‘I found I was more comfortable in the forest’: The scientist who took on the logging industry
Professor David Lindenmeyer looked neater than you’d expect for a man who has spent years in Australia’s oldest forests, locked in political battles with the industries that depend on cutting them down.
- by Nick O'Malley
Opinion
Voice to parliament
Voice to parliament a risk? Let’s count the other bodies just like it
In truth, there’s nothing so ordinary and innocuous as another advisory group. They are so plentiful that there is no central list of all of them.
- by Peter Hartcher
Wallabies will bounce back, like all good teams do
Australia’s two-time rugby union world champions may just be naturally bottoming through the peak-trough cycle that all sports teams endure.
Exclusive
AUKUS
‘Unbelievable’: Defence spends $8.5m on consultants for AUKUS nuclear regulator
The contract comes amid a growing debate about the public service’s reliance on external advice for tasks that would once have been performed in-house.
- by Matthew Knott
‘Send it to Woomera’: McGowan cold on nuclear waste being stored in WA
The premier’s comments add to the growing headache the Albanese government faces over what to do with the spent nuclear reactors from the AUKUS deal submarines once the vessels begin producing them from the mid-2050s.
- by Hamish Hastie
From the Archives, 1993: Hundreds arrested in Nurrungar protests
More than 200 protesters, including the Australian Democrat Senator Sid Spindler, were arrested after they stormed a security fence at the Nurrungar joint US-Australian Defence Facility near Woomera in South Australia.
- by Maryann Stenberg
He helped us fall in love with the burbs, now Tim Ross has a new dream
It’s not all postmodern, mid-century gems in Designing a Legacy; instead the architecture buff has the bush, social housing and urban design in mind.
- by Bridget McManus
In the Herald: May 9, 1949
An angry crowd tried to throw Communist speakers into the Yarra River this afternoon.
- by Harry Hollinsworth
Exclusive
Space
‘Space is hard’: Why Japan had to blow up its $2.2b rocket
The president of Japan’s space agency has also explained why he plans to crash-land Martian moon samples in the outback.
- by Angus Dalton
Eighty years but not forgotten: Memorial service to mark fatal plane crash into farm
The crash that killed two men when their aircraft smashed into a farm north of Melbourne still feels “like it was yesterday” to one of those who witnessed it.
- by Carolyn Webb
Exclusive
Human rights
Australia urged to redeem itself after ‘leading race to the bottom’ on border laws
Veteran human rights lawyer Tirana Hassan says she was inspired to action by Australia’s “crueller and crueller” policies during the Howard years.
- by Latika Bourke
The seeds for life on Earth may have arrived on asteroids
The molecular building blocks for RNA, the genetic material probably used by the first life on Earth, may have been carried here from deep space.
- by Liam Mannix
States baulk at storing radioactive waste from nuclear submarines
Victoria, Queensland and South Australia all signalled they would resist the opening of nuclear waste facilities within their borders to handle spent fuel rods from submarines acquired under the AUKUS pact.
- by Paul Sakkal
From the Archives, 1993: Food and Lodging
Prime Ministers give everyone indigestion occasionally, but hopefully not their guests at The Lodge.
- by Deborah Cameron
In the Herald: December 27, 1959
Hormones to make cattle fatter, “town-tamer” sought and polio beach fears.
- by Jacqui Martinez
Japanese soldiers to train with ADF after historic new security agreement
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida met at the annual Australia-Japan leaders’ meeting in Perth on Saturday.
- by Hamish Hastie
Jim Wilson: a passion for collecting
Jim Wilson was regarded by those who knew him as a living treasure: a cultural historian, collector, farmer, environmental activist, storyteller, entertainer and devoted family man.
- by Alistair McArthur
From the Archives, 2002: Around the world in 13 days, in a balloon
Twenty years ago, Steve Fossett completed a historic around the world adventure in a hot air balloon, taking just 13 days to complete the extraordinary journey.
- by Kirsty Needham
Explainer
Space
‘Like the Wild West’: Who owns the moon and what’s up there?
Missions are blasting off again for the moon as the new space industry hits its stride. Why go back? And what will be the rules of conduct?
- by Sherryn Groch and Felicity Lewis
First NASA space launch from Australia this century to lift off in June
It is the first time that the US space agency has launched rockets from a commercial facility outside its home soil.
- by Nick Bonyhady