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Vivid Sydney timelapse a spectacular canvas of light covers city landmarks - video
Some of Sydney's famous landmarks, such as the Opera House, Museum of Contemporary Art and the city's Circular Quay, are transformed into a spectacular canvas of light as Vivid Sydney takes over the city after dark. Vivid Sydney is an annual event where immersive light installations and projections illuminate the city from 24 May until 10 June. In recent years the event has attracted ...
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Charities left at the altar after Edelsten wedding
It was billed as the ultimate wedding with a conscience. When Geoffrey Edelsten married Brynne Gordon, no expense was spared. A star-studded guest list, a video invitation made by the director ...
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Ill wind blows through Liberal ranks
A rift is widening in Coalition ranks over renewable energy targets, with several Liberal MPs planning to publicly defy the party line by attending a Tea Party-style anti-wind farm rally at Parliament House in Canberra. The rally is scheduled for June 18 and is being promoted through a clandestine group using a website called StopTheseThings.com, which provides no names of organisers or ...
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Industry push to allow gluten in gluten-free foods
Australian food manufacturers and suppliers are pushing to increase the amount of gluten allowed in so-called ''gluten-free'' foods on which thousands of people with digestive problems rely. The Australian Food and Grocery Council is preparing to ask Food Standards Australia New Zealand to relax its current standard, which states there must be no detectable gluten in foods ...
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Help for women veterans out of step study shows
Women veterans are not receiving the help they need to deal with sexual harassment and trauma, a three-year study has found. Many had served in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Gulf War and in key peacekeeping roles. Speaking anonymously, the 60 women who took part in the study told of a struggle with support services on return from deployment having, in many cases, been exposed to extreme trauma and ...
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Green light to work up a sweat
Parks and bushland are not just a soothing escape from the city grind - they also encourage people to exercise harder and more often. A new study of more than 200,000 Australians aged over 45 confirms that the grey-versus-green ratio in neighbourhoods can influence residents' health. It shows the more green space you have within one kilometre of your home, the more likely you are to walk, ...
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Wired for pain may be all gain
Imagine feeling pain and not being upset by it, or running a marathon and not feeling tired. It sounds like science fiction, but a group of researchers at the University of Canberra are at the cutting edge of research into how people can be made to feel differently about what happens to their bodies. Transcranial direct current stimulation, which is being tested at a number of universities ...
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So bad its good plain cig pack wins design plaudits
Cigarette packaging is deliberately unappealing. They are hated by smokers, show graphic pictures of rotting limbs and diseased eyeballs and have been the subject of a High Court challenge. But Australia's controversial olive-green plain cigarette packages have been shortlisted for a prestigious British design award. A panel of judges at the London Design Museum nominated the packaging ...
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Private schools foster prejudice ex-judge
Some non-government schools foster outdated prejudices about homosexuality, while Australia's public education system provides greater equality for gay and lesbian students, according to former High Court Justice Michael Kirby. In an address to Canberra's National Press Club, Mr Kirby said the increasingly disproportionate number of senior politicians and judges who were privately ...
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Mums the word but bureaucracy isnt listening
How to prove your mother is indeed your mother without a birth certificate or an old family snapshot - items lost when fleeing a bitter conflict that left thousands dead? Perhaps turn to a priest to lend support. Or better still, you will soon join the clergy and so swear an oath to God this is the woman who brought you into the world. But the word of Ladu Yanga, a deacon at Holy Spirit ...
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$5.5b indigenous reforms at risk
The promise of $5.5 billion to narrow the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous students will be at risk if the states do not sign up to the Gillard government's plan for school improvement, Schools Minister Peter Garrett has warned. More than $200 million is earmarked to improve the results of about 11,500 indigenous students in more than 1500 Victorian schools under the plan that so ...
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Battle not over for women returning home
Life-changing: Iraq veteran Karen Edwards, with daughter Lauren, 6, has endured the turmoil of PTSD. They are exposed to all the trauma of the front line and are employed in key peacekeeping roles. As medics they undertake some of the most horrifying tasks of war, treating the injured and coping with the dead. But recognition of returned servicewomen is scant compared with that afforded their ...
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Fighting cancer with a body of knowledge
A woman lies on an operating table, her breasts exposed. A surgeon uses a scalpel to pierce her skin with a scalpel, removing a small, hard lump of tissue - a tumour - and places it in a sterile tray. This clump of unruly cells has probably caused its owner unimaginable grief and worry, but its work is not done yet. A small laboratory in the corridors of Westmead Hospital awaits its arrival. ...
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Union fails to meet expectations
At the request of the happy couple, the guests were told bring envelopes containing donations rather than gifts. The Royal Children's Hospital, beyondblue, the Lighthouse Foundation - the list of charities set to benefit from the 2009 nuptials read like a roll call of Australia's top philanthropic bodies. But more than three years later, some of the charities say they are yet to ...
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More travellers taking a trip theyd rather forget
Behind bars: Number of Australians imprisoned overseas. Four Australian travellers a day are arrested for crimes around the world and statistics show a jump of almost 50 per cent from previous years. Figures from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade revealed that 1507 Australians were arrested or jailed for various crimes in the 2011-2012 financial year, up from 1067 in 2010-2011. ...
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Female veterans lack support study
Struggle: Karen Edwards. Former servicewomen have spoken of a lack of post-deployment support, with extreme trauma and sexual harassment raised as concerns in a three-year study. The in-depth report into the health and wellbeing of Australian female veterans has provided a stark insight into the support they receive after leaving the forces. The study commissioned by the Department of ...
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Capsized boat details mired in secrecy and difference in accounts
Secrecy still surrounds the events before an asylum seeker boat capsized, leaving 17 men drowned and another 73 missing, presumed dead, as the federal government keeps an official review of the incident under wraps. Widespread concerns were raised about the incident on June 21, after people on the boat rang authorities for help at least four times before the tragedy. On one occasion, they ...
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A race to drive you butternuts
Lake Burley Griffin is well known as the training ground for Australian Olympic rowers but the hollowed-out pumpkins racing on its waters are no challenge in the lead-up to the 2016 games. The inaugural pumpkin canoe race had only one starter on Saturday, a 202.5-kilogram monster, from the NSW town of Collector. Two pumpkins, both place-getters in the town's pumpkin competition, made ...
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Chinas rich pay way to new home
Wealthy Chinese immigrants are buying their way into Australia with 90 per cent of the 435 applications for a $5 million minimum investment visa taken up by Chinese nationals. So far two visas have been granted. The first was to a Chinese national. The Department of Immigration refused to reveal the nationality of the second. A spokesman from the department said there was an expectation ...
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Public sector better for gay students Kirby
Australia's public education system provides greater equality for gay and lesbian students while some non-government schools foster outdated prejudices about homosexuality, according to former High Court justice Michael Kirby. Speaking at Canberra's National Press Club on Friday, Mr Kirby said the increasingly disproportionate number of senior politicians and judges who were privately ...
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Natures gift is not yet history
series was watched by 500 million viewers), and the responsibility that brings is not lost on the veteran broadcaster. ''If you appear as frequently on television as I do, at least in Britain, that puts a bit of a responsibility on you. If I continually appear making natural history programs, people think I know something about it … but that's a heck of a lot of people who ...
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Three boats intercepted near Christmas Is
THREE boats carrying a total of 208 suspected asylum seekers have been intercepted in a 24-hour period near Christmas Island, including one close enough to be spotted by police on the ...
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The $600000 job no one wants
WA's Health Department has been without a director-general for almost six months after Kim Snowball quit in December, blaming the relentless nature of the job and health problems that forced him to take months off.The recruitment bill for a new health boss has now cost taxpayers almost $100,000 without a result. And it's not through lack of trying, with the Public Sector Commission ...
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Maccas fine for roaches
Stirling environmental officers had inspected the store on September 5 last year.City of Stirling lawyer David Nadebaum said conditions were so bad that inspectors even saw cockroaches in the building in broad daylight indicating a "substantial infestation" of the pests.He also said since June 2011, McDonalds had been fined four times in circumstances similar to the Innaloo breach, ...
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Perth climbers historic Mt Everest double
MARGARET Watroba has revealed she had to overcome injuries from a cycling accident that left her fearing she might not walk again properly - before she could climb to the top of Mt Everest this ...
Melbourne Featured
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Melbourne will be IT capital of country
Melbourne has been selected by the federal government as the location where the NBN’s operations centre will be headquartered, setting the stage for the city to become the IT, technology and communications capital of Australia.
Melbourne has a long-running rivalry with Sydney and, to a lesser degree, Perth. The two biggest cities in Australia competed intensely to be designated the capital in the early 20th century and Canberra was built from scratch and designated the national capital in large part because of such rivalry, but now Melbourne is set to have something that Sydney will not, the city has been officially chosen as the centre of operations for the ground-breaking National Broadband Network. Analysts and city leaders see the decision as one which will in time make Melbourne the IT hub of the country. Read more
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