May
31
2017
Australia is in the throes of allowing the medicinal use of cannabis, following the trail blazed by a number of U.S. states, as well as Canada, Israel and the Netherlands.
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef under bleaching threat
May
13
2017
Teeming with neon-colored fish and encompassing vast ranges of branching, bulging, sculptural coral, the Great Barrier Reef is one of the world’s natural wonders. Running down Australia’s north-east coast for roughly 2300 kilometres, the reef covers an expanse of ocean bigger than Japan: home to vast numbers of fish, hard and soft corals, turtles, whales, …read more
Fairfax Media job cuts trigger industrial action
May
4
2017
Journalists at one of Australia’s best-known newspaper publishers, Fairfax Media, plan to strike for seven days in protest at the company’s plans to cut the equivalent of 125 full-time journalist positions, or one in four from the already depleted newsrooms. The cuts are aimed at saving 30 million Australian dollars ($22.2 million) annually.
Australia mulls ways to dilute foreign demand for property
May
3
2017
Real estate in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia’s biggest cities, is appreciating at such a rate that some experts are warning of a bubble that could soon burst. House and apartment prices in these two cities increased by about 19% and 16% respectively in the year to March 31, according to analysis by data company CoreLogic, …read more
Pot luck
Apr
29
2017
For more than two decades Lisa endured the pain and struggle of life with Crohn’s disease. It’s a chronic and incurable condition that causes inflammation of the digestive tract, and can lead to weight loss, fever and intense abdominal pain.
Australia steps up battle against toxic cane toads
Apr
12
2017
Toxic, prolific, and much hated: Invasive cane toads are on the march from Australia’s eastern seaboard, westward through the tropics of the Northern Territory and on towards the Indian Ocean. Experts now believe the toads will have traversed the entire continent of Australia within the next five years, traveling about 4,000 km — a remarkable …read more
Campaign seeks return of Aboriginal artist’s lost copyright
Apr
8
2017
A racist injustice that blighted much of the Australian artist Albert Namatjira’s life may soon be at least partially rectified. Internationally esteemed during his lifetime, the Aboriginal watercolorist sold his lambent paintings of the central Australian desert around the world. He became one of Australia’s best-known artists, and was presented to Queen Elizabeth II, Australia’s …read more
Watch this space
Apr
6
2017
University of Sydney scientists are on the front line of a new space age. Their leading edge investigations include assisting with NASA’s search for alien life in the far reaches of the solar system; work on a revolutionary type of rocket thruster – theoretically able to move a spacecraft from Earth’s inner orbit to Mars’s …read more
Australia’s unique wildlife among victims of ‘angry summer’
Mar
17
2017
Record-breaking summer heat waves in recent months have left Australians sweating and uncomfortable and killed thousands of animals, graphically illustrating the climate change dangers faced by the world’s driest inhabited continent.
Pocket Rocket
Mar
11
2017
At first glance it looks like something a clever kid might build with a toy engineering kit – a shoebox-sized metallic box sitting on stubby legs. But in reality, this box is a tiny Adelaide-built satellite, painstakingly constructed with technical precision and scientific expertise.