For more than a decade, Australians have travelled to the South Australian outback ghost town of Farina, in an effort to restore the crumbling buildings.

A South Australian man has been jailed for killing his best friend at a remote camp site during a drunken fight after falling on him and rupturing an internal cyst.

The voices of young country women and their experiences of intimate partner violence are being heard, but wider campaigns to address the crisis may not be.

A man who was a teenager when he murdered his relative whose bones were later found in rural SA receives a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment, but his non-parole period has not yet been set.

When Kate Disher-Quill was given hearing aids at the age of 10, she felt disconnected. Now the 31-year-old photographer has drawn on her experience to tell the stories of people like her in a book, Earshot.

A group of textile artists in Newcastle has thrown down a challenge to artists around Australia to create hand-made flowers to raise funds for ovarian cancer research.

A small town team harnesses sewing power to create more than 4,000 reusable alternatives to single-use plastic bags in a bid to save the planet.

The Federal Government has applauded a decision by the energy giant, but environmental groups say the move is "risky and irresponsible."

Senior members of the Nomads bikie gang are sentenced over their participation in a criminal group, during a period of what the prosecutor described as "extreme" and "unpredictable" violence across the Hunter region.

South Sydney misses its chance to jump into the top four, losing to the Bulldogs, after the Storm lost to the Raiders and the Knights broke their drought with a big win over North Queensland.

Newcastle Knights coach Nathan Brown to leave the NRL club after four seasons.

A mothballedNSWHunterValley coal-firedpowerstationis to be re-commissioned and the new owners say it willbecleaner andgreenerthanitwas beforeitshutdownfive yearsago.

Firefighters are protecting properties in Belmont, south of Newcastle, as a bushfire fanned by strong winds continues to burn near homes.

The search for four men and a woman missing feared dead after a helicopter vanished from radar north of Newcastle will continue after earlier bad weather halted the operation.

Two men on trial over a 700kg cocaine importation racket used encrypted mobile phones to help arrange for the drugs to be sailed from Tahiti to Australia, a court hears.

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.

Six months after Murrurundi's water ran out, the community is struggling to survive on extreme, level-six water restrictions, in a grim prediction of the future for other country towns facing their own impending water crisis.

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

Generations of Australia's prime breeding cows are heading to slaughterhouses as a lack of water and feed sees more producers opt to "cash in and get out".

A monitoring program to survey bleaching is underway at Lord Howe Island Marine Park with researchers performing underwater assessments and aerial mapping.

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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.

Early figures from Surf Life Saving Australia show that 53 people drowned on Australian beaches over summer.

When Bennett Powell was a child, doctors thought he might never walk but now he's running, cycling and swimming as part of his third Ironman Australia race.

Jigna Chauhan offers free henna crowns to women who have lost their hair during chemotherapy treatments, helping them feel more positive and confident.

A coastal paradise town becomes a safe haven for refugees, despite being outside of a government-supported resettlement zone.

A French agriculture student wants her family to consider introducing buffalo on their Charolais operation after a stint on a NSW dairy.

A University of Melbourne academic and a little school in NSW are stressing the importance of students learning a second language as the school hosts the Indonesian Consul General.

Barrington Tops is receiving its first winter dusting as cold conditions hit the east coast of New South Wales.

Researchers monitoring the impact of climate change say golden bowerbirds and other highland rainforest species are being pushed to higher altitudes by temperature rises and fear they'll eventually have nowhere left to go.

People on Lord Howe Island are trying to save their slice of paradise from a rat infestation, but a controversial eradication program has divided families and friends on the tiny outpost 600km off the NSW coast.

Free martial arts classes being offered to victims of bullying could have a major impact on the mental health of young people, experts say.

Recent whale entanglements on the NSW coast highlight the man-made threats marine life face at an increasing rate, and experts say we can expect to see more.

Boutique dairies may be tiny, but there is nothing small about their thinking. Farms across New South Wales are choosing on-site processing in an effort to create more sustainable farming practices.

Members of the NSW legal fraternity have spoken out against a bill to change the state's double jeopardy laws brought forward following the acquittal of the prime suspect in the Bowraville murders.

An Australian man and his partner are murdered in Canada, backpackers have disappeared from NSW. This is how police will begin to solve the mystery of what happened, writes Wayne Petherick.

A research project is underway to determine the impact of the controversial Lord Howe Island rodent eradication program on a threatened currawong species and wider ecosystem.

A NSW Mid North Council apologies for the grief it caused the community for knocking over headstones.

Young, adventurous and enterprising couple Jess Davidson and Andy Hoffman quit their jobs to follow a dream more than a year ago.

Farmers along Australia's normally green east coast are reeling from the worst drought they have ever seen and face a tough summer if it doesn't rain in the next few months.

MORNING BRIEFING: A woman has been charged with murder after a man was found with multiple stab wounds in a Sydney apartment complex, while easing weather conditions have helped firefighters in Tenterfield gain the upper hand on a bushfire.

The NSW Rural Fire Service downgrades an emergency warning for a fire at Backwater near Armidale, as hot and dry conditions continue to fuel bushfires in the area.

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.