Sydney’s first new major zoo in more than 100 years will open on Saturday. With such debate about animal welfare these days, can zoos still be a force for good? Gary Nunn reports from Sydney. Zoos have evolved significantly since they were first created. Their original purpose was braggadocio: a way for the wealthy to […]

SYDNEY, Australia — Flying into Sydney usually brings stunning views of rocky cliffs and crystal waters, but when Anna Funder looked out the window before landing this week, she saw only tragedy. Thick gray smoke blanketed the skyline and the coast, stretching for miles from the fire front at the southwestern edge of the city, […]

What’s the link between a noted US feminist, the Australian parliament and a Christmas tree in a student common room? They’ve all become part of a saga that has left Australian Energy Minister Angus Taylor under pressure and author Naomi Wolf fuming. Both were at Oxford University decades ago, but remember it very differently. And […]

SYDNEY, Australia — Ten months after it was enacted, the Australian Parliament on Wednesday repealed a law that had allowed refugees and asylum seekers being held offshore to seek emergency medical care in Australia, a move that human rights advocates denounced as cruel and shameful. The vote was the latest example of the Australian government’s […]

The stories of three people stranded in the Australian outback for two weeks have captured global attention. Two of them survived, while a body was found on Thursday, presumably of the third person. The outback is a vast remote area in the centre of Australia: dry, arid and almost entirely uninhabited. During summer, the outback […]

A woman in Australia has placed the remains of her home outside the country’s parliament building, calling for action on climate change. Melinda Plesman and her partner Dean Kennedy lost their house after a bushfire ravaged the town of Grafton in New South Wales last month. She is currently staying in a hotel. Last month […]

Denis Glennon has waited over 22 years to face the man accused of his daughter’s murder in Australia. Ciara (27) disappeared on March 14, 1997 following a night out celebrating St Patrick’s Day in Claremont, Perth. Her body was found three weeks later in bushland some 50km north of Australia’s third largest city. It is […]

Australian intelligence officials have confirmed they are investigating allegations of a plot to plant a Chinese spy in the nation’s parliament. The allegations – first aired by local network Nine – assert that a suspected Chinese espionage ring approached a Chinese-Australian man to run as an MP. The Australian government has said it is taking […]

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 Isabella Kwai, a reporter with the Australia bureau. I thought it might be safe for me and my vulnerable head to go outside. But I wasn’t sure. Swooping season for the […]

Grace Millane died after being involved in consensual sexual activity including choking, a forensic pathologist who gave evidence on behalf of the man accused of her murder said, according to media reports in New Zealand. The young woman from Wickford, Essex, went on a date with a 27-year-old man she met on the dating app […]