A record haul of man-eating saltwater crocodiles was removed from waterways in the "Top End" of Australia last year, confirming that numbers of the feared reptiles are ballooning.

A surfer had part of his hand bitten off as he tried to fight off a shark off the New South Wales coast, while on the other side of the country shark sightings caused panic on one of the busiest days of the Australian summer, as scientists speculated that warmer ocean temperatures may be bringing the killers closer to shore.

On Boxing Day, like every other day of the year, the tourists descended on Uluru, the great sandstone monolith formerly known as Ayers Rock, photographing it and ascending its steep slopes, despite polite signs asking them not to climb it.

As three-year-old Kyle Cumming slept peacefully in his Queensland home, a clutch of wild eggs he had discovered in his backyard were incubating in his wardrobe.

A tumultuous year in Australian politics has ended with a court ruling that senior opposition figures conspired with a former political staffer to undermine Julia Gillard’s minority Labor government by bringing sexual harassment charges against the then parliamentary Speaker, Peter Slipper.

A radio landscape where outrageous stunts are encouraged in the endless quest for ratings

Hospital spokesman queries if station sought to make contact before broadcast

Intensive counselling for presenters who hoaxed nurse later found dead

The two Sydney radio presenters who made a hoax call that apparently precipitated the suicide of a nurse at the London hospital treating the Duchess of Cambridge were holed up at an unknown location yesterday amid mounting public anger tempered by pleas from some quarters not to blame them.

The arcane niceties of the tort of privacy would not normally pack the grand ballroom of Sydney's Shangri-La Hotel, but when the speaker is a man who has just spent 17 months dissecting the ethics of the British press, a large turn-out is assured.