Victorian Jobs Minister Martin Pakula and Education Minister James Merlino provide an update on the coronavirus outbreak on April 29, 2020. There has been one death, taking the state's death toll to 18.

The sinkhole, measuring 12 metres wide and five metres deep, developed in a broken pipe for stormwater access, the SES says. It came as Melbourne was hit by heavy rainfall ahead of three more days of wintry weather.

The coronavirus pandemic has made life harder for most people, but spare a thought for 66-year-old Isabel McLeary, who is looking after three teenagers with disability who can now only access vital support online.

For years, questions have been asked about what Cardinal George Pell might have known about clerical abuse within the Catholic Church. A report that could be released within days may give us the best answer we will ever get.

Internet search giant Google is ordered to pay $40,000 in damages to Melbourne lawyer George Defteros after a Supreme Court of Victoria ruling found the internet giant was a publisher, and had defamed the man.

Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor is farewelled as a dedicated "hero" who will always be remembered for making a "huge difference to the community", as Victoria Police officers observe a minute of silence for their colleague.

Fire season is officially over in southern Australia, but the work is only just beginning for the royal commission into the deadly crisis.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews responds to the state's Deputy Chief Health Officer's tweet comparing coronavirus to Captain Cook's arrival in Australia at a press conference on May 1, 2020.

A north-east Victorian alpine village says it will welcome visitors when restrictions allow despite uncertainty whether the ski season will go ahead at all.

A magistrate has apologised to a man who spent months behind bars waiting to be dealt with by the courts for minor theft charges.

A Senate inquiry into a possible cancer cluster on Victoria's Bellarine Peninsula hears evidence from high-profile lawyer Peter Gordon of a "disturbing number of cancer cases" connected to the early years of Bellarine Secondary College.

The federal Education Minister accused Daniel Andrews of "taking a sledgehammer" to schooling over his reluctance to reopen classrooms.

Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan accused the Victorian Premier of jeopardising the national consensus on Australia's coronavirus response be refusing to reopen classrooms.

For now, Australia appears to have kept the virus in check and avoided a full-blown coronavirus crisis. This data shows how we did it.

The funeral for Josh Prestney today was small but full of grief as family and friends farewelled the young constable who was called a hero.

Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas says casual public sector workers who have lost their jobs due to coronavirus will receive fortnightly payments if $1500, May 6, 2020.

In 1979, the CSIRO imported a boutique wine grape from France. Since then the drop has been celebrated by growers and experts alike — but it turns out they've been enjoying a different variety all along.

Shadow Local Government Minister Tim Smith and Ratepayers Victoria president Dean Hurlston are calling for rates to be frozen and for the State Government to do more to help council staff, May 6, 2020.

The findings are expected to reveal what the royal commission made of the evidence put before it about whether Cardinal Pell could or should have done more to prevent children from being abused by priests in the 1970s and 80s.

Australia's largest sawmill has stood down 51 workers in the south west Victorian town of Colac, as it prepares for a slow down in demand for its products.

The family of a man who went missing in Victoria's Latrobe Valley last month say they "fear the worst" and are urging anyone who has seen him to contact police.

Looking to replace the second oldest radar on its network at Mildura airport, the BOM marks a spot at Cullulleraine.

A woman who suffered a miscarriage in mandatory COVID-19 quarantine was forced to stay in a hotel room for five days after the traumatic event because the Victorian Health Department failed to act on an order to release her.

Forestry academics have issued a warning over the Victorian Government's decision to scale back the harvesting of native timber forests in the lead-up to a 2030 ban.

The Victorian Government launches a new campaign against family violence, as St Vincent's Hospital records a doubling of family violence victims presenting to its emergency department during the coronavirus pandemic.

There are plenty of ways to celebrate Mother's Day without even leaving the house, even if your family is spread across the country. Here's how some families are celebrating.

A self-styled daredevil who taught himself rocket science in a bid to prove the Earth is flat dies after crashing his homemade rocket in California.

A woman who says she has only been a fan of the iconic rock band Queen for about a year sets the Guinness World Record for clocking up approximately 240 hours, or 10 consecutive days, watching Bohemian Rhapsody in cinemas.

Erin Hext is an experienced bushwalker, who set out on a day hike near Hobart well prepared. She didn't expect to make the return journey in a rescue helicopter.

It's been revealed a third of reported cane toads in NSW are misidentified and are in fact native — and even endangered — frogs.

Inspired by Tourism Australia's Matesong video, locals in south-west Queensland write their own version with the banks of the Balonne River standing in for the beaches of Sydney.

If you think being stuck in short quarters with your family is hard, this family has have been living afloat overseas since September and 'boatschooling'.

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.

Why do old books smell like chocolate, vanilla, grass clippings and old socks? There's a scientific explanation.

It took two years, countless phone calls and the determination of 84-year-old grain farmer Jim Sawyer, but Australia's only known cross-legged Stover windmill has been restored to its original glory.

The officer realised something was unusual when he could not see the driver. Then the boy said he was on his way to California to buy a Lamborghini.

A war veteran in outback South Australia is saving war memorabilia from being discarded, sold online, and hidden away in storage.

The Coalition has promised to fix 1,600km of SA's dog fence if it returns to government, an announcement warmly received after almost 20,000 sheep were lost to wild dogs last year.

The Coalition's candidate for the marginal South Australian seat of Mayo moderates her previous position that the minimum wage and penalty rates should be abolished.

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 community weeks away from being evicted has launched legal action against the South Australian Government in a bid to stop their town's closure.

Aboriginal traditional owners hit out at legal action launched by residents of a condemned outback town, with one leader saying the argument amounts to the second taking of Aboriginal land.

Drugs including ice are readily available and "coming through the front door" of a South Australian jail, an inquest into a fatal overdose of a prisoner finds.

Heavy rain has fallen over parts of South Australia, providing desperately-needed relief for some of the state's farmers but unfortunately some areas have missed out.

Mining giants Rio Tinto, BHP and Glencore have listed several of their tailings dams across Australia as being at "high" or "extreme" risk to public safety if they fail.

The upcoming cinema blockbuster Mortal Kombat is only a small part of South Australia's booming entertainment sector, and many people say the jobs are starting to flow.

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.

Holowiliena Station is in the grip of a horror drought, but reviving an ancient trade is proving a lifeline to this farming family.