New South Wales

Australia already classifies east coast koalas as vulnerable.

The biggest plague of rodents in decades is sweeping across the Australian state of New South Wales.

Conservationists fear hundreds of koalas have perished in wildfires that have razed prime habitat on Australia’s east coast. Port Macquarie Koala Hospital President Sue Ashton said she hoped wildlife carers would be allowed to begin their search of the fire zone for survivors on Thursday. The fire was started by a lightning strike on Friday in a forest in New...

In what local authorities are calling a “world first,” a drone helped save two swimmers struggling to reach shore in Lennox Head, Australia on Jan. 18, 2018. Two teenagers were spotted struggling against rough waves when a drone was deployed to drop off a life raft.

Two teenagers struggling in rough surf off the coast of New South Wales, Australia, Thursday were able to swim to shore after a new rescue drone dropped a life raft from the sky. Officials deployed the Lifesaver drone after beachgoers noticed the pair was caught in 9-ft. swells, according to a statement from Westpac Little Ripper, which made the drone....

A seaplane crashed into a river in Sydney on Sunday afternoon, killing all six people on board, officials said. The plane was carrying five passengers and a pilot when it crashed into the Hawkesbury River. Police divers recovered the bodies of all six victims a few hours later, New South Wales police said. The cause of the crash was not...

Police in Australia disrupted a terrorist plot to bring down an airplane and arrested four men on Saturday in raids on homes in several Sydney suburbs, the prime minister said on Sunday....
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said security had been increased at Sydney Airport since Thursday because of the plot. The increased security measures had been extended to all major international...

Researchers in Australia caught a rare fish 13,000 feet below the surface of the water off the coast of New South Wales, Australia.

The water Terry Selwood was fishing Saturday was calm, until a great white shark jumped straight into his boat — leaving him stunned and bloodied, but otherwise okay, NBC News reported. The 73-year-old Australian saw a blur out of the corner of his eye as the 9-foot-long, 440-pound predator leaped into his boat, badly scraping his arm, off the New...

Outback police have arrested a 12-year-old boy who was almost a third of his way toward driving solo across Australia. The unlicensed boy had driven more than 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from his home in Kendall on the east coast when he was stopped by traffic police on Saturday on the Barrier Highway near the remote mining town of Broken...

Tiny tubes and filaments in some Canadian rock appear to be the oldest known fossils, giving new support to some ideas about how life began, a new study says. The features are mineralized remains of what appear to be bacteria that lived some 3.77 billion to 4.28 billion years ago, the scientists said. That would surpass the 3.7 billion years...

An Australian fisherman was nearly impaled by a 200-pound marlin that leaped out of the water with its spear-like nose aiming right at him, ‘Today’ reported. Video recorded by an on board camera and posted on Facebook captured the moment when Conor Cogan and two anglers struggled to reel in the marlin while fishing in Port Stephens in New South...