Flood-hit communities in the north and northwest Tasmania have entered a “danger period” as waters rise, with evacuation orders for areas around several rivers and part of Launceston. Heavy rain that began on Wednesday night started to ease on Friday morning. Records were broken in parts, with the Great Lake region registering 398 millimetres in…

Rescuers have managed to return to the ocean 32 beached pilot whales that survived a mass stranding of their 230 strong pod on Tasmania’s West Coast. The 32 of the 35 surviving whales were refloated on Thursday in what rescuers described as a “terrific result.” Most of the 230 pilot whales died after becoming stranded…

A team of Australian cavers have discovered the country’s deepest underground chamber, and at 401 metres (1,316 feet) underground, it breaks the previous record by four metres. As part of a decade-long mission to unravel the mysteries of Australia’s deepest caves, nine elite cavers from the Southern Tasmanian Caverneers went underground on an expedition that…

A team of Australian cavers have discovered the country’s deepest underground chamber, and at 401 metres (1,316 feet) underground, it breaks the previous record by four metres. As part of a decade-long mission to unravel the mysteries of Australia’s deepest caves, nine elite cavers from the Southern Tasmanian Caverneers went underground on an expedition that…

Eight people have been retrieved from the summit of Mt Wellington, overlooking Hobart, the capital of Australia’s island state Tasmania, after becoming stranded in blizzard-like conditions. Two of the walkers are lucky to have survived the ordeal, police say. News of the rescues follows the death of a woman struck by a falling tree in…

Legislation banning the practice of routine strip-searching of children and young people in custody has passed both houses of parliament in the Australian state of Tasmania. The Youth Justice Amendment (Searches in Custody) Bill 2022 is designed to protect further the wellbeing and dignity of children and young people in detention facilities. It comes in response…

An inquiry into child sexual abuse in Tasmanian public institutions will turn its focus to the island’s education system and examine a prior investigation that found perpetrators were being shielded. The commission of inquiry, which is scrutinising how successive state governments have handled the abuse allegations, is holding its second week of public hearings in…

The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) and the University of Tasmania (UTAS) are “locked in a battle” after UTAS declined to comply with the union’s request to provide up to 30 days’ leave for transgender staff. The university currently offers 10 days of special leave for their staff irrespective of their gender, however, the NTEU…

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced new support for the country’s timber industry while emphasising the Coalition’s promise to plant one billion trees by 2030 is still achievable. During his visit to a sawmill in northern Tasmania on April 14, the prime minister said the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires had impeded the progress and…

The Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein has announced his sudden resignation from his position as premier and as a member for Bass on April 4. “I’ve got nothing left in the tank,” Gutwein said to the reporters at the press conference. “Unless you can give 110 percent to the role of premier, you shouldn’t be doing…