Petrol theft has reached record highs in NSW this year, even before the price of unleaded rose above the $2.00-per-litre mark. 

Two French backpackers ran for their lives after being caught in a fireball when a charging e-bike exploded inside a Sydney hostel, prompting calls from experts for tighter regulations on shonky batteries. 

One of South Australia’s elite colleges is dealing with a serious scandal involving boarding students, with police called and students expelled. 

Horror bushfire conditions are expected to return to swathes of NSW by the middle of next week, as the first major blaze of the season left at least three homes destroyed and south coast communities reeling.