Nicknamed "The Missile", James Magnussen decides to call time on his decorated swimming career, which included world championship gold and Olympic silver.

People on Lord Howe Island are trying to save their slice of paradise from a rat infestation, but a controversial eradication program has divided families and friends on the tiny outpost 600km off the NSW coast.

What would happen to the dynamic in a school if the students locked away their mobile phones for the day? A lot, it turns out and it's all positive.

Recent whale entanglements on the NSW coast highlight the man-made threats marine life face at an increasing rate, and experts say we can expect to see more.

Bound by tradition but using honey from stingless bees and Australian botanicals proves to be more than just a silver lining for a NSW distiller.

MORNING BRIEFING: Police investigate what is believed to be a human bone discovered by passers-by at a Port Macquarie beach, while a Sydney northern beach road is closed after a pedestrian was killed by a car overnight.

Corellas were once an inland bird but are now living in coastal areas in huge numbers which is causing human-wildlife conflict. What has driven their sea change and what are the solutions?

An Australian man and his partner are murdered in Canada, backpackers have disappeared from NSW. This is how police will begin to solve the mystery of what happened, writes Wayne Petherick.

A failure to look upward when parking by the river at a favourite roost for local pelicans has left a Port Macquarie man red-faced and his car disgraced.

Relatives visiting the gravestones of their family in a NSW town, who found the gravestones razed, thought it was the work of vandals.

Chef Julie-Anne Booth, after a lifetime sometimes cooking for royalty, is back home sharing her food experiences with regional food producers.

As debate continues over the best way to teach children to read, parents and experts say dyslexic students are falling through the cracks and struggling academically and emotionally.

MORNING BRIEFING: A guest is taken to hospital after fire guts a backpacker hostel in Coogee, while Mert Ney is due back in court over the alleged murder of Michaela Dunn and stabbing of Linda Bo.

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

Police recapture prisoner Matthew Furner, who escaped from custody at Port Macquarie Base Hospital on the NSW Mid North Coast and fled into nearby bushland.

Whitegoods repairman Bill Spedding tells an inquest into the disappearance of William Tyrrell he was having coffee with his wife on the day the toddler vanished, before revealing the "devastating impact" of the police investigation on his life.

Washing machine repairman Bill Spedding is seeking up to $1 million in compensation after accusing NSW Police of causing him "reputational damage" by wrongly linking him to the disappearance of William Tyrrell.

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.

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.

Wazza the koala has left carers astounded after she was collected by a car and endured a 10km trip down a major NSW roadway, only to bolt up a tree afterwards.

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.

In today's busy and technology-driven world, children are increasingly suffering from anxiety, and there's often little time to reflect, or play outside. Two NSW women are hoping to change that.

Australia's reigning Indigenous Drag Queen says it's tough being Indigenous, gay, and drag but it's important to be true to who you are.

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.

The whitegoods repairman who became the chief suspect in one of Australia's biggest child abduction mysteries reveals for the first time how the ordeal "shattered" his life.

Four Corners has obtained exclusive video of the police interrogation of washing machine repairman Bill Spedding, who was wrongly accused of abducting three-year-old William Tyrrell from outside a home on on the NSW mid-north coast.

The discovery of endangered quolls, bilbies, and rock wallabies on islands of habitat in the Great Sandy Desert offers a rare glimmer of hope for wildlife managers.

Conservation groups want harsher penalties for illegal land clearing, as the WA Government investigates a Chinese-owned company over the mysterious clearing of 120 hectares at a cattle station.

A magnitude-6.6 earthquake off the West Australian coast is felt across large parts of the state, but there are no reports of major damage.

In the Northern Territory, where much of the population is sparse and remote, there are still wide gaps in understanding superannuation.

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

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".

Where some people have seen wrecked cars in the desert, artists in a remote WA community saw a blank canvas. Rocked by two deaths, the people of Balgo have set about doing something special.

Katrina Francis and Alphonse Balacky are living proof that people can change. After suffering shocking abuse from Alphonse, Katrina now works with her partner to help men in Broome break the cycle of domestic violence.

A network of oil wells that involve fracking in the Great Sandy Desert, connected by pipelines to new and existing ports, may become Australia's biggest oil-producing project, according to traditional owners negotiating with the private company.

Survivor is a word thrown around fairly lightly, but in the case of German migrant Frauke Bolten-Boshammer, you can't help but feel she's earned the title 10 times over.

The harvest is underway at one of Australia's most remote pearl farms and its new owners are excited by what they see.