A koala has been released back into the wild after miraculously surviving a 16 kilometre trip clinging onto the underside of a car wheel arch.

At the beginning of spring, we all know to expect swooping magpies.

Skiers and snowboarders are continuing to hit the slopes in Australia's ski resorts with spring providing conditions that have been described as the best in years.

Greek authorities have insisted they are doing everything they can to clean up pollution following the sinking of an oil tanker.

The video also shows a black bear, deer, mountain lion, and black bear cub.

• ANALYSIS

Brain-eating amoeba might be the only way to explain the government's energy policy.

The exceptionally dry conditions around Sydney and much of the state have prompted the Rural Fire Service to scale back hazard reduction burning this weekend.

Your afternoon chocolate bar may be fuelling climate change, destroying protected forests and threatening elephants, chimpanzees and hippos in West Africa, research suggests.

China is mourning the death of the world's oldest panda, Basi, who passed away at the age of 37.

Up to 70 flights have been cancelled in and out of Sydney airport as strong winds buffet the runways.

Official estimates of the risk of an electricity shortfall this summer are exaggerated, the Australian Solar Council says.

The Pope said those who failed to act were "stupid" and would be judged by history for failing in their "moral responsibility".

New species of spider named after the Sapphire Coast.

• COMMENT

In Australia's self-induced and largely imagined energy crisis, it seems any ambit claim - particularly if it encourages coal - can generate immediate and unwarranted media and political attention.

When meerkats want to move as a group, they call to each other. Capuchin monkeys trill. Gorillas grunt. Honeybees make what is called a piping sound.

Brother and sister snow leopard kittens romped as they made their public debut at Los Angeles Zoo.

Sydney, the Hunter and two other regions of NSW will have total fire bans on Wednesday as the temperature spikes into the 30s and winds pick up.

Damaging winds reaching up to 90km/h could hit Canberra, the Snowy Mountains and the coast.

• EXCLUSIVE

An independent study has found unexpected valley bulging and fractures reaching the surface above a major coal mine in the greater Sydney catchment, prompting WaterNSW to seek greater scrutiny of future mining applications.

AGL's Liddell power station shouldn't receive funds more usefully invested elsewhere to improve Australia's energy prospects says Christiana Figueres, the former United Nations climate chief.

A baby great white shark has been rescued after washing ashore at Manly on Sydney's northern beaches.

The discovery that a North Stradbroke Island lagoon is millenniums older than originally thought could reshape climate change research.

A scathing independent investigation into water theft has found the state's enforcement ineffectual and unprofessional.

The right-wing US radio host has suggested that the "panic" caused by the hurricanes benefits retailers, the media and climate change activists.

• COMMENT

Thee timing of the storms, combined with the historic awfulness of them, feels more sinister than simple coincidence.

Following a mild Sunday with a top of 20 degrees, Sydneysiders can expect an early taste of summer on Tuesday and Wednesday when temperatures are forecast to hit 28 degrees in the city and 33 degrees in the west.

Hundreds of firefighters will work to reduce the threat from bushfires before temperatures start to climb.

Beneath the waves of Nelson Bay this weekend a band of divers will search the seabed on a now-familiar neon Easter egg hunt for the 15th Sea Slug Census.

The Hunter Valley power station at the centre of a political fight over energy is operating at well below half its rated capacity and is ill-equipped to have its operating life extended.

Radar data of the plane's flight path offered a spectacular show for aviation enthusiasts.