Prime Minister Tony Abbott is urging Australians to go about their lives as normal despite the terrorist siege in Sydney’s CBD.

Qantas is diverting its planes away from central Sydney to free up space for authorities dealing with the siege in a city cafe.

Click here for the latest photos from the scene, where more than a dozen hostages are being held at gunpoint in a Sydney cafe.

Qantas' spate of incidents is "unusual" but there's no evidence of slipping safety standards, an aviation expert says.

A fourth Qantas plane has been forced to turn back mid-flight, marking a second day of trouble for the airline - but its boss says "it happens all the time".

Two children and their mothers have been flown from rising flood waters on the NSW coast as wild storms batter the region.

If you're going to be whacked by a golf ball, it may as well be hit by one of the greats, finds Cameron McMillan.

A post-mortem is due to be carried out today on the body of a baby found by two young boys digging on a beach in Sydney.

The moment an elderly man fell 25 metres from a cruise ship travelling between Auckland and Sydney was caught on a CCTV camera.

Travel disasters give us great stories, but drama-free holidays are golden, writes Tristram Clayton.

For sale: 287 homes, most in spitting distance of Sydney's Opera House. Wanted: Somewhere to shift a low-income, angry community.

Four brothers slipped out of Australia last week to join the fight with Islamic State (Isis) in Syria.

Catherine Smith gets acquainted - or tries to - with modern Sydney's original Australians, whose cultures are undergoing rediscovery.

A giant pink condom has been erected in Sydney’s Hyde Park as part of a campaign to promote HIV awareness.

A Kiwi air traveller wrestled with a crazed passenger who tried to force open an emergency aircraft door mid-flight between Vietnam and Australia.

A powerful storm has ripped through the Australian state of New South Wales, causing flooding, lightning strikes and dumping 15cm of snow in inland areas.

Sculptures strung like pearls around Bondi are fascinating, writes Catherine Smith.

A second teenager has been charged after death threats were allegedly screamed at Christians outside a school in Sydney, while an Islamic State flag was brandished.

Australians will have to put up with inconvenience and tougher security for "some time to come" as the world tackles terrorism, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has warned.

A car with a dead man in the boot had been parked on the side of a western Sydney street for about two weeks, police say.

A lockdown of the ministerial wing of Parliament House has been ordered in Canberra following intelligence concerns the building may be a terrorist target.

Downunder wakes up to sports tourism, but Dylan Cleaver passes on the hotdog.

Security at Australia's Parliament is being ramped up amid reports of a planned terrorist attack, just a day after a beheading plot was thwarted by police raids.

Sydney man arrested in Australia's largest counterterrorism operation allegedly conspired with Australia's most senior Islamist militant to kill random passerby.

Winston Aldworth stays at a stylish Sydney property.

A surgeon at Waikato Hospital was surprised to find a patient he was treating in the emergency department was the man he trained under nearly 20 years ago.

Stephanie Simons takes a trip to Sydney ... and finds a city that's a big country town at heart.