Queensland Country Hour

The Australian wool industry has set new sustainability standards, and wants to spruik its green credentials to the world. But is it fashionable, or even affordable, to wear wool anymore?

The state government has bought the outback station nestled between Longreach and the Diamantina Lakes, planning to create a corridor of national parks in some of the most unique country in Queensland. 

It's the next chapter for a landscape known for its opal bearing-ranges, indigenous watering holes and as a cattle and sheep grazing operation. 

It comes as the federal government outlined the next stage of it's plan for a tough new Environmental Protection Agency to police conservation efforts.  

You don't have to live in the bush to benefit from a little less screen time, and a little more green time. 

Farmers have long benefited from keeping pastures green and landscapes vibrant, but being a custodian of nature has its challenges, especially when it comes to the devastation caused by floods, fires and droughts. 

As they work to improve the resilience of their land, new research suggests they may also be improving their brain health and mental health, and all it takes spending time in nature. 

They've survived since the Jurassic period, at least 145 million years, but now Bunya Pines are under attack, and national park lovers could be contributing to their demise. 

Bushwalking, mountain biking, four-wheel-driving, timber harvesting and feral pig incursions can all spread the problem, but there's a simple way to prevent it if you read the signs.  

For decades manufacturing has been leaving Australian shores in favour of cheaper Asian industrial powerhouses like India and China, but now Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says its time to bring it back. 

But can Australia really compete with massive economies like the US, which is also making a strong bid to provide the technology that will underpin a clean energy future? 

If it can, indigenous Australians say they should be involved from the start, and what lessons can be learned from the innovation already happening in rural Australia?

It's become a right of passage for young people from about 40 countries around the world - go backpacking in Australia and while you're there pick up a jobs in a regional area to make money and extend your stay. 

More than a tourist program, the Working Holiday Maker visa has become a key source of workers in agriculture, which is why some farmers are nervous about potential changes that could see fewer people take up the challenge of a farm job.  

A new era for Meat and Livestock Australia, as the new managing director Michael Crowley takes the reigns.   

Sugar cane was brought to Australia on the first fleet in 1788, and until now it has been grown to produce raw sugar.

But the crop is incredibly versatile, and mapping its genome could see it used in biofuels, bioplastics, perfume, and even sustainable fabrics.

As motorists are told to brace for rising oil prices, the farmers behind the crop say political leadership is the only piece missing in the renewable fuel puzzle. 

Built in the 1920s to serve as an early warning beacon for cyclones and storms, the Bureau of Meteorology weather station on this tiny Island in the Coral Sea has been providing continuous weather observations ever since.

It takes the four observers who live there two days to travel the 450km by boat from Cairns, and once they're there, they are in it for the long haul. 

Prenti Downs in the heart of Western Australia has download speeds good enough to watch the cricket and an upload speed that allows live streaming on YouTube.

Jack Carmody says many pastoralists have expressed an interest in adopting the same system, and while the cost of the investment stops some, the main barrier is a lack of confidence in technology.