April 10, 2013 Chances are most phone calls you have made from a landline have passed through a sturdy aluminium cylinder assembled by Tyrone Maloney in a small factory in Melbourne's south-east.

April 10, 2013 Scientists have sequenced the genome of the koala, winning a global race to unravel its genetic blueprint.

April 10, 2013 Walter Laurie was 10 years old when he travelled with his parents to a paddock in Murphys Creek, west of Brisbane.

April 9, 2013 An asylum seeker boat has arrived in Geraldton, further south than any asylum seeker boat in recent years.

April 9, 2013 The use of satellite technology has been ramped up as a national priority, with the launch of Australia’s first ever space policy.

April 9, 2013 A ''crack team of education gurus'' will be formed into a new national body to collect school performance data, Federal School Education Minister Peter Garrett has said.

April 9, 2013 Communications Minister Stephen Conroy labelled the Coalition's plan as dumb for proposing to use Telstra's ageing copper wire network for broadband.

April 9, 2013 The federal government has refuted opposition claims that the national broadband network bill will more than double to $90 billion. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has rejected long-running opposition and business calls for a cost-benefit analysis of the network rollout, saying the costs were ''black and white'' and that over time revenue would cover the expense.

April 9, 2013 Adrian Trevett was an eccentric loner with no enemies who lived a quiet life in remote NSW – yet he was brutally killed. Tim Elliott outlines why.

April 9, 2013 The Federal Court in Perth has heard allegations on behalf of the Fair Work Ombudsman that foreign workers on an oil rig off the coast of Western Australia were paid less than $3 an hour.