A ute may have been driven dangerously on a Northland beach before the horrific crash which claimed the lives of three Brethren church members, police say.

A "horrific" Queen's Birthday weekend on the roads where 11 people died in crashes over three days, the highest toll in 27 years.

The devastated family of fallen volunteer firefighter Anne Talijancich say her legacy in the Northland community will live forever.

Two men have been arrested following an aggravated robbery at a Northland dairy in which a shop assistant had a long-barrelled gun pointed at her.

Police have released a CCTV footage still in an appeal for the public to help identify the man.

A police car slid off a gravel road and rolled on its side following a car chase in Dargaville overnight.

Four people have been injured, two of them seriously, in a car crash this afternoon.

Chase the sun north to a proud town where Elisabeth Easther finds a warm welcome and a fascinating history.

Fire north communications shift inspector Scott Osmond said about three hectares of vegetation were off Waipoua Settlement Rd in the Kaipara district were involved in fire.

Two teenagers have been arrested in relation to an armed robbery of a Dargaville Service Station on Saturday night.

An army trainee died when a vehicle he was travelling in crashed with an "almighty bang" into a power pole near Dargaville on Friday night.

A man was killed and four others injured, one critically, when a car hit a power pole in Northland last night.

Doug and Heather Carter have had raw sewage spew on to their Dargaville property at least once a year since they moved there 25 years ago.

A Dargaville man who hit his former partner over the head with a guitar has been jailed for 22 months.

A 17-year-old boy has drowned at Kai Iwi Lakes near Dargaville despite desperate attempts by his three young friends to revive him.

Footage from the police Taser gun allegedly used by a woman against a Northland policeman during a vicious assault is now being used as potential evidence against the attackers.

A mob attack on a Waikato policeman on Christmas Day came soon after another two police officers were hospitalised following a brutal attack in Dargaville.

A woman allegedly used a brick as a weapon and tried to shoot a police officer with his own taser in a brutal attack by a group of youths on Christmas Day.

The driver of a Fonterra milk tanker was killed yesterday when his truck crashed into a drain near Dargaville. The man died at the scene, said Northland fire service spokesperson Tania Matthews.

A judge declined home detention for a Dargaville man who admitted viewing child pornography and sent him to prison for 15 months.

A three-year-old girl who was run over in a marae carpark near Dargaville on Saturday is in a stable condition in Starship Children's Hospital.

A man who sexually violated a 73-year-old Dargaville woman in her home, dressed in some of her clothes and beat her up has been sentenced to nine years in jail.

A 22-year-old man is dead and three others seriously injured after an overloaded car lost control and landed in a ditch in Northland early this morning.