After suffering a stroke as a baby, Adyan bin Hasan's left hand is weak. And while it doesn't stop the five-year-old playing basketball and cricket, his disability is the reason his family's permanent visa application has been rejected.

Another international raider grabs the last automatic spot in the Melbourne Cup, with the Joseph O'Brien-trained Downdraft earning his spot with a win in the Hotham Handicap on Derby Day.

Betting on horse races has taken a dive amid a slew of scandals that hit the industry this year, but racing experts say a combination of factors are coming together at the wrong time for Racing Victoria.

A court hears Harold Mitchell was "pushing" for Tennis Australia to sign a contract for the broadcast rights of the Australian Open with Channel 7 when he was the sports body's director in 2013.

Are you feeling torn about celebrating the Melbourne Cup today? We asked our ABC Messenger audience how they felt about the race that stops the nation and what they loved (and hated) about it.

Comic superheroes and villainous characters put their differences aside over the weekend, uniting for far north Queensland's first ever pop culture and comic convention, Tropicon.

These fairground ponies have seen brighter days. They wait in the dry grass for a new generation of children to climb aboard and giggle with delight.

From its humble beginnings in the late 19th century, the Cairns Show has grown into a three day event that is one of the highlights on the social calendar for Cairns. The ABC Far North team ventured into the thick of the show this year to hear from the people who make it such an occasion.

It was a bright crisp Queensland winter's day when Costa Georgiadis, host of ABC's Gardening Australia program, visited Tin Can Bay to celebrate 12 months of hard work by the local school in building, maintaining, and expanding their very own veggie plot.

A Mid West conservation and land management program is skilling up prisoners in Greenough and reducing the rate of re-offending.

Despite battling cool wintery winds and the rushing splashes of waves, workers have begun the process of giving Newcastle's Ocean Baths their annual 'spring' clean.

If you were at Albion Park on March 8 this year, you'll never forget the sight of the enormous Qantas 747 flying over the crowds and landing on the small regional airstrip. Now it's comfortably retired and on display, what does having a 747 jumbo jet do for tourism?

The plight of thousands of "blackbirds" is being highlighted in a short film and helping younger generations to understand the sacrifices of their relatives.

Locals have captured the unique beauty and brilliance of the Gold Coast for ABC Open's Snapped project.

Celebrities like Pink and touring shows like Cirque du Soleil are motivating people to take up the art of aerial acrobatics. Kayleigh McMullen has opened up her own school in Coolum on the Sunshine Coast and says it is attracting people of all ages.

Now in its sixth year, the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF) continues to grow in size as well as national and international recognition. The three day event begins on July 31 and attracts visitors and exhibitors from around Australia and the world. ABC Far North spoke to a select few of the artists exhibiting at this year's event.

Researchers from the University of Western Australia (UWA) are spending their mornings chasing down the tiny marsupials to study their sugary diets.

Sale College science students swapped the indoors for the outdoors to take part in the Bug Blitz program and create an art installation for Lake Guyatt.

For the first time in 10 years, the annual Queensland Variety Bash has departed from Cairns.

Duneira is a late Nineteenth Century country house in Mt Macedon - but it has a curious history.

On a soft, misty morning, all was quiet and still on the swamp except for a piercing whistle and splashing of water.

On a bitter winters night in north west Queensland, a small rural community braved the cold to support the finals of local touch football competition's return.

Tom Duddy's passion for collecting dates back to his days as a young boy hanging around shearing sheds. Now he has used that passion to turn the Prairie Hotel into a one of a kind outback museum.

Spring is the busy season for WA Sea Bird Rescue rehabilitator Carol Biddulph, who cares for a menagerie of injured and orphaned birds at her Torbay home.

What does the future hold for regional towns? To some, it's about change. For others, it's about things staying much the same.

The north Queensland town of Ingham has no shortage of pasta makers. A large number of the town's residents are of Italian heritage - but the owners of the local pasta manufacturing business are not. Despite this they still have the approval of the local nonnas.

Spraying graffiti on heritage listed buildings is something that is usually frowned upon. But when it is done in an environmentally sound way, does no actual damage and delivers an important message about sustainability, the results are surprisingly well received.

It has been three years in the making: Justyn Atkins from Launceston is now putting the finishing touches on his trusty ute in preparation for the 2015 Deni Ute Muster.

Kimberley historian Dion Marinis has travelled to the US to meet the families of an air crew who died at Broome during the 1942 Japanese air raid on the remote town.

Sixth generation dairy farmers in Yandoit in central Victoria's bushland stick to what they know and love.

Launceston Country Women's Association (CWA) shop in Launceston is celebrating 60 years of operation in 2015.

After a sublime performance by the Vampires, some were saying that the newly constructed Pavilion at Bermagui may be the highest quality music venue between Nowra and Melbourne. The concert, presented by a local community group in a venue built by another local community group, combined a world-class band with an acoustically designed world-class venue.

Vic Jurskis says his new book, Firestick Ecology, is a simple story of how Aboriginal people managed the land through fire to create and maintain the biodiversity and the fire-safe environment that greeted the first European settlers. The sub-title is 'fairdinkum science in plain English'. He says that to conserve biodiversity and live safely, we need to manage our forests with fire 'willingly, frequently and, with practice, skilfully'. The evidence of our land management failure is all around us, he says.

Visitors to the City of Greater Geraldton's council chambers earlier this week were greeted with a display of more than 200 pink silhouettes strategically placed on the grassed area near the main entrance .

Musical therapist and violinist Greta Kelly uses the power of music to take people away from their daily worries. This is why she felt compelled to get in touch with Choir of Unheard Voices.

News Corp Australia claimed CSIRO's Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness in Geelong Victoria has been collaborating with the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

With the focus now firmly on rebooting Australia's economy, the Morrison Government intends to cut green tape and speed up nation building projects such as major roads, dams and mines.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who continues to be held in an Iranian prison throughout this pandemic, despite more than 85,000 prisoners being temporarily released in Iran.

Gary Nairn was the Federal Liberal MP for Eden Monaro from 1996 to 2007.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison wants "to get Australia back to work", and says he's now focused on flattening the unemployment curve and creating a "COVID-safe economy".

France has accused Beijing of concealing facts, while Germany has suggested it could demand compensation.

The Couch Choir is a digital initiative that's grown out of the Brisbane-based Pub Choir, which has cancelled all it's events because of the COVID-19 restrictions.

The small rural community of Torrita fights to keep safe speed limits through their town, and to acknowledge their existence.

Pauline Milich brought her 14th child into the world while helping another woman deliver a baby life was different in the early 1900s.

An 85-year-old woman in rural Victoria campaigns for a bus stop outside her retirement village.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's final report into the wine grape sector makes 10 recommendations to improve the efficiency and fairness of Australia's wine grape markets.

While a Victorian council rejects drought funding it says isn't needed, farmers in far-west New South Wales say they feel like they're in a "forgotten corner".