover with the addition of 10 new public art murals by a celebrated street artist.

For now, Australia appears to have kept the virus in check and avoided a full-blown coronavirus crisis. This data shows how we did it.

As some states across the country enjoyed their first taste of social freedom in weeks at the weekend, for many living in border towns it was more a case of confusion than celebration.

When a farmworker was convicted of poisoning hundreds of wedge-tailed eagles in Victoria, he told the court he was ordered to do it. But due to legal limitations, no further charges were laid against his boss.

Victoria records 17 new coronavirus cases including 11 linked to a cluster at a Melbourne meat processing plant. It comes as Treasurer Tim Pallas announces $491 million in tax relief for Victorian businesses.

After enduring isolation for almost five weeks, are cracks appearing in our ability to stay positive and connected? Joining Virginia is Professor Rob Gordon, clinical psychologist and consulting psychologist with the Red Cross, answering this question and providing some much needed advice on staying well mentally in the times of COVID-19.

A cluster of coronavirus cases at a Melbourne meatworks rises to 49, as two Victorian aged care homes go into lockdown after workers test positive to the virus.

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.

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.

An aged care facility says robotic pets are lighting up the lives of its residents and bringing comfort during isolation from the coronavirus pandemic.

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.

The culling of feral horses in Victoria's Alpine National Park will go ahead after the Federal Court ruled that alpine brumbies should not be protected.

Scientists say it is likely a fragile little penguin colony skipped a breeding season due to crucial ocean occurrence — called the Bonney upwelling — running late.

There are plenty of ways to celebrate Mother's Day without even leaving the house, even if your family is spread across the country. Here's how some families are celebrating.

A sixth-generation farming family living on the urban fringes of Melbourne are watching farming properties around them disappear because of the urban sprawl.

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

Due to a decline in the number of frogs, operating on the amphibian was deemed worthwhile to give it the best chance to thrive.

A rarely seen Bulwer's petrel, nicknamed Buggerlugs, which lost its way and ended up on a pub balcony in Sydney, is flown north and released back into its natural habitat.

Erin Hext is an experienced bushwalker, who set out on a day hike near Hobart well prepared. She didn't expect to make the return journey in a rescue helicopter.

Fish have been found on the streets of Yowah, in outback Queensland, after record rainfall.

It's been revealed a third of reported cane toads in NSW are misidentified and are in fact native — and even endangered — frogs.

A Top End roadhouse has started an aerial takeaway service to help lift community spirits during the coronavirus lockdown. So far, the owner says, the service has received "quite a good response".

You'd think you need to go outside for plane spotting, but enthusiasts are adapting to coronavirus in surprising ways.

Live chicken sales are skyrocketing as people seek to rely on a more sustainable backyard to supply their pantries in lockdown. If you're embarking on life as chook owner, we have your big questions answered.

The ewes, estimated to have been roaming free for years, are spotted on WA's south coast by a man who's had their monster fleeces removed.

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.

Snowtown "bodies-in-the-barrels" serial killer Robert Joe Wagner loses his bid for a non-parole period to be set, confirming the original judgment that he should never be released.

For many, the word "Snowtown" sends shivers down the spine. But as the town attempts to attract tourists, some locals are wondering whether to cash in on the dark past.

Journalist Andrew McGarry covered the trial of one of Australia's most notorious serial killings. Two decades since police made the gruesome discovery in a disused bank vault, he looks at the similarities between the actions of ringleader, John Bunting, and George Orwell's novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Aboriginal traditional owners hit out at legal action launched by residents of a condemned outback town, with one leader saying the argument amounts to the second taking of Aboriginal land.

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

Part of the Port Augusta Prison has been evacuated after a letter containing a mystery white powder was opened by staff.

The nurses' union says a law requiring remote health workers to be accompanied when going on unscheduled or after-hours callouts is being undermined by the State Government.

The husband of murdered outback nurse Gayle Woodford says new protections for nurses named in her honour are necessary, but is worried healthcare workers could still be at risk.

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.

As the drought drives Australia's sheep flock to historic lows, a South Australian sheep sale has been called off three times due to a lack of animals.

Scottish stonemasons with experience in restoring castles, restore a historic woolshed in South Australia's outback with quite a bit of help from the locals.

A man pleads guilty to killing a relative whose bones were found in a fireplace of a home in South Australia's Mid North eight years after the man went missing.

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

Despite breaking his back in several places in a light plane crash in outback SA that also injured his wife, experienced Perth pilot Jamie McAlindon is determined to get back into the cockpit.

A South Australian man killed his close friend when he landed on top of him during a drunken fight, causing an internal cyst to fatally rupture, a court hears.