Our starting point for all commemorations must be deep sorrow, not only for the lives lost, but the effects on those who remained. By Peter FitzSimons.

Humpback whales, once hunted around the world to the point that they became so rare that the industry built on their blubber went belly-up, is booming. The world's largest population passes through Australia's Kimberley, a region that provides ideal and undeveloped calving grounds, researchers say. Since the whaling stations were closed, humpbacks that visit Western Australia have become the good news story that defies the trend of environmental doom and gloom.

Design: Denomination Project Type: Produced, Commercial Work Client: Strongbow Australia Location: London, UK Packaging Contents: Cide...

Graham Morant stood to receive A$1.4m (£770,000; $1m) from his wife's life insurance policy.

One of the great Australian trees – messmate stringybark, Eucalyptus obliqua.

A small number of products labelled gluten-free on the supermarket shelf may not be what they claim to be, a new study reveals.

The secret tactics used by global chemical giant Monsanto, to protect its billion-dollar business and its star product, the weed killer, Roundup.

Australian artist Michael Pederson, better known as ‘Miguel Marquez Outside,’ isn’t interested in art galleries. He prefers to hide his strange and witty signs throughout cities like Sydney to be noticed and enjoyed by the public. If all the official signage that can be found around an average city bores you, you might not even notice the ones that are a little bit off, warning you of dangerous pigeons and tiny sinkholes.

Rich visual parallels between [Australian] Indigenous artworks and microscopic natural structures hidden in the world around us reveal unexpected and intriguing similarities that can deepen our respect for our country and its stories. By Roger Wepf.

The assistant treasurer, Stuart Robert, has blamed “connectivity issues” for charging taxpayers more than $2,000 a month for his home internet. On Friday, Fairfax Media reported that Robert’s expenses for home internet were 20 times higher than that of other federal parliamentarians. Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority records confirm his average monthly spending exceeded $2,000 in the most recent quarter.

Powerful immunities, negotiable backdoors. No exclusions for conduct that causes serious loss of, or damage to, property; or causes significant financial loss to another person.” No requirement for agencies to keep any records of, or notify anyone about, what civil immunities it offered providers.

The Australian government has backed coal-fired power, despite the recommendations of a major report on climate change. Phasing out coal is considered crucial to limiting global warming to within 1.5C, as set out in the UN report released yesterday. Australia's deputy prime minister has said the country should "absolutely" continue to use and exploit its coal.

The Australian government has said that an "administrative error" prompted 23 of its senators to vote for a motion which stated "it is OK to be white". The motion by Pauline Hanson, leader of the anti-Islam One Nation party, also condemned "anti-white racism". It was defeated 31-28 in a vote on Monday. Critics noted that the phrase "it's OK to be white" has been associated with trolls and white supremacist groups.

Abortion will no longer be a crime in Queensland, after state MPs voted on Wednesday night to remove the procedure from the criminal code. The historic reforms were passed in the Queensland Parliament on Wednesday night via a conscience vote, with the support of LNP members Tim Nicholls, Jann Stuckey and Steve Minnikin helping to ensure its success at the second reading and final vote.

Uluru. Needs no explanation. Truly difficult to capture the massiveness of this sandstone formation. Every cleft and imperfection has cultural/"Dreamtime" significance. Unfortunately, the bush flies kept me from staying longer. You can see the smoke from controlled spinifex burnings begins the rock. You can see in the middle, a group of people walking on top. Picking up some Aboriginal hitchhikers, their first question was if I had climbed it.

The Australian government wants to increase the criminal penalty for refusing to decrypt data from 2 years to 10 years.

Greek port authorities are expected to give an update into the death of Australian Instagram influencer Sinead McNamara, whose body was found on board a luxury yacht. The vessel is owned by Mexican billionaire magnate Alberto Baillères, and has been ordered by the Hellenic Coast Guard to remain docked at the port of Argostoli, on the Ionian island of Kefalonia, while detectives interview crew members and forensic tests are carried out. An autopsy has been ordered, to determine the cause of Ms McNamara's death.

A new bill will help its intelligence agencies circumvent encryption. And what starts Down Under won’t necessarily stay there.

A man has appeared in court charged with five counts of murder after twin girls, their three-year-old sister, mother and grandmother were found dead in Perth. The bodies of Mara Lee Harvey, 41, her three-year-old daughter Charlotte, two-year-old twins Alice and Beatrix, and their grandmother Beverley Ann Quinn, 73, were found at a Bedford home, in Perth’s inner northeast, on Sunday.

Loot boxes in games could lead to problem gambling, according to a study by the Australian Environment and Communications Reference Committee. Over 7,400 game enthusiasts were surveyed for the study, the results of which were presented during a public hearing in Canberra yesterday, as part of the Australian senate inquiry into micro-transactions and chance-based items.

Over the past week, people in Australia have started noticing needles hidden in fruit: first in strawberries, and now in an apple and a bananas. Two people who accidentally ate the needles had to go to hospital, and the trend has thrown the Australian fruit industry into crisis.

A large section of an Australian beach suddenly collapsed into the sea due to erosion, authorities said on Monday. The landslip, up to 300 metres wide, took place at Inskip Point in Queensland, reports news agency BBC. The authorities were however, not sure whether the incident took place on Sunday or Monday. "It's likely this erosion has been caused by the undermining of part of the shoreline by tidal flow, waves and currents," Queensland's Department of Environment and Science said in a statement.

Dozens of new creepy crawlies have been discovered on Queensland's Cooloola Coast in the space of one weekend, and scientists believe there are many more out there waiting to be found. The thought of 37 new spider species might send shivers down most people's spines, but for spider expert Robert Whyte, it is exciting.

Miner Henry Dole was in for a shock when he went into the Beta Hunt mine in southwestern Australia after the workers set off some explosives. "Everything was covered in dust, and as I watered the dirt down there was just gold everywhere, as far as you could see," he told Australia's ABC News. "There was chunks of gold in the face, on the ground, truly unique I reckon. ... I nearly fell over looking at it ... we were picking it up for hours."

Cervical cancer is set to become a rare disease in Australia within just two years and rendered so uncommon by 2028 it will be deemed eliminated as a public health problem for the first time anywhere in the world. The new forecast has been detailed in research in the Lancet Public Health Journal, which found that although global deaths from the disease still exceed 310,000 each year, Australia is heading towards a scenario where cervical cancer would be almost unheard of.

Black wattle is part of Australia's iconic acacia family, but it's largely regarded as a pest overseas. But this fast-growing plant is a boon to gardeners, improving soil and sheltering other plants.

The Dietitians Association of Australia has pledged to cut financial ties with the sugar lobby following a series of investigations by science journalist Dr Maryanne Demasi for michaelwest.com.au.

Searching a smartphone is different from searching luggage. Our smartphones carry our innermost thoughts, intimate pictures, sensitive workplace documents and private messages.

The Australian Academy of Sciences has released a 10-year plan aimed at developing a better understanding of Australia’s mineral wealth. It proposes creating a three-dimensional map of the continent. Scientists want the map to show rocks and minerals to a depth of up to 300 kilometers.

When military dog Kuga and his special operations handler Sergeant J were choppered into Khaz Uruzgan in Afghanistan on a mission to locate a high-value Taliban target, they didn't know they were walking into an ambush.

The kangaroo was moments from death when two police officers jumped into the sea to rescue it.

It’s just over one month since the Hornsdale power reserve was officially opened in South Australia. The excitement surrounding the project has generated acres of media interest, both locally and abroad. The aspect that has generated the most interest is the battery’s rapid response time in smoothing out several major energy outages that have occurred since it was installed.

Australia is calling on the world's top scientific minds to help save the Great Barrier Reef, offering hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund research into protecting the world's largest living structure. The UNESCO World Heritage-listed reef is reeling from significant coral bleaching due to warming sea temperatures linked to climate change.

A 14-year-old girl who was the angelic face of an iconic Australian bushmen's hat brand was remembered by hundreds of mourners Friday after her suicide focused attention on the dangers of cyberbullying. The memorial service for Amy "Dolly" Everett was held in the tiny Northern Territory town of Katherine near her family's cattle ranch. Most mourners dressed in her favorite color, blue, and many had driven hundreds of miles from distant ranches.

There are calls for the Catholic Church's tax-free status to be reviewed after a Fairfax investigation revealing the extent of property, assets and investments owned by the church in Australia. Fairfax's six-month investigation found the Catholic Church was worth more than $9 billion in Victoria alone. The investigation extrapolated that figure to estimate the church's national wealth at $30 billion. The Age's journalists obtained property valuations from dozens of Victorian councils.