If you thought there were a lot more people around lately, you're not wrong. More and more people are out on the streets in Melbourne, anticipating an easing of coronavirus restrictions once the State of Emergency ends on May 11.

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.

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 man who raped a woman in his Melbourne apartment, which he described as "the perfect location", has been jailed for eight years for the "violent act" he inflicted on his victim.

Residents at a Victorian aged care facility where a staff member tested positive for coronavirus earlier this week have been given the all-clear.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the National Cabinet's plan to reopen Australia, but it will be up to each state and territory to decide how to roll it out. Here's what will change (or not) where you live.

A new respiratory clinic is expected to open in Wodonga next week to assess patients with fever and respiratory symptoms who meet the government criteria for COVID-19 testing.

A teacher having just returned from China still holds lessons while in precautionary quarantine by using technology that's educating in more ways than one.

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.

What would you reach for in the midst of a pandemic? A cursory look at what the world is googling tells vastly disparate stories about how people are coping with the coronavirus outbreak.

Sorell farmer Shane Newitt put six months of love into his giant pumpkin to compete at the Bream Creek Show, but its cancellation hasn't stopped him showing it off.

The mundane task of putting the bins out just got interesting, as people around the world don fancy dress for their weekly walk to the kerb — all in the name of finding some fun during social isolation.

Queensland law enforcement are undergoing a close shave of their own after being directed to shave for potential close-fitting masks to protect against coronavirus.

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

Captain Tom Moore, the British Army veteran who raised more than $55 million for Britain's National Health Service, tops the UK music charts with a cover of You'll Never Walk Alone.

Floodwaters are swelling rivers in drought-ravaged outback Queensland and lifting the spirits of graziers.

A flight school is forced to improve its safety regime after a student pilot who was sleep deprived and sick flew into Adelaide's controlled airspace after falling unconscious at the controls.

A man and woman are arrested after allegedly threatening a woman with a pocket knife and stealing her car before leading police on a chase in the Mid North of South Australia.

A world-leading agriculture business that uses sunlight and seawater to grow tomatoes has been sold but the final price is a closely-guarded secret.

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.

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

A diver reveals footage of the final resting place of Nyora, a beloved steam tug that sank in treacherous seas off South Australia 102 years ago.

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.

A woman and a man aged in their 50s are in a stable condition after the light plane they were flying in flipped upon landing at the William Creek Airport.

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.

Two men have died in a head-on truck crash on the Sturt Highway near South Australia's Barossa Valley region, as wild weather continues to hit the state.

After undergoing a multi-million dollar development, the Port Pirie smelter is once again not producing anything.

Dairy farmers say they are devastated a 10-cents-a-litre increase in the retail price of milk in July has not been passed on to them.

Allegations a female firefighter was grabbed by the neck by a male colleague, and another suffered burns after being "blocked" from leaving a house fire, spark an investigation at a regional SA fire station but the findings will not be made public.

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.

The wooden jetty and Whyalla catches fire, sending black smoke into the sky.

A couple charged with the criminal neglect of their baby boy fails to explain what happened to the child who was taken to hospital "close to death", a court hears.

Pelicans and other waterbirds are dying in the outback and disappearing from waterways, as the effects of drought compound an already-concerning long-term decline in populations.

Two chemical leaks from metals processor Nyrstar have made their way into Port Pirie's groundwater and a waterway over the past two years, the ABC can reveal.

A young child has been transferred to hospital in Adelaide with serious burns from a house fire that has also injured two other children and several adults at Port Augusta in South Australia's north.

A toddler has died in an Adelaide hospital after suffering horrific burns in a house fire in Port Augusta in South Australia's Mid-North last week.

Birdwatchers are spotting crimson and rare orange chats in southern Australia, refugees of the drought in the inland.

More than 3,000 World War II wrecks lie in the Pacific Ocean of which around 300 are oil tankers. There are fears of environmental devastation as they begin to rust and leak oil.

A NSW court hears a man accused of killing his girlfriend, Carly McBride, sought sex with another woman the day after the alleged murder.

A schoolgirl will bear the scars of a summer flu for life, after contracting the virus in March and spending weeks in intensive care.

Jenny and Graham Francis only recently learned both of their identities had been stolen.

NSW identity fraud victims want more done to stop imposters from using drivers licences to lodge bogus loan, credit and debit card applications.

While there is a push to close the gap on education, a NSW hostel for Indigenous boys has a waitlist that could take years to get through.