Experts say bushfires coupled with decreasing habitat in an urbanised landscape is taking its toll on wildlife and improved land management is crucial.

Three girls aged 12, 13 and 14, are before the courts over 13 grassfires police allege were deliberately lit on the New South Wales mid-north coast.

An innovative plan to flood a fireground is being employed on the NSW mid-north coast to extinguish a fire that has been burning for more than six weeks.

The winds are not giving firefighters any breaks as a fire in the Clarence Valley moves in on properties and blazes near Armidale and Tenterfield remain "absolutely enormous", according to the Rural Fire Service.

What started as a school project to make art from drink bottle lids has ended up with 3D-printed prosthetic limbs made from recycled plastic.

The number of homes lost to three fires in northern NSW rises to nine as strong winds continue to hamper the efforts of firefighters to bring them under control.

A 3.5-metre leopard seal has come ashore in northern NSW as authorities warn eager onlookers to keep their distance from the potentially deadly marine mammal.

Much-needed support is rolling in for drought-affected farmers hit by a massive bushfire burning in northern New South Wales.

Members of a NSW rugby league club who were photographed at an airport wearing offensive t-shirts emblazoned with a topless mermaid look set to face the wrath of the sport's officials.

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.

Coastal dairy farms are culling their herds because they can not afford to feed them while they and their communities feel the flow-on effect of drought.

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.

There are reports of property damage in the town of Darawank, north of Forster-Tuncurry on the NSW north coast where a bushfire is burning at emergency level.

Social media vision of three bushfires burning on the NSW north coast. An emergency declaration has been issued by the NSW RFS with homes under threat.

Irish empty-nesters Derek and Jackie Edwards are living the dream on the other side of the world, working on farms for food and board in Australia.

Emergency crews gain the upper hand in fighting 85 fires across NSW but two blazes near Forster-Tuncurry escalate again.

High temperatures and strong winds fuel blazes across the state, with at least two homes being destroyed near the town of Darawank on the NSW mid-north coast.

The Port Macquarie koala hospital fears more than 350 koalas may have died in a bushfire south of the town, with staff frustrated they cannot yet access the site.

Student Liam Birrer was supposed to be sitting a HSC exam instead he was fighting a bushfire in his local community.

The honey industry is facing hard times along with other producers, having taken a battering over recent years from the drought and a string of natural disasters.

Injured koalas receive life-saving treatment after surviving devastating bushfires on the New South Wales mid-north coast.

A piece of land formerly part of the Durack pastoral empire handed back to traditional owners.

Farmers who rely on the Ord River say big-city bureaucrats are getting in the way of progress in the WA region's landmark irrigation scheme.

The 1-tonne Cessna was lifted nearly 100km by the helicopter.

A remote WA distillery has teamed up with a brewery 4,000 kilometres away to create the state's first corn beer, direct from paddock to keg.

James Gino Salerno, who was once based in the Adelaide Hills, is jailed for at least eight years for repeatedly sexually abusing a teenage member of the group. His victim says other girls still in the cult "can sleep easy now".

One of the Top End's only female bull riders has taken on the US rodeo circuit despite suffering a serious shoulder injury just days from leaving.

Some Broome tourism businesses hope a parliamentary inquiry will lead to a crackdown on accommodation websites, while others say 'the sharing economy' needs support.

Emily Slattery, a doctor herself, describes the recent birth of her son George as "boringly normal", but in fact it was far from ordinary. By using an independent midwife instead of an obstetrician, she has become the first woman in WA to take advantage of a new option in maternity care.