The crime scene: Nearly an acre of protected bush land in a wealthy suburb of Sydney, bracketed by sprawling multimillion-dollar mansions on one side and the sparkling harbor on the other. The method: Attacked with a chain saw. Or poisoned. Sometimes, both. The victims: Banksias, wattles, gum trees, and more. Two hundred and sixty-five in […]

The Australian state of Victoria on Tuesday canceled its hosting of the 2026 Commonwealth Games because of ballooning costs, leading officials and observers to again question the relevance of an event first held in 1930 as the British Empire Games. “I’ve made a lot of difficult calls, a lot of very difficult decisions in this […]

A remote beach in a part of Western Australia known for its rock lobsters and wildflowers has become home to a hulking metallic mystery object and the police officers guarding it. The Western Australia Police Force asked people on Monday not to draw conclusions about the origins of the cylindrical object while it was being […]

The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau. Sign up to get it by email. Standing in line outside a fireworks store in Darwin on the morning of July 1, a man mentioned to me that he had acquired some kind of metal pipe, out of which he was planning to shoot […]

The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau. Sign up to get it by email. This week’s issue is written by Natasha Frost, a reporter in Melbourne. This week, Australia has, not for the first time, been convulsed by a major cricket controversy that divided cricket fans in England and Australia. (It […]

The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau. Sign up to get it by email. These days, when dining out, you might expect to be asked whether you’d like to add a tip when paying electronically. Ride share services often prompt customers to add an extra dollar, or three or five. Some […]

The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau. This week’s issue is written by Natasha Frost, a reporter in Melbourne. What does the transition to a zero-emissions future look like for Australia? This is the topic of “Powering Up: Unleashing the Clean Energy Supply Chain,” a new book by Alan Finkel, the […]

Two decades ago, Kathleen Folbigg was convicted of smothering all four of her young children. Australian tabloids called her the country’s worst female serial killer. But Ms. Folbigg, who was sentenced to 40 years in prison, insisted she was innocent. And in recent years, a growing number of scientists began to argue that she was […]

The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau. Sign up to get it by email. This week’s issue is written by Natasha Frost, a reporter in Melbourne. Earlier this year, my colleague Hikari Hida and I reported on an amazing, improbable journey underway on Australia’s east coast. Ryokei Mifune, a young Japanese […]

The Australian police are investigating why an experienced officer used a Taser on a 95-year-old woman who had approached him “at a slow pace” while holding a steak knife. The woman, Clare Nowland, who is 5-foot-2 and 95 pounds, uses a walker and has dementia. She was left in critical condition after a senior constable […]