Fires, floods, murders, a missing child and a massacre \u2013 2025 in Australia brought some of the very worst news.<\/p>\n
Threaded through the year were themes that persisted from 2024 and will carry on into 2026 \u2013 the cost of living, interest rates, immigration debates, the housing crisis, global instability, AI and Aukus.<\/p>\n
And, of course, the effects of the climate crisis, the battle against it, and the battle against the battle against it.<\/p>\n
But the year also brought twisty tales, uniquely Australian moments and events that will change the nation for ever.<\/p>\n
January<\/p>\n
A range of charges<\/a> were brought under the Australian federal police\u2019s special operation Avalite, targeting antisemitic behaviour. More followed under Avalite and other operations \u2013 but the outcomes were complicated.<\/p>\n Police suspected \u201ccriminals for hire<\/a>\u201d could be involved, working for cash, not ideology<\/a>. A caravan found with old explosives inside turned out to be a \u201cfake terrorism plot<\/a>\u201d by organised criminals, according to police.<\/p>\n Later that month, 14 members of the Saints, a Toowoomba-based religious sect<\/a>, were found guilty of manslaughter over the 2022 death of Elizabeth Struhs. Struhs was eight when she died in 2022, after the group denied her insulin despite knowing she was a type 1 diabetic.<\/p>\n The group believed that \u201cGod heals\u201d, so medicine should not be used.<\/p>\n February<\/p>\n Jo Haylen quit as New South Wales transport minister<\/a> after she used her ministerial car for a 13-hour, 446km round-trip for a winery lunch. In a refrain that became even more familiar later in the year, she said she did not break the rules but that she had let the public down.<\/p>\n Sam Kerr was found not guilty <\/a>of racially aggravated harassment of a police officer in London. The Matildas captain and Chelsea star striker had called him \u201cfucking stupid and white\u201d, after a saga inside a taxi.<\/p>\n Sailors onboard the Royal Australian navy ship HMAS Arunta watch Chinese warships in the Tasman Sea. Photograph: Australian Defence Force\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n International tensions rose after three Chinese warships were detected off Australia\u2019s east coast<\/a>. It happened not long after a Chinese fighter jet released flares in front of an Australian military plane. The ships were inside Australia\u2019s exclusive economic zone, but not in Australia\u2019s territorial waters. We will \u201cwatch every move\u201d, the defence minister, Richard Marles, said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Tropical Cyclone Alfred <\/a>was approaching.<\/p>\n March<\/p>\n By the time it hit the mainland, slow-moving Cyclone Alfred was downgraded to a tropical low but heavy rainfall and flooding still smashed south-east Queensland and northern NSW, leaving one man dead<\/a> and hundreds of thousands of people without power, water and phones.<\/p>\n A mucky, mysterious brown foam<\/a> that clumped along beaches in South Australia turned out to be one of Australia\u2019s greatest environmental disasters. The algal bloom<\/a> \u2013 which is still present, although it has reduced \u2013 killed thousands of fish and marine animals. Its toxins irritated human eyes, skin and respiratory systems. Scientists are still trying to work out exactly what caused it.<\/p>\n April<\/p>\n Two Australian stories captured global attention in April. A plucky, lucky dachshund named Valerie<\/a> was found safe and well after more than 500 days on the run in the wilds of South Australia\u2019s Kangaroo Island. Valerie went missing in 2023, but in early 2025 there were reported sightings of her, and on 25 April conservationists managed to trap her. Despite concerns over her wellbeing and speculation she would have been forced to survive on roadkill, she had put on weight<\/a>.<\/p>\n Erin Patterson (left) arrives for a plea hearing at the Victorian supreme court on 25 August. Photograph: Jason Edwards\/EPA<\/p>\n The second story \u2013 the start of the mushroom trial<\/a> \u2013 continues to captivate the world. Erin Patterson was accused of murdering her estranged husband\u2019s parents and his aunt with beef wellingtons laced with death cap mushrooms. People were glued to each day of the trial, right up until the guilty verdict<\/a> handed down on 7 July. Even now, podcasts and books are trawling through the details, while Patterson has filed an appeal<\/a>.<\/p>\n And Monash IVF had to apologise<\/a> after a Queensland patient unwittingly gave birth to a stranger\u2019s child after having the wrong embryo transferred.<\/p>\n May<\/p>\n Labor won the May election by a stunning margin<\/a> \u2013 the Liberals and Nationals briefly split<\/a> in the immediate aftermath, and the Coalition is still dealing with the fallout. The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, was among those who lost their seats, and his replacement, Sussan Ley, is still overseeing the shaky alliance with the Nationals, with threatened and real defections<\/a>.<\/p>\n Peter Dutton leaves the stage after conceding defeat at the Liberal party election night event in Brisbane. Photograph: Patrick Hamilton\/AFP\/Getty ImagesJune<\/p>\n Monash IVF admitted a second bungled embryo implant<\/a>, this time in Victoria. A patient had her own embryo transferred, when it was meant to be that of her partner. The details of a review were kept secret<\/a>.<\/p>\n July<\/p>\n In July, horrific allegations of sexual abuse in childcare centres started to emerge. Joshua Dale Brown<\/a> was charged over the alleged abuse of eight children, aged between five months and two years. The troubles hadn\u2019t started there, and they didn\u2019t end there<\/a>.<\/p>\n The inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker, a death that rocked the outback town of Yuendumu, found constable Zachary Rolfe was racist, and the coroner could not rule out<\/a> that racism may have contributed to Walker\u2019s death in 2019. Rolfe was found not guilty of murder and manslaughter in March 2022 but coroner Elisabeth Armitage said he \u201cwas racist, and he worked in and benefited from an organisation with the hallmarks of institutional racism\u201d.<\/p>\n A story that seemed likely to have a terrible ending instead became an astonishing tale of survival, as German backpacker Caroline Wilga was found alive<\/a> after 12 days missing in remote Western Australian bushland.<\/p>\n August<\/p>\n Tens, if not hundreds of thousands marched peacefully across Sydney\u2019s Harbour Bridge<\/a> to protest against Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza. Critics highlighted a picture of the Iranian dictator Ayatollah Khomeini carried in the march, while the ABC reported<\/a> a man carrying a terror-related flag was also there.<\/p>\n Thousands of pro-Palestine protesters walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in August. Photograph: Flavio Brancaleone\/AAP<\/p>\n That was followed by the anti-immigration March for Australia in several cities, where speakers included neo-Nazis<\/a>, and which ended with an attack on the Indigenous protest site Camp Sovereignty<\/a> in Melbourne.<\/p>\n A heavily armed<\/a> Desmond \u201cDezi\u201d Freeman fled his home in the Victorian town of Porepunkah after allegedly shooting two police officers dead. Freeman was described as armed and dangerous, as having sovereign citizen beliefs, and as likely being prepared to hide out in inhospitable terrain. He still has not been found<\/a>.<\/p>\n The death of the film critic David Stratton<\/a>, 85, was greeted with sadness but also fond memories of his role in Australian popular culture over many decades.<\/p>\n September<\/p>\n On Saturday 27 September, four-year-old Gus Lamont went missing from his outback South Australian home. Despite one of the largest police searches <\/a>in the state\u2019s history, he remains missing. The police say the case remains open, and pledge to leave \u201cno stone unturned\u201d.<\/p>\n The communications minister, Anika Wells, faced questions over the triple-zero crisis and her expenses. Photograph: Mick Tsikas\/AP<\/p>\n Two people died after a triple-zero network failure<\/a>. The communications minister, Anika Wells, and her office are still facing questions<\/a> about how it happened, while simultaneously dealing with the expenses scandal<\/a> that began when her trip to New York to promote the under-16 social media ban was delayed as a result of the triple-zero crisis.<\/p>\n With the social media ban not due until December, Australian children were subjected to gruesome vision<\/a> on multiple platforms when the rightwing influencer and Trump ally Charlie Kirk was shot dead<\/a> on 11 September. The eSafety commission asked the platforms to remove the footage and it was effectively banned by being refused classification, but X later successfully challenged the refusal in court.<\/p>\n Australia joined a host of other countries to formally recognise Palestine<\/a>.<\/p>\n October<\/p>\n On 20 October Albanese had a long-awaited and occasionally hotly debated meeting with Donald Trump<\/a>. The prime minister was chuffed at the outcome, despite a slightly awkward moment<\/a> for Australia\u2019s ambassador, the former PM Kevin Rudd.<\/p>\n Weirdly, the loudest criticisms came when Albanese arrived back home wearing a Joy Division T-shirt. It took Sussan Ley five days<\/a> after the fact to launch her failed attempt to tear the PM apart over the matter.<\/p>\n November<\/p>\n Somehow, after all the uproar over antisemitic acts during the year, neo-Nazis were allowed to gather<\/a> outside the NSW parliament, clutching a banner reading \u201cAbolish the Jewish lobby\u201d and chanting a Hitler Youth Slogan.<\/p>\n After the National party dumped its commitment to net zero emissions by 2050, the Liberals followed suit<\/a>, despite that position being described by its own former MPs as a \u201cnail in the coffin<\/a>\u201d for the party\u2019s hopes of regaining the urban seats it will need if it hopes to form government again.<\/p>\n Anthony Albanese and Jodie Haydon during their wedding ceremony at The Lodge in Canberra. Photograph: Australian Prime Minister\u2019S Office\/EPA<\/p>\n The Coalition faced another challenge to its environmental credentials weeks later when Labor and the Greens teamed up<\/a> to pass long-awaited new nature laws \u2013 the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.<\/p>\n Two less confrontational events bookended the month: Helen Garner added international recognition to her local status when her diaries won the Baillie Gifford prize<\/a> for nonfiction; and Anthony Albanese married his partner Jodie Haydon<\/a> in Canberra, the first prime minister to celebrate a wedding while in office.<\/p>\n December<\/p>\n The Aukus deal is \u201cfull steam ahead<\/a>\u201d, Trump said, as the US handed down a review of the alliance meant to deliver nuclear-powered submarines to Australia. But not everyone was convinced the boats will come.<\/p>\n The world was watching as Australia enacted the first-of-a-kind social media ban<\/a>, making the tech companies boot under-16s off their platforms. Even the government admits it\u2019s not perfect, but plenty of grownups seem to love the idea (meanwhile the relevant minister, Anika Wells, was firmly in the headlines over her use of parliamentary expenses<\/a>).<\/p>\n There was stark and distressing news on Indigenous deaths in custody. More people died in 2024-2025 than in any year since 1980<\/a>, despite known dangers and vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n And the year ended with the terrifying, devastating terror attack<\/a> on Sydney\u2019s Jewish community as people celebrated the first day of Hanukah next to Bondi beach. Two men allegedly killed 15 and injured dozens in the massacre, the worst since Port Arthur in 1996.<\/p>\n As the nation mourned, recriminations began over the government\u2019s response to antisemitism<\/a> and the adequacy of gun laws<\/a>, but the heroic acts <\/a>of those caught up in the violence, including some who lost their lives<\/a>, provided slivers of comfort in a dark time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fires, floods, murders, a missing child and a massacre \u2013 2025 in Australia brought some of the very…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-209712","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}