Growing up alongside thesprawling green parks and shopping malls of Melbourne's Craigieburn, finding a connection to her Indigenous ancestry was complicated, until she was invited onto the remote and sacred lands of Lake Mungo.

If given the chance, which means protecting the waters and ecosystems, oceans can help in our challenge of turning around climate change.

In his first two international bestsellers Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse, Jared Diamond explored what makes civilizations rise and fall. Now in the third book in his trilogy, he reveals how successful nations recover from crisis.

Erin Godecke says when speech is lost following brain injury, the language is still present in the brain, it is the pathways which have been damaged and need repair. She says treatment can be any activity that requires the brain to accesses words such as talking or word games.

Catherine Hamlin was born in Sydney. She worked in Ethiopia pioneering medical treatment for young women damaged by unsuccessful childbirth. In 2000, Pauline Newman visited Catherine Hamlin and her famous hospital in Addis Ababa. Catherine Hamlin died in March 2020 at the age of 93. By way of tribute today we revisit Pauline’s program from nearly 20 years ago.

How do you police a dry community without a permanent police station? Locals have been left alone as alcohol abuse grows out of control.

Delicious home-cooked meals hand-delivered to the elderly residents in the remote community of Alpurrurulam are lifting the spirits of not just the recipients but also the workers.

The Woorabinda Aboriginal Shire Council in central Queensland gives its government-owned supermarket contractor the flick after years of battling inflated prices.

Alison Whitehead finishing one of her many extreme sport challenges

Ultra athletes like Kym Lynch push their body and mind for a challenge

In many small rural towns nurse practitioners are sole practice managers, writing prescriptions, billing through Medicare, and referring to specialists. Are they supported enough?

One high-tech regional library hosts a "zoom room" for video conferencing, an interactive jumping floor for kids, eBooks and eAudiobooks and yes, plenty of good, old-fashioned printed books.

Experts say the landmark High Court 'Crocodile case', which granted Indigenous Australians the right to fish and hunt for traditional foods, is still significant 20 years later.

An Australian fiddlemaker is helping to spice up the dying craft by creating Hardanger fiddles, a Norwegian instrument that gained international fame in The Lord of the Rings soundtracks.

Despite Labor's belief in a "mood for change" in Victoria, the only seats in the state likely to switch parties are those where boundaries had been redrawn since the last election.

Disgraced Cardinal George Pell will not seek a reduced sentence if the Court of Appeal upholds his conviction for sexually abusing two Melbourne choirboys in the 1990s.

The Catholic Cardinal is using three reasons to appeal against his conviction for sexually abusing two choirboys when he was archbishop of Melbourne in the 1990s. We explain what they are, and what the court will have to consider.

George Pell's lawyer tells an appeals court there are "questions of probability" over whether the child sex abuse offences the Cardinal is convicted of occurred, and a jury should have found him not guilty even if they believed his victim.

Prosecutors argue George Pell's victim was a "witness of truth" as they contend the disgraced Cardinal's child sex abuse convictions are "unimpeachable" and should be upheld.

A Ballarat magistrate dismisses an assault charge against a police sergeant, agreeing his use of force was "reasonable" during an altercation in which he punched his neighbour in the face.

The disgraced Cardinal faces claims he knew of child sex abuse by notorious paedophile Edward "Ted" Dowlan and was involved in moving him from school to school, allowing the abuse to continue.

Jailed Cardinal George Pell will front Victoria's highest court today to appeal against his child sex abuse convictions, arguing proper process wasn't followed at trial and a reasonable jury could not have found him guilty of the crimes.

Hundreds of abuse survivors could benefit from reforms that will allow them to sue their abusers, even if they signed "unfair" agreements not to take legal action.

Budget cuts, funding freezes, and tight rental markets put pressure on homeless services as more people end up on the street.

A man has pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of a former regional Victorian mayor near Ballarat in 2017.

This gaggle of geese is beloved by Instagrammers, but the local council says the abandoned birds are destroying the environment and must be rehomed.

Locals in the Victorian town of Daylesford say they are shocked and devastated by council's decision to remove an "aggressive" gaggle of geese from the area, describing them as "a bit of an icon" in the tourism hotspot.

Research into a mysterious substance that makes up 85 per cent of the universe, along with good old-fashioned gold and a new hydroponic farm, are driving a jobs boom in the small Victorian town of Stawell, but there's a problem.

Cardinal George Pell could be released from custody, ordered to face a new trial or sent back to prison when the Court of Appeal hands down its ruling next Wednesday. We explain the possible outcomes and what will happen next.

George Pell could walk from court today or be sent back to prison to serve the rest of his six-year term, depending on the outcome of his appeal against his child sex abuse convictions.

The former choirboy sexually abused by Cardinal George Pell welcomes the dismissal of Pell's appeal and says he hopes the "stressful" court process has come to an end.

The ABC understands the Victorian Department of Corrections considers the Hopkins Correctional Centre in Ararat, 200 kilometres west of Melbourne, to be the most appropriate place to send the high-profile cleric.

The Prime Minister suggests Cardinal George Pell will be stripped of his Order of Australia honour, as Pell plans to take his rejected appeal against his child sex abuse convictions to the High Court.

In the end, just as in the beginning, this was a case about two little boys and their battle with the world's third most-senior Catholic. And today, child protection won, writes Louise Milligan.

Ararat parish priest Father Andrew Hayes says the church should accept a court's decision to dismiss George Pell's appeal against his convictions, but the Melbourne Bishop is standing by the disgraced Cardinal.

In August 1978, someone entered Ballarat's art gallery, grabbed a 92-year-old painting off the wall, and walked out the front door. Now, the once cash-strapped gallery hosts international artists.

When the Victorian Court of Appeal upheld George Pell's convictions for abusing two choirboys, the decision was not unanimous. While two of the judges said Pell's victim was a "witness of truth", a third wanted to acquit the cardinal of his charges. Here's why.