Australia's national day of celebration has drawn much criticism recently from those who say it causes unfair hurt to indigenous people. But the controversy, like Australia Day itself, has evolved over many years, reports Sharon Verghis from Sydney.

More than most other nations, perhaps, Australia has a relaxed relationship to its national day. ...

On Saturday, Sydney's famous Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras marks its 40th anniversary - and its first celebration since Australia legalised same-sex marriage. Much has changed since violence marred the first parade.

Meghan Markle is an actress, model – and next to marry into the Royal family, if we are reading the tea leaves right following Markle's decision to close down her popular blog The Tig last week....

Since the murder of her daughter Carly at 14, Sonya Ryan has tirelessly worked to increase awareness of internet safety. Her efforts have paid off with legislative change but there's more to be done.

At 14, life was looking bright for Carly Ryan. The pretty brunette Adelaide teenager was in love – with a handsome young Melbourne musician called Brandon Kane, 18. They had met online, and clicked immediately. Over months of virtual chats, their relationship grew...

“Why don’t you look like your mum and dad?” my twins are often asked.

When our son was born, he looked like a tiny, blonde peanut. He had light skin and grey eyes. His twin, our daughter, was bigger, browner, with thick dark hair...

"What an interesting way to get a deeper understanding of the paranormal through this idea of how the grief we feel makes us fascinated by the afterlife and the loss of loved ones.”

It began with a small article in a local newspaper. Independent filmmaker Ben Lawrence was intrigued by the subject: a local Sydney man, Jason King – a burly, tattooed security guard with the battered face of a boxer and a side hustle moonlighting as a ghosthunter....

Jingoistic young whites are turning the Australian flag into a symbol of exclusion

It was on one of those blue-sky, Sydney summer afternoons early last year when I first realized something had gone awry with the Australian flag. ...

Relations between China and Australia may be fractious, but in William Yang pure harmony reigns

As a gay Australian of chinese descent, William Yang is intimately acquainted with the world of the outsider. ...

On a Wednesday evening at a local bar in Kansas, Indian software engineers Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani were chatting over their customary after-work whiskies...

A heart surgeon gave hope that Australia's attitude to Asian immigrants was changing

In 1999, Australians taking part in the People's Choice Awards, a kind of pop-culture popularity contest, had a choice to make. ...

On a Sunday morning in North Steyne, north of Sydney, a small, glassy swell is rolling in. My twins, nine, are part of a rolling maul of nippers on the beach. They are the only children from a South-East Asian background as far as the eye can see. ...

IN THE summer of 1989 I was with some friends at my local beach, Cronulla, when a gang of white local surfers and their female hanger-ons told me to "f--- off to Brighton". ...

Those who dedicate their lives to helping the country's homeless population say that Australia lacks a plan to tackle the number of people living rough.

Jody Letts travelled the arc from middle-class security to homelessness in what seems like a blink of an eye....