Sydney weather: final burst of summer breaks 28-year record

Brett Dutschke Sydneysiders enjoyed a final burst of summer on Thursday, experiencing the warmest day for this late in autumn in 28 years.

$20m WA native land deal clears way for Anketell Port

NARELLE TOWIE Aboriginal land owners have signed a $20 million deal with the West Australian government paving the way for the development of a new port and iron ore export route from the Pilbara.

Sydney bathes in autumn warmth

Brett Dutschke, Weatherzone Sydneysiders are being bathed by late-season warmth, the warmest for this late in autumn in 28 years, with the city exceeding 29 degrees at lunchtime.

eReefs tool to assess health of the Great Barrier Reef

CAMERON ATFIELD Measuring the impact on the Great Barrier Reef of industry and disasters such as the recent tropical cyclone Ita has been made a whole lot easier with the introduction of a new satellite based tracking system.

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WA drivers warned to watch for black cockatoos

ALEISHA ORR More than 85 black cockatoos have died after being hit by cars in the past two months prompting a warning for south coast motorists to be extra cautious.

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Spotty the frog puts in a magnificent Easter Show performance

ESTHER HAN Colourful reptiles come to the fore as the Easter Show starts to wind down.

Injection culls reef-killing crown of thorns starfish

It's a killer jab that's injecting new life into the Great Barrier Reef.

Just chilling until it's time to switch on the heaters

JOHN-PAUL MOLONEY Like planting tomatoes after Melbourne Cup Day, the "rule" of Canberra is that heaters shouldn’t go on till Anzac Day.

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Clearer skies ahead after winds rip through Victoria

Aisha Dow, Deborah Gough Trains back on schedule as rain clouds clear following a morning of weather-related chaos.

Above average temperatures consign doonas to the cupboard

James Robertson A few days out from the Anzac Day dividing line used by many, Sydney is deciding whether it's time to get out the doona.

Sick puppy: the photo that sparked an online backlash against Westfield

AMANDA HOH It's the pitiful photo that launched an online backlash against Westfield. But there's more to the situation than the photo would suggest.

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Foreign predators threaten bilbies

INGA TING If meeting the royal family - including two future kings - is not enough to boost your public profile and help save your species from extinction, who knows what is?

Little penguins big in scientific studies

NICKY PHILLIPS The kill takes no more than a few seconds. When little penguins are about to snaffle a fish they speed up on their prey before stopping mid-water where, with head down and tail up, they swallow their catch whole.

Recycling issue brewing in George Clooney's Nespresso campaign

Neil McMahon In marketing terms it's a match made in moneymaking heaven - but George Clooney, king of cool turned emperor of the coffee-pod people, may be serving up a less-than-perfect brew as a caffeine pitchman. Clooney promotes a product whose invasion of our homes may come with serious environmental consequences.

Japan strikes back on whaling

ANDREW DARBY Japan has laid out a roadmap back to commercial whaling in its first comprehensive response to the International Court of Justice ban on its Antarctic "scientific" hunt.

Japan will 'redesign' Antarctic whaling program to make it more scientific

Japan could have harpoon ships back in the Southern Ocean next year, giving a bullish response to a UN ruling calling its whaling a commercial hunt masquerading as research.

Abbott urged to ensure Japan abides by International Court's whaling decision

ANDREW DARBY The Abbott government has been warned it must ensure that Japan abides by an International Court of Justice ban on Antarctic whaling after lawmakers in Tokyo passed a resolution effectively rejecting the judgment.

Bio-energy to reduce emissions

TOM ARUP Technologies that suck greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere, surveyed this week in a major report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, could play a significant role in cutting Australia's emissions by 2050, according to local modelling.

NSW government divided over allowing anglers to fish in marine parks

PETER HANNAM The O'Farrell government remains divided over to whether to make permanent a so-called amnesty allowing anglers to fish in marine parks, delaying a decision possibly until after the elections next March.

Sydney commuters face a wet trip home

Rob Sharpe Sydney, the Illawarra and Hunter coastlines are expecting a wet afternoon and evening.

Total lunar eclipse to turn moon red

Deborah Gough, Ed Bodkin Sky-watchers are expected to forgo Creedence Clearwater Revival's warning and venture out for a ''bad moon on the rise'' on Tuesday night.

Rare whale fossil sets jawbones wagging at Museum Victoria

BRIDIE SMITH A rare fossilised whale skull found by chance deep in the remote waters of the Southern Ocean has been donated to Museum Victoria.

Canberra's autumn rainfall average exceeded in just six weeks

HENRY BELOT Canberra has exceeded the average autumn rainfall just six weeks into the season.

Acidic water robs reef fish of survival instinct

BRIDIE SMITH An acidic environment makes reef fish become attracted to the smell of their predators.

UN calls for drastic action to stop climate change

Nick Miller, Berlin and Tom Arup The world must take radical steps to combat climate change, and begin right away – but if it does, the cost of a greener, healthier future will be surprisingly small.

Sydney wetter than Darwin, but end of rain is in sight

RACHEL OLDING Sydney's long summer has gone to the dogs, with weeks of drizzle driving beachgoers off the sand and into autumn hibernation.

Aussies to dig at the heart of Borneo as coal projects threaten nature

Jenny Denton Coal projects in Indonesia risk damage to one of the world's great natural treasure troves.

Dogs go from pets to members of our families

Neil McMahon Our dogs used to claim a patch of backyard dirt. These days, they own your doona.

Toxic estuaries in NSW making rock oysters infertile

NICKY PHILLIPS High concentrations of metals in Port Jackson, Port Kembla and Botany Bay are having a major impact on marine life, researchers have found.

Cooktown cleans up after Cyclone Ita

Danielle Cronin, Michaela Whitbourn As 300 residents in the Cooktown cyclone shelter made their way into a windswept town on Saturday, some things had changed in the hamlet of 2300.

Huge surf as gales batter city and rain lashes Sydney basin

Leila Abdallah Sydney experienced its own gale-force winds, massive surf and soggy conditions as severe weather warnings were broadcast throughout Saturday.

Real cost of natural disasters burns up NSW state budget

KIRSTY NEEDHAM The NSW government has been hit with ballooning disaster response costs as major fires and floods continue to blow budget forecasts.

Japan's whalers expect to return to Antarctic

ANDREW DARBY Japan's whalers expect to return to the Antarctic, despite losing an International Court of Justice (ICJ) case Australia brought against them that bans their hunt.

Tropical Cyclone Ita leaves trail of destruction along far north Queensland coast

Cameron Atfield in Cairns Tropical Cyclone Ita has torn roofs from houses and pubs, uprooted trees and left thousands without power.

Japanese whalers plan new Antarctic hunt

ANDREW DARBY Japan's whalers expect to return to the Antarctic, despite losing an International Court of Justice case brought against them by Australia banning their current hunt.

Families flee as 'killer' cyclone looms

TONY MOORE More than 1000 residents of remote northern Queensland communities sought refuge in a communal storm shelter on Saturday after the state's emergency minister warned cyclone Ita could be a killer.

Green tech revolution needed to avoid climate change dangers, says Nicholas Stern

Peter Hannam and Tom Arup Lord Nicholas Stern, author of a landmark 2006 study on climate change, says his conclusion global output could dive 5-20 per cent without action to curb greenhouse gases was an underestimate.

Cyclone Ita due to hit tonight and likely to lift roofs, uproot trees

PETER HANNAM Trees will start to topple, roofs will be sucked up and solar panels might start flying like Frisbees as severe tropical Cyclone Ita makes landfall in far north Queensland this evening, wind experts say.

Bob Carr offered top post in UTS Australia China body

PETER HANNAM Fresh from dishing out undiplomatic disclosures in his bombshell book, Diary of a Foreign Minister, Bob Carr intends to keep an international presence, taking a key role at a new institute fostering relations between Australia and China.

Wet weather to clear before Canberra's sport filled weekend

HENRY BELOT Should the Raiders or the Giants record poor crowds on Saturday afternoon they won't be able to blame the snubbing on wet and wild weather as the Brumbies did last week.

Biggest great white shark ever tagged in Australia off coast of WA

Scott Coghlan The tagging of a huge five-metre white pointer in King George Sound has presented a potentially huge breakthrough in shark research and a triumph for local Fisheries staff.

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Huge gas project proposed for Abbot Point following coal terminal approval

PETER HANNAM A huge liquefied natural gas export terminal is being planned for Abbot Point on the Queensland coast, coming just months after the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority approved plans to dump 3 million tonnes of dredge spoil in the sensitive region as part of coal export expansion.

Weather alert: severe warnings across Victoria

Patrick Hatch The worst is over for Melbourne, but don’t expect life to get any drier.

Science

Tasmanian tiger's cousin a more fearsome killer

NICKY PHILLIPS The Tasmanian tiger had the fierce name, but new research has found a distant cousin was a far more ferocious killer.

Cyclone Ita a 'significant threat' to north Queensland

Kristian Silva and Cameron Atfield Cyclone Ita is expected to cross the Queensland coast on Friday night, the Bureau of Meteorology says, with destructive winds set to impact areas more than 200 kilometres away from the eye of the storm.

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Tasmanian tiger's cousin was a more ferocious killer

NICKY PHILLIPS The Tasmanian tiger had the fierce name, but new research has found a distant cousin was a far more ferocious killer.

Meet Sydney's sun bear who almost became bear paw soup

PETER HANNAM Mr Hobbs was destined to become bear paw soup before an Australian businessman rescued the sun bear cub in Cambodia. Now Mr Hobbs has since safely taken up residence at Taronga Zoo with Mary, his partner who has joined him from Canberra's National Zoo.

Taming hurricanes

Victoria Bekiempis Stanford engineer proposes using off-shore wind farms to tame hurricanes by capturing their energy.

Doubts raised over IPCC draft backing carbon extraction

Many nations want a draft UN report to tone down prospects for sucking greenhouse gases from the air to help fix global warming, reckoning the technologies are risky.

Cyclone Ita to be worst since Yasi

KRISTIAN SILVA A severe tropical cyclone with gusts of up to 279 km/h could cross the Queensland coast as early as Friday night, with the potential of causing widespread power outages and damage to buildings.

Climate change: Time is running out, UN report warns

Tom Arup, Peter Hannam At least half the world's energy supply will need to come from low-carbon sources such as wind, solar and nuclear by 2050, as part of the drastic action needed to cut greenhouse gases to relatively safe levels, a United Nations climate change assessment will say.

Time running out to beat climate change, UN warns

Tom Arup and Peter Hannam At least half the world's energy supply will have to come from low-carbon sources by 2050, major UN climate change assessment will say.

Harassed Japan fleet catches fewer whales

Japan has caught 251 whales in its latest hunt of the Antarctic Ocean, only a quarter of the planned catch partly because of obstruction by anti-whaling groups, the government says.

Gina Rinehart's Queensland coal mine suffers court setback

CAMERON ATFIELD Farmers, environmentalists and miners alike have claimed a victory against a Queensland coal mine after a decision in the Land Court in Brisbane on Tuesday afternoon.

Call for Rio to drop Warkworth mine bid after court defeats

PETER HANNAM Residents of the hamlet of Bulga in the Upper Hunter say Rio Tinto should accept the verdicts of two courts and drop plans to extend its Warkworth open-cut coal mine.

Harvard signs up to 'responsible investment' principles for giant fund

Harvard University adopts a set of environmental and social investing principles backed by the United Nations for its huge endowment fund, a move that could add pressure on companies in its portfolio to make more disclosures on areas like carbon emissions.

Environment Department cuts staff in a bid to slash budget

NOEL TOWELL More than 250 public servants from federal Department of Environment will be out of a job by Christmas as the department tries to cut its budget by more than 20 per cent.

Rio Tinto loses Bulga coal mine expansion appeal

PETER HANNAM Rio Tinto has lost its battle for a major extension of its Warkworth open-cut coal mine near Bulga in the Hunter Valley but will fight on.