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2 months ago | 
abc.net.au | Alistair Bates |Verity Gorman |Kelly Gudgeon
Authorities are working to reopen a crucial transport link in Western Australia's north, following the impact of Tropical Cyclone Zelia. The Great Northern Highway has been closed for a week, disconnecting the Pilbara and Kimberley regions by road. Main Roads say the highway may open for this weekend, as they assess flood damage.
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2 months ago | 
abc.net.au | Alistair Bates |Michelle Stanley |Sophia Alston
Port Hedland has resumed iron ore shipments after Tropical Cyclone Zelia battered WA's Pilbara. The port contributes more than $100 billion, or about four per cent, to the national economy each year. A supply chain expert warns the closure could have a "huge multiplier effect". As residents in Western Australia's north sift through the wreckage left by Tropical Cyclone Zelia, the "engine room" of the resource-rich region has purred back to life.
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2 months ago | 
abc.net.au | Victoria Ellis |Alistair Bates
Outback Australians are being warned temperatures are hot enough to damage their electronics as heat records tumble. Remote regions have been sweltering in extreme heat, with temperatures nudging 50 degrees Celsius in central, northern and western Australia. At Lambina Station, 450 kilometres south of Alice Springs, cattle producer Gillian Fennell said temperatures had reached 47C this summer.
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Jan 20, 2025 | 
abc.net.au | Charlie Mills |Rosemary Murphy |Verity Gorman |Alistair Bates
Residents along Western Australia's Pilbara coast are celebrating after the passage of Tropical Cyclone Sean left behind a transformed landscape. The system peaked at category four late on Monday afternoon and has continued to track away from the WA coast in the hours since. With emergency warnings being downgraded and only minor damage and flooding reported, locals have largely welcomed the relief from the hot and steamy conditions.
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Dec 12, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Alistair Bates |Rosemary Murphy
Two schoolteachers have been rescued after being stranded for hours by floodwaters in remote WA. Police and community members worked together to winch the pair to safety. Authorities are warning drivers to avoid flooded roads, with more rain to come. Two teachers have been rescued after they were swept away by floodwaters and stranded for hours in Western Australia's remote Pilbara.
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Dec 10, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Joanna Prendergast |Alys Marshall |Alistair Bates
Pastoralists across Western Australia are labelling the state government's proposed changes to pastoral leases "anti-agriculture" and a move to push smaller, family-run operations off the land. Negotiated between the government and individual pastoralists, the leases govern the use of the state's 85 million hectare pastoral estate. Pastoral lease terms and conditions had previously been set out in schedules attached to now-obsolete legislation.
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Dec 8, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Sophia Alston |Alistair Bates
On a balmy summer evening along the banks of the Gascoyne River in northwest Western Australia, members of the local Vietnamese community gather to listen to a presentation about how to prepare for an emergency. But many of them don't understand the English-speaking officials delivering information. Kim Hoi grows fruits and vegetables in Carnarvon and often depends on his wife Tanya Wim to translate. "He felt a bit left out and bit sorry that he doesn't understand much English," Ms Wim said.
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Dec 6, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Alistair Bates |Charlie Mills
Large bags of "miscellaneous metal pieces" have been unloaded at a WA port after SpaceX employees and contractors salvaged remains from a rocket test flight. Elon Musk's SpaceX conducted the flight in Texas last month, launching a 122-metre-high rocket designed to carry astronauts to the Moon and Mars. The launch, on November 19 local time, was watched by US president-elect Donald Trump. The flight was unmanned, however a stuffed banana was placed on board to serve as a zero-gravity indicator.
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Dec 2, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Alistair Bates
A 29-metre-wide satellite dish that once aided NASA missions has received its first signal since being mothballed in 1987. Private aerospace company ThothX began refurbishing the parabolic antenna last year. The company says the dish could be used to track orbital traffic and "adversary" spacecraft. The jagged peaks and valleys of a line chart might not look like much, but they represent a comeback years in the making.
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Nov 30, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Alistair Bates
West Australian footballer Mim Strom has staged a career-best campaign for Fremantle's AFL Women's side this year. But, almost 1,300 kilometres to the north, the women of her remote home town are struggling to get a game. "In the city, you wouldn't have to travel multiple hours to play a game of footy … it's really a whole weekend event when you're in Exmouth," local player Sophie Ayres said.
