Taxpayer investments and the water market are making irrigation more efficient and reducing Murray-Darling's base flow. Here's what needs to happen next, write Q J Wang and Avril Horne.

More than 700,000 people could lose their primary connection to the outside world as the NDIS rollout leaves Vision Australia Radio without essential government funding to stay on air.

End-of-year formal costs can be huge and for many farming families, it's a cost they struggle to afford. So a NSW woman is doing something about it.

Authorities discover more than 120 dead native birds, believed to have been poisoned, on a rural property in northern Victoria.

The parents of a teenage girl who died after falling off a horse say riders are subjected to avoidable risks when there is no way to trace an animal's history.

A significant move by the Anglican Church to bless the marriage of two gay priests at a ceremony this week has been postponed due to a legal challenge.

Victims of a bushfire almost a decade ago are set to receive millions of dollars in compensation following a ruling by the High Court.

Voting opens for Victorian Aboriginal communities to elect the people who will help make the rules for what are expected to be the first treaty negotiations in Australia.

A $30 million proposal for a sheep abattoir that would employ 150 full-time workers is opposed by a group of residents, who are concerned about potential health impacts and devaluation of their properties.

A cow has amazed a pair of cattle farmers and fascinated a veterinarian after giving birth to rare quadruplets.

As farming groups lobby the Federal Government to take action on soaring water prices, water brokers warn some irrigators will be worse off if the Government intervenes in the trade.

The Albury community rallied in the middle of the night to guide an aircraft to a safe landing after it became lost in a thunderstorm on the final leg of the famous London to Melbourne Air Race.

Ahead of a fierce fire season, a cadet program for volunteer firefighting prompts school students to join their local Rural Fire Service brigade.

DNA testing has confirmed that a "seriously cute" little dog that crash-landed into a Victorian backyard is an endangered breed of dingo.

A small rural shire in northern Victoria that missed out on a Federal Government drought grant is rejoicing after the decision was reversed.

The group representing Victoria's councils calls for organisations like independent schools, pokies clubs and churches to pay their fair share of rates because "mum and dad homeowners" are unfairly cross-subsidising private and commercial enterprises.

The Northern Territorys first known contract killer may have accidentally died in his prison cell after using drugs, investigators believe.

In their ruling, the three Court of Appeals judges say a couple who were inside the home had not done anything to "revoke or negate" the implied right for police to walk up their footpath and approach the door.

Embattled regional airline Airnorth is in for a run for its money as competitor airlines line up for the NT Government-subsidised contract.

Emergency warnings for bushfires burning near Darwin have been downgraded as fire crews battle to prevent the further spread of fire.

Scorched earth and burned toys show just how close a family's home came to destruction during rural Darwin's bushfire emergency.

A rare copy of the nearly 40-year-old documentary Dirt Cheap, which details the early resistance against uranium mining in Kakadu National Park, is rediscovered in Darwin.

A mayor, an electrician and a prison manager will try to help the Country Liberal Party claw back some seats in next year's NT election.

Indigenous athlete Shericka Mahoney only received her running blade in June but has set records for long jump and the 100-metres at a national athletics event.

Yolngu people in north-east Arnhem Land consider white ochre sacred and source it to use in ceremonies and art works. A recent discovery beneath a community art centre has the Yirrkala community celebrating.

An advocate and author whose work was pivotal in exposing the history of the removal of Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory has been remembered for her strength and fierce commitment to social justice.

The chief executive of the Nhulunbuy Corporation has been connected to a series of serious governance issues during her time as the CEO of a remote WA shire.

An Australian fast food giant launches a '0 per cent beef' burger that aims to imitate the real thing and appeal to meat lovers' tastes.

Young people in the Top End are returning 'in droves' after tasting life elsewhere and they think they are onto a good thing, a national survey finds.

A young teenage girl is forcibly stripped and kept naked in a police cell for almost an hour after being briefly forced into one of the spit-hoods banned in youth prisons ahead of the Northern Territory royal commission.

In the turbid waters of the Wessel Marine Park in the Gulf of Carpentaria, an underwater garden of sponges, corals and creatures is revealed.

An Aboriginal corporation in the Kimberley is set to become the first to commercialise the breeding of native freshwater prawns.

Live export ships on most short voyages to South-East Asia will no longer be required to carry independent observers in a Government policy change applauded by the industry.

Uluru custodian Sammy Wilson says the closure of the climb has been a long time coming and wants to honour the Anangu who did not live to see it.