Fire ants are spreading into new areas across south-east Queensland according to a Biosecurity Queensland insider who says the war to eradicate the potential killers is all but lost, a claim vehemently denied by the man tasked with stopping the spread.

Calypso may be blind and deaf, but the gelding turns 50 today the day all horses in Australia have their birthday.

Helicopter vision shows a catamaran burning and sinking off Main Beach on the Gold Coast after eight people are rescued while whale watching.

Gold Coast woman Theresa Dalton is sentenced to six years in jail for hiring a hitman to kill her husband during their divorce battle, telling a Brisbane court it is a "catastrophic miscarriage of justice" because she is innocent.

An elderly Australian war veteran remembers helping to clean up in Japan after the atomic bombs.

A woman who says her daughter has been denied a wheelchair asks her local MP who's also the Minister for the NDIS to sit in on a meeting about the girl's needs.

Di White says her son Anthony, 36, needed a ventilator to breathe after his diagnosis and "really didn't have a life" in the 16 months before he died in the bathroom at the local tavern.

As the congestion issue in south-east Queensland brings traffic to a grinding halt on major roadways and a heightened scrutiny of the public transport system, the ABC takes a look at how commuters are being impacted across the region.

Australian pro surfer Owen Wright says he hopes others will follow his lead and start wearing safety helmets in the surf, yet one neurologist warns of the "super-hero complex" and says helmets are not a magic bullet.

Fire crews contain a blaze west of Kalbar on Queensland's Scenic Rim, as well as battling bushfires on multiple fronts near Canungra in the Gold Coast hinterland, with the Rural Fire Service saying resources are "stretched to the limit".

The Queensland Rural Fire Service says weather conditions indicate there will be an extreme to locally catastrophic fire danger in the Darling Downs, Granite Belt, Maranoa and Warrego today, as thick smoke hangs over the Gold Coast hinterland.

A research team is deployed in response to persistent smoke from a bushfire that has been burning for nearly two months in underground peat on the NSW Mid North Coast.

A novel idea to paint stairs the colours of a rainbow at Queensland's Rainbow Beach is at the centre of a two-year dispute after four words were added to the artwork.

More than 50 bushfires are burning in Queensland amid potentially catastrophic, hot and windy conditions. Emergency warnings are in place for fires near Stanthorpe in the state's south.

An incredible show of community spirit brings locals together in the Gold Coast Hinterland with dozens of Canungra residents rescuing animals from the fire front at nearby Binna Burra.

Free fuel, meals, and animal feed are among the supplies donated to volunteer firefighters and people affected by bushfires, as the emergency continues to unfold in southern Queensland.

Crews are battling 57 fires across Queensland including one that is out of control on the Gold Coast hinterland, with the QFES declaring the "unprecedented" blazes are just the start of a very severe fire season.

Queenslanders recall the nights in the 60s spent dancing in the hall of the Binna Burra Lodge the same place where hundreds of others have married the love of their life after fire guts the heritage-listed resort.

Authorities and families are on high alert as homes are lost across the state with dozens of fires burning in places including the Gold Coast hinterland at Binna Burra, and Stanthorpe and Applethorpe on the Granite Belt.

A singed and injured koala and her joey, who have become a symbol of hope and resilience amid Queensland's bushfire emergency, are slowly recovering in a Brisbane wildlife hospital.

More people over 65 are looking for work than ever before but many are not finding jobs, despite their valuable experience.

Alarming footage shows high winds driving a large bushfire overnight on the Sunshine Coast, where 10 homes have been lost at Peregian Springs and Peregian Beach.

Acting Queensland Premier Jackie Trad says the Gold Coast hinterland fire that swept through the area over the weekend included areas of rainforest a highly unusual event, but one that experts say is occurring more frequently in recent times.

Police are speaking to a number of teenagers over a fire that damaged homes at Peregian Beach overnight, as authorities continue to battle a blaze threatening large areas of the Sunshine Coast. See how events unfolded in our live blog.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is returning early from a trip to Switzerland because of the ongoing bushfire threat, with more than 80 fires burning across the state and a blaze at Peregian on the Sunshine Coast that is still out of control.

Images from the scene of Queensland's recent bushfires capture the devastation as scores of fires sweep across the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast hinterland and the Granite Belt.

As bushfires continue across south-east Queensland, doubt is cast over this year's Riverfire event in Brisbane and whether fireworks have a place in today's society.

The high temperatures and winds that have fanned severe bushfires in southern Queensland ease on Wednesday, but some communities need to stay alert with about 70 blazes still burning. Despite the reprieve, conditions are expected to worsen again on Friday.

After fires tore through parts of Queensland in an earlier-than-expected bushfire season, emergency services are warning of the growing threat to suburban backyards as the weather gets hotter and drier.

Firefighters from South Australia arrive in Queensland to give local crews a rest from battling bushfires, but the break may be short-lived with conditions forecast to get worse in the state later in the week.

A man is taken into police custody in relation to a car that crashed through the front of a house on the Gold Coast early on Sunday morning, leaving a teenage girl trapped inside.

A large bushfire that has claimed 11 properties in the Gold Coast hinterland as well as historic Binna Burra Lodge could have been deliberately lit, Queensland's Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll says.

An investigation is underway after two police officers fired their weapons during the dramatic arrest of a 53-year-old man suspected of lighting up to four fires in north Queensland.

Two people are treated for hypothermia after being plucked from the hull of their overturned boat in waters off the Gold Coast overnight.

Visitor numbers plummet on the Gold Coast hinterland and Scenic Rim after devastating bushfires razed parts of the regions earlier this month a double tragedy for local businesses.

A software firm develops smartphone keyboards specifically designed to write in traditional languages to help people protect their language.

A jockey who rode War Ends for a year and made numerous attempts to rehome him says she recognised the horse being slaughtered in an abattoir on the ABC's 7.30 program and laments she "failed" him.

Repair specialists say it is part of a growing trend which has seen the invasive Asian house gecko destroying cooling systems across New South Wales and Queensland.

While one in six Gold Coast properties could become 'uninsurable' due to natural disasters, its council has not had a climate change strategy since 2014.

Conservationists are claiming a coup after convincing Gold Coast Council to save a freshwater lake from being turned into a carpark.

Artists across Australia say they have mailed more than 1,400 artworks of the endangered black-throated finch to key politicians to express their grief over the mine's approval.