After more than a decade and a half working the beat as a newspaper reporter, Gavin McGrath brings an eye (and an ear) for what's newsworthy, interesting and just plain unusual in regional Australia to ABC Local Radio.
Growing up in regional South Australia and Victoria, Gavin was a relative latecomer to news journalism (he actually wanted to be a fighter pilot) but studied communications at Deakin University in Warrnambool and has since worked for the Herald Sun (five years) and The Courier in Ballarat (eight years). Prior to becoming a staff reporter, he worked within the motoring industry and as a motorsport scribe at racetracks around Australia.
More than 44,000 Australians voted in this year's ABC Australia Insect of the Year campaign, but which of our six finalists took home the gold?
So much of the tiny world of insects remains unknown to science. Test your knowledge with our insect quiz, produced in conjunction with the CSIRO.
As Australia faces the springtime sun, it is peak season for wildflowers, exotic annuals and native shrubs. It is also a great time for weeds.
Experts have nominated two butterflies, a pair of beetles, a signal fly and a glow-worm as 2026 ABC Insect of the Year finalists. Now you get to help decide the winner.
Victoria's recent wet weather and record rainfall have created the best conditions to check out some of the state's waterfalls.
The Invasive Species Council wants the common sweet pea plant, Polygala myrtifolia, with its pretty purple flowers recognised as a significant weed and removed from sale.
A new memorial installed near an abandoned mine in central Victoria remembers the 22 men who died in one of Australia's worst mining disasters.
Topic: Mining Accidents and Incidents
Bright LED headlights improve visibility for motorists and make them significantly safer at night, but what about the driver coming the other way?
Palaeontologists say evidence pointing to Australia's polar past shows that many dinosaurs roamed the country when the south east was still within the Antarctic Circle.
How to reduce your petrol bill by changing your driving technique and tinkering with your car.
Murray cod numbers have bounced back across much of Victoria and NSW, and that's good news for the whole Murray-Darling Basin ecosystem.
Is your dream to become the next JK Rowling or Stephanie Meyer? A new wave of writers is turning to self-publishing to turn fantasy into reality.
Thousands of satellites are being launched into space at low Earth orbit, joining hundreds of thousands of pieces of space junk, and it's becoming a real problem.
Once dubbed the Australian "native cat", the eastern quoll was abundant before it was completely wiped out on mainland Australia.
When Billy Harraway-Jones dug into the history of his family home, he discovered a saga of courtship and marriage in a new world, and of life and death on the Australian goldfields.
They are an eclectic mix but this diverse fleet of helicopters, water bombers and planes is ready to protect south-eastern Australia.
Australia is the land of the parrot — few places in the world have such a dazzling array of colourful and clever members of the psittacine family.
What flies like a helicopter and devours mosquitoes? Meet the 2025 ABC Australian Insect of the Year.
Australia's photographic natural database is about to get a big boost as citizen scientists are urged to join a national search.
Whether you love beetles or the giant mantis it's time to cast your vote for Australia's top insect.
Forget about being crammed on a suburban train, the real romance of rail is found through luxury long-distance inland trips or journeys back in time.
Nearly a decade after the final Australian-made car rolled out of a factory in South Australia, many people remember that Holdens and Fords were built here. But did you know Renaults, Ramblers and other foreign cars were also put together by Australian workers?
A mysterious world of colourful toadstools, ghostly mushrooms and bizarre white "cages" has emerged from the gloom.
Cape Clear is nowhere near the ocean, but it has a lighthouse and a "Viking longship" that residents plan to set alight for the winter solstice.
Topic: Community and Cultural Events
Once thriving with mining, farming or railways, it all came to an end in these places. Such is the history of Australia's many ghost towns.
