In a sunlit recreation room in suburban Australia, residents of an aged care facility sip tea and settle into their seats as the scenery begins to move. Outside the “windows,” snow capped peaks rise in the French Alps, fields roll past in the English countryside and red desert unfurls across Central Australia. No one has left the building. Instead, technology has brought the journey to them. As long journeys and even short outings become difficult for many older people, immer

After decades of steep decline, the eastern migratory monarch butterfly is showing a rare sign of recovery. New scientific surveys by WWF-Mexico and its partners indicate that the population increased by an estimated 64% during the butterfly’s most recent hibernation season, offering cautious hope for one of the world’s most iconic species. The monarch population’s increase was measured not by counting individual butterflies, but by tracking how much forest they occupied in

After two years of campaigning, Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) campaigners advocating to fix whistleblower protection within the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) to protect those who report wrongdoing have gained a significant win. In April, the Federal Parliament united to pass initial priority amendments to the NDIS Act , which they had developed together with Greens Senator Jordan Steele-John. The Albanese Government has also committed to consulting on more comp

What began as an ordinary recreational dive off the coast of far‑north Queensland by a mother and her daughter has become a striking reminder that the Great Barrier Reef still holds surprises. The pair, participating in a citizen science survey, say they have identified what may be the largest known coral colony on Earth  — a living structure stretching more than 100 metres across the seafloor. The discovery was made by Sophie Kalkowski‑Pope and her mother, Jan Pope, while th

As fighting in the Middle East continues to play havoc with global energy markets, Australia faces a stark choice about its energy future: move rapidly to becoming an electrostate dominated by home-generated, affordable and plentiful renewable energy and battery storage, or cling to exporting and importing coal, oil and gas. Australia’s Energy Vulnerability Comes Into Focus As one of the world’s largest exporters of coal and gas primarily to Asia where countries are actively