Long-serving Nationals MP Melinda Pavey has been dumped as a New South Wales minister and two Liberal ministers resigned ahead of a widely tipped reshuffle by Premier Dominic Perrottet.

Dozens of people who attended The Cliff Dive in Darlinghurst last Saturday have been forced into isolation.

Queensland is holding its nerve and will not make any border changes in the face of rising cases, but locals have been urged to be vigilant to the dangers all around.

Thousands of Sydneysiders flocked to the city’s beaches on Saturday, with the city expected to reach 36 degrees on Sunday.

A 14-year-old has died after slipping and falling into a lake in Sydney’s south-west on Saturday afternoon.

Students at two primary schools are in isolation on the eve of Christmas after attending a camp in East Gippsland that has since become Victoria’s biggest active COVID-19 outbreak.

The best photos from the international wire agencies as chosen by our picture editors

A Tasmanian community has been rocked by grief after a jumping castle was blown into the air at a Devonport primary school, leaving five children dead and several in hospital.

Immediate family members have kept watch by the children’s bedside since the tragedy occurred at Devonport’s Hillcrest Primary School on Thursday.

Although it’s not our first Christmas with coronavirus - this year will be the first that families will have to navigate through a new variant and divisions over being vaccinated.

Oyster farmers are confident there will be an abundance of oysters in top condition over summer.

One by one my friends started cancelling Christmas parties, and it looks like I will have to cancel mine too.

Melbourne is not back in lockdown, but some people are living under self-imposed restrictions over the next week to avoid exposure to a rising number of positive cases that could leave them in isolation on Christmas Day.

Sydney Fish Market is expecting to move almost two hundred tonnes of seafood in its marathon 36-hour trading period from 5am on December 23 to 5pm on December 24.

The pro-vaccine counterprotest was dwarfed by the larger anti-vax gathering, with police keeping the two groups apart.

The Bureau of Meteorology on Saturday released its first-look forecast for Christmas Day, with temperatures generally expected in the high 20s and 30s across the state.

A mining company has flagged the destruction of a sacred Gulf Country hill. Is it Queensland’s own Juukan Gorge disaster, or a chance to raise a community out of poverty?

St Ives pharmacist Jacinta McDonald said the testing kits were flying off the shelves like toilet paper in 2020.

Actor and community activist Ron Pinnell grew to become a respected actor and later a noted local heritage advocate in Richmond.

Sydney is set to peak above 30C on Saturday, as a heatwave moves across the country.

Ross Carter’s 2021 batch of handmade plum puddings was almost brought undone by a lack of one simple but crucial item – cloth. Dr Carter’s family has been making and selling Christmas plum puddings since the 1930s. His grandparents started the...

Wally the Wobbegong, Homer the Hammerhead … Jason Iggleden names each of the creatures he sees on a morning routine that’s becoming an online phenomenon.

The PM and his wife have visited Hillcrest Primary School to mourn the loss of the five children who died in a tragic accident there.

Police allege the 19-year-old e-scooter rider ran a red light and collided with the motorcycle earlier this year, as two more people were injured in e-scooter crashes on Friday night.

Victoria and NSW will scrap the 72-hour isolation requirement for international arrivals from next Tuesday, which will allow people flying into Melbourne and Sydney to spend Christmas with family and friends.

The Caryapundy Swamp, a sprawling wetland in the far north west of NSW that emerges from drought into abundant life during flood events is to be listed as an internationally important wetland under the global 1971 Ramsar Convention. The swamp lies in...

Queensland recorded dozens of new cases on Saturday, including in hospitals, as COVID-19 spreads following the relaxation of border restrictions.

Our six-year-old is not yet eligible for a vaccine and while we are all exhausted from our isolation, we have sacrificed too much, for too long, to find ourselves spending yet another holiday in intensive care.

The PM sees his safest path for re-election through the regions and outer suburbs. If that means further alienating women by doubling down on his blokey persona, so be it.

If the new variant turns out to be a savage one, Morrison’s hopes plunge into the abyss.

Three schools – The King’s School, The Scots College and SCEGGS Darlinghurst – will charge more than $40,000 for year 12 in 2022.

Islands drift at the edge of our knowing, bewitching some of us who catch a glimpse of them. Deen Maar and its path for the dead is one of them.

Shoppers, diners, theatre-goers and even some office workers are heading back into the CBD in Melbourne and Sydney, but Sydney looks to be out in front.

Almost 90 years since the death of the 1930 Melbourne Cup winner, the circumstances of the horse’s death remain wrapped in suspicion, mythology and confusion.

David Crowe may well believe a cold shower is the cure for the new-found optimism of jaded voters pinning their hopes on freshly-minted Independents at the next Federal Election.

Trivia buffs: test your knowledge with today's interactive superquiz and target.

The closure of Docklands’ ‘events showpiece’ - the 100-year-old Central Pier - is costing the local economy hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

Three Westfield shopping centres, public transport services and a popular church have already been listed as exposure sites.

The decision to stay firm on a five-month interval for boosters is based on sound reasoning.

As this tumultuous year finally draws to a close it’s important to reflect on all the Herald achieved during a year that truly tested us all.

This masthead apologises to Nolan Hunter

The state’s hospitality sector is asking for consumers to be patient as restaurants, bars and venues try to mitigate the effects of the COVID-induced skills shortage.

The service was initially meant to be held earlier this year, but was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Tasmanian community of Devonport is in mourning, the Morrison government plans to unveil a long-awaited Indigenous ‘Voice’ to Parliament and unvaccinated shoppers are being locked out of some Queensland retail and hospitality venues from toda...

It comes despite surging COVID-19 cases in NSW.

The week in photos from the award-winning Sydney Morning Herald and Financial review photographers.

Mother-of-two Felicity Miller struggled to find words to comfort her daughter as the pair laid down a bouquet of yellow flowers outside Hillcrest Primary School on Friday in memory of Amelia’s school friends.

Geoff Harcourt became a leading advocate for the post-Keynesian school of economics.

The Crime and Corruption Commission will in future be led by people with different skill sets.

There are almost 10,000 active COVID-19 cases in NSW, more than double the 3600 a week ago, and that number is expected to rise in coming days.