Albany - 6330

The WA government's decision to scrap its controversial cultural heritage laws after a public backlash will give it the chance to bring its critics back on side — but it's an opportunity not without risk, writes Keane Bourke.

Renters searching for affordable housing have been at the forefront of Australia's housing crisis. But landlords say bad tenants and state-based reforms are making it tough for them too.

A powerful earthquake strikes near Gnowangerup, about 150 kilometres north of Albany — one of the biggest in years to hit the state.

Alan Charles Jones walks free from court in Albany despite being convicted of sexually abusing a boy 40 years ago.

A man who told police "I've got to confess, I did molest him" after being confronted by his victim says he made payments over the years because he didn't want his name out in the open.

A WA town is reviewing its five international relationships after a council flagged a "no-value" issue with a Chinese city, but a local government expert says they still have a place.

Some pet owners are depriving animals of "their most basic needs" like food, water and vet care, the RSPCA says. 

Australian merino wool products could become more boutique and harder to source, if a forecast decline in Western Australia's sheep flock comes to fruition.

An Albany man sentenced to 12 years' prison for allegedly sexually assaulting women is free after prosecutors dropped all charges against him. 

Though the outcome was heartbreaking, more than 200 people left work, skipped school and braved freezing conditions to try and save 97 beached pilot whales.

Beekeepers have struggled to produce large volumes of honey without a strong marri flowering this year, a "mast year" for the tree, while winemakers are also battling birds looking to vineyards for food.

Scientists hope footage of pilot whales captured prior to this week's mass stranding on Western Australia's south coast could provide insights into the animals' behaviour — and why they beach themselves. 

Veterinarians have euthanised pilot whales that re-stranded on a beach in southern Western Australia, despite painstaking attempts to herd them out to deeper water. 

Dozens of pilot whales massed near Cheynes Beach, east of Albany, are becoming stranded on the shore.

At a rally in WA's Great Southern, farmers say the combined policy push from state and federal Labor is hurting rural communities.

Western Australia's planning authorities are fielding an average of 25 phone calls and 50 emails a day from landholders confused over the state's new Aboriginal heritage laws.

Authorities were alerted to a fire at the historic Williams Hotel in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Is the industry really same name, totally different game? The ABC takes a look at how skimpy work has survived in regional Australia. 

A father shares the moment he "hugged" a shark and shot it in the eye with a spear near Coral Bay to avoid being bitten, as his helpless family watched from a boat.

The state government has started negotiating the purchase of at least six properties damaged by a landslip in southern WA.

A Telethon Kids Institute report found that young children in the Great Southern were hospitalised at a rate almost double that of the WA state average, with dental problems found to be "one of the highest causes".

Groundbreaking new research shows the climate benefits of protecting and restoring underwater kelp forests could be equivalent to planting a billion trees.

Indigenous leaders from across WA's North West have used the return of a landmark bush meeting, which was attended by Richard Marles and Linda Burney, to call for a genuine, grassroots approach to dealing with their remote communities.

It's a long trek from anywhere, but Ongerup in Western Australia — population 114 — has a community that refuses to let the town die.

Worker claims security guards are being used to monitor elderly patients for falls because of a reduction in the number of rostered nurses.