The pair were sucked into a whirlpool and disappeared underwater on Saturday afternoon in a canyon near Mount Wilson.

The sudden closure of the NSW border has led to conflicting health advice for returning Victorian travellers, while some people stuck north of the Murray can't return home at all.

NSW could face some challenges compelling Sydneysiders to wear masks when the daily number of new cases remains low.

Experts say face masks were an important defence against the virus and the government should be handing them out in railway stations and large bus terminals in the same way free condoms are handed out to prevent the spread of HIV.

Some people retire to fishing and golf. Peter Taylor finds shipwrecks lost for generations.

The Bureau of Meteorology has warned the system would likely have an impact on Queensland's far north, either as a cyclone or tropical low, into next week.

A NSW couple accused of running from officers at Melbourne Airport after being told they would need to isolate have defended their actions.

An emergency warning is in place for people in the area bounded by Oyster Road and Fernie Road to the east, Inkpen Road to the south, Chedaring Road to the west, and Linley Valley Road to the north.

The Shopping Centre Council of Australia says the mandating of masks is unlikely to impact trade across the Sydney region.

Mask maker Sophie Alais, co-founder of Saving Face Co, welcomed the announcement as "fantastic but also probably overdue".

Chudier Thowath Pal, 29, was taken into custody just before 2.30pm on Saturday after a city-wide manhunt by WA Police.

Residents of the southern part of the northern beaches will be released from lockdown at midnight on Saturday and come under the broader restrictions that apply to Greater Sydney, while those in the northern zone will need to wait another week.

The updated advice from CHO Jeannette Young came as she raised concerns about the spread of the virus beyond Melbourne and continued growth of cases in NSW.

From art workshops for the kids to a Parisian opera, we have your week in Sydney covered.

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

The state government is urging people to be patient but to expect delays at testing sites around Melbourne.

It is the second time police have foiled a plot to smuggle drugs into a city quarantine hotel inside a food order after a man was found with illicit drugs stashed inside a bag of french fries in November. 

Before lifts and moving footways - and long before people thought of counting steps on a device - traversing Sydney was a workout.

My experience has made me empathise with people who try to do the right thing but are provided with incorrect and confusing advice from health officials.

Health authorities in Sydney and Melbourne are working to contain fresh COVID-19 outbreaks that threaten to plunge more communities back into tighter lockdowns.

A 24-year-old man surrendered to police about 7pm on Friday after earlier barricading himself in a Runcorn home in the wake of an hours-long police chase across Brisbane.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has announced that masks will be made mandatory in some public indoor spaces from midnight on Saturday, with a $200 fine for those caught flouting the new rules.

Victoria has recorded 10 new locally acquired cases of coronavirus, after the state shut its border to people travelling from NSW at midnight.

Three men have been questioned by police over he alleged incident at a Surfers Paradise holiday resort on New Years Eve night, though no charges have been laid.

No more trips to the beach. No more playing with cousins. Just isolation in the house, again. The Christmas scooters can’t be ridden beyond the front gate. I understand why the WA Government did what it did, but it broke my son’s heart.

Rescuers were called to the Maroochy River about 5pm on New Year's Day, though by Saturday morning police had not received a report of a missing child.

A man has been charged after a stabbing in the lower northern beaches area on Friday.

Experts believe the juries' indecision in the high profile cases could have a chilling effect on already low prosecution levels for sexual assault offences.

Trivia buffs: test your knowledge with this week's Good Weekend quiz.

The 2021 challenge for us now is whether we can galvanise this moment the Prime Minister has created.

Perhaps we thought that the ending of the one-year lease would solve our problems, but it has not.

We might not be collectively about to attain perfection, but there are people who are thinking about how to improve things.

If Britain, America, Canada, Israel, Chile, Belgium, Argentina and many other countries are already rolling out vaccines for COVID-19, why is Australia sitting back and waiting?

June Rose was very close to her father, who told her yarns about his time in the Australian bush and read her Henry Lawson's poems.

It was only recently that I finally got to see the Great Otway National Park. It taught me about a friend I’d known my whole life but who I never “knew”.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian is relying on NSW’s juggernaut public health operation to track and trace chains of transmission rather than going into lockdown with every outbreak.

"Getting away with it" is not just the motto of our Premier, it’s been the founding ethos of this state. It's this mindset that allowed the Sydney Test to proceed.

How do you have an affair during a pandemic. How are the rich getting richer. And can things get any worse?

At the beach communities of Little Garie, Era and Burning Palms in the Royal National Park, everything that goes in, must go out as well.

Word buffs: test your knowledge with today's Target puzzle.

There was chaos on the NSW-Victoria border on New Year's Eve after the Andrews government announced it would shut the border.

Australia’s peak medical group says the NSW government has put the rest of the country at risk by not going “hard and early” after the northern beaches outbreak.

Four schools have achieved their first median VCE study score of 30 this week, the sought-after marker of an academically solid school.

Age readers discuss growing inequality and insecure employment.

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young says things could change "really quickly", as NSW and Victoria report new community cases, and Qantas adds an extra Queensland-bound flight to meet demand.

Storms have swept through western Victoria causing widespread power outages, with Geelong among the hardest hit areas.

Henry Jennings, 21, who had just moved in with friends after finishing the third year of a business degree, expressed joy to his parents at being an "adult now".

Jade and Jesse Rowe's daughter, Ella, was the first baby born in Queensland's Metro South hospitals in 2021.

People living in shack communities in the Royal National Park, Sydney.

NSW Health is relying on genomic testing to reveal any link between new western Sydney cases and the Avalon COVID-19 cluster.