What does it take to prepare for a pandemic? Many hospitals around the world are already overwhelmed by patients infected with COVID-19. Australian doctors and nurses are bracing for something most of them have never faced before. In our country hospitals, resources are already stretched: beds are in short supply and there’s a greater proportion of older people. Preparation will, in many cases, be the difference between life and death.
 ABC National Regional Reporter Jess Davis takes us inside the Wimmera Base Hospital in Horsham, Victoria, as the team tries to prepare for the unimaginable.

How the Wiradjuri people, indigenous to the Central West of New South Wales, survived European settlement.

The Federal Government has handed Norfolk Island a lifeline to save its tourism industry, but locals have railed against their offering saying it could turn tourists away.

At the end of the bitumen road and surrounded by parched grazing land, Ivanhoe, like many outback towns, is fighting for survival.

A Dubbo man is handed a community correction order and community service after pleading guilty to animal cruelty following his appearance in a video of an emu being plucked.

The commission, sitting in Mudgee, hears how home care providers are charging for services that haven't been delivered in rural and remote areas.

After years of funding cuts, many arts organisations will struggle to survive the COVID-19 pandemic without more government support. Playwright David Williamson and arts academic Jo Caust, discuss what needs to happened to ensure the sector survives.

Academic and former Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani argues that the coronavirus pandemic will accelerate a power-shift, from west to east.

The Federal Writers' Project, established by President Roosevelt in July 1935 as part of the New Deal, provided jobs for out-of-work writers during the Great Depression. Australian authors Jeff Sparrow and James Bradley discuss whether a similar literary stimulus package could work today.

Cuban doctors and nurses have been working in some of the most challenging emergencies around the globe for many years including the Ebola crisis in West Africa and the aftermath of Chernobyl. Now they are working to treat patients with COVID-19 in 22 countries including Italy.

Conservationists are hoping the coronavirus pandemic will force governments to take action against the wildlife trade. But will stricter legislation push wildlife traffickers deeper underground?

A compelling account of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident . Not only did the fallout contaminate half of Europe it changed the course of history. When the nuclear reactor exploded it set off another explosion that no-one had predicted -the collapse of the Soviet Union.  

Are some people born evil? If modern science could identify ‘evil’ people, would we have the responsibility to remove them from society? What is the difference between evil and merely bad? On Big Ideas a panel of experts explores the meaning of evil in a contemporary and historic sense. Evil is often seen as “profound immorality”. Yet at the same our notion of evil varies with culture, century and context.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are increasingly entering the realm of art and also advertising. What does that mean for our notion of creativity? And how do persuasive algorithms work?

Indigenous women who are victims of family violence often also suffer from multiple disadvantage. A specialist indigenous legal service provides culturally appropriate support and counselling. And the long struggle for indigenous women to gain equal voting rights with their white sisters.

This year is crunch time for determining whether it is still possible to save our planet. In 2020, all major conventions dealing with climate change and biodiversity will meet and decide on the emission levels ambitions that every nation must adopt. While leaving no doubt about the urgency of action on climate change, conservationist Aila Keta is optimistic. She sees very encouraging new initiatives coming out of the finance and the banking sector.

Trust is in short supply. Surveys have long indicated declining trust in institutions, and in political leaders. We are also suspicious of expertise, and of the experts who provide it. Faced with the threat of a pandemic, who can we trust?

Despite encouraging signs of a slowdown in infection rates, we’re still in the middle of a global pandemic. The economic and social effects of Covid-19 will be far-reaching. On the other side of this pandemic will there be a new world order? How is the virus affecting the US-China relationship, South-East Asia and the global balance of power?  

Blowflies could hold the key to managing the most damaging pest to Australian agriculture and the country's biodiversity.

WA has now posted six days in a row without a new case of COVID-19 after no new cases were recorded overnight, with 95 per cent of people who contracted the virus in the state now recovered.

The accused triple-murderer tells police "you gotta be joking" during previously unseen footage of his arrest at his Perth home back in 2016 for the Claremont serial killings.

Wildlife parks have a long road back to financial buoyancy after coronavirus restrictions stripped them of their sole source of income; visitors, and some operators are dipping into personal savings just to keep their animals fed.

Campers on the north coast of Western Australia have had the "really rare" chance to walk next to a feeding whale shark estimated to be seven to 10 metres long.

Accused Claremont serial killer Bradley Edwards is at the centre of the longest and most expensive criminal trial in Western Australia's history and yesterday was the first time the public heard from him.

Western Australia reports no new cases of COVID-19 overnight, marking a full week since its last positive test, with the Premier calling it an "amazing and incredible and terrific" result.

With hundreds of free activities and workshops, this curated project is a chance to learn new skills, battle boredom, and connect with like-minded people.

Australia's mineral exploration industry has warned up to 600 full-time jobs are at "immediate risk" and potentially thousands more under threat as mining companies respond to the coronavirus outbreak.

A shire in Western Australia's Wheatbelt region is set to inject more than $150,000 into its economy by providing residents with "Narrogin Dollars".

Australia is Women's T20 World Cup champion again after thumping India by 85 runs in front of a whopping 86,174 people at the MCG.

It was predictably branded as "politically correct". Yet rather than a legitimate beef with the promotional video, you wonder if the real objection was that it did not fit the needs of those yearning for the past, writes Richard Hinds.

NRL fans will get to see games this weekend before the code heads behind closed doors and the AFL will not allow fans to games for the "foreseeable future".

A recent inquiry finds first responders have PTSD at a rate more than double that of the general population. So how are those who care for us caring for themselves?

This couple's love affair was sparked by an innocent remark about mince pies during the interval of a show many years ago.

How scientists "read" two-million-year-old teeth and uncovered the hidden breastfeeding patterns of our ancient ancestors.

A magistrate who found a Nimbin Mardi Grass festival worker not guilty of drug driving has blasted the NSW Government's advice to motorists, saying it "lulls them into a false sense of security".

In 1979, protesters blocked the path of bulldozers to stop the logging of a rainforest on the New South Wales north coast, the first blockade of its kind in Australia.

The 18-year-old has been missing for over three months, and was last seen in Byron Bay at the end of May.

Police say a pipe bomb found in Mullumbimby on the NSW far north coast has been rendered safe and has been taken away for forensic examination.

The tourist mecca's potholes are legendary, and locals are taking matters into their own hands as the mayor laments that the town's affluent profile means little to its financially-struggling council.

Up to 20 homes and structures are destroyed in the village of Rappville, as watch and act warnings are issued for several bushfires burning within 100km of each other in northern NSW.