Rhiannon Stevens is a reporter based in Ballarat, Victoria, covering stories across TV, radio and online. Rhiannon previously worked for the ABC in Kalgoorlie, WA. She tweets at @rhi_stevens.
In a year when many Australian music festivals have announced they're folding or postponed, Meredith Music Festival will nurture its familiar rituals like the brass band once again.
Bedridden with rheumatic fever in the 1940s, and having already lost his father to the disease, Ian Braybrook says he owes his life to the big-hearted doctor who treated his family without charge.
Some of Victoria's most spectacular grasslands exist on nondescript roadsides in the heart of the state's western sheep country. Scientists say too many species in the endangered ecosystem face extinction.
The critically endangered Mount Cole grevillea has re-emerged after recent Victorian bushfires, however conservationists are worried it won't survive the wait for three promised national parks to materialise.
When three women died — allegedly at the hands of men — in the regional town of Ballarat, the outpouring of anger that followed prompted more people to seek help.
Mum Renea Johnson wants to give others the shopping experience that her trans daughter didn't have. So she opened an inclusive clothing store in regional Victoria.
Topic:Feel Good
Beloved native swans are particularly susceptible to a deadly strain of bird flu, according to scientists who fear for native birds if the virus hits Australian shores.
Reusing and recycling construction materials is key to reducing waste and emissions. These Australians are leading the way.
When tree grower Steve Murphy became concerned about the quality of revegetation efforts he was seeing on farms, he came up with an idea to restore degraded land by planting wide corridors of endemic plants to mimic nature.
Seeking a direct connection with what they eat, these people have turned to hunting wild animals in Victoria's forests.
Dwindling congregations and ageing churches being sold off is a familiar story across Australia but this town in regional Victoria is bucking the trend.
Reduced prices have seen V/Line passenger numbers increase but the promised extra rail services haven't appeared — which can lead to packed carriages and longer commutes.
A family who for months had been homeless were able to land jobs and housing when they checked into a country motel for a night of reprieve. They are seeing more and more people booking rooms as a long-term option.
After celebrating the end of native forest logging in Victoria, conservationists say it continues under another name.
The school says "reduced noise and fewer rest room breaks" are among early positive results of a trial to improve the classroom environment and student concentration.
Grey-headed flying foxes move into new locations in search of food and habitat, and their defenders say residents need to learn to live with the sometimes noisy and smelly creatures.
Last year, a parliamentary inquiry recommended outlawing duck hunting, and many thought the 2023 season would be Victoria's last. But it's back, together with the divided opinions of hunters and conservationists.
A group of friends, dismayed about climate change, bought the most degraded piece of farmland they could find. Not to live on, or to make money from, but to transform into the bushland it once was.
How many items of clothing do you own, and how often do you wear them? Experts want shoppers to use this knowledge — along with upcycling the "skinny pile" and pressing pause on new buys — to fight the fashion churn destroying the planet.
What does it take to engage the kids who, for many reasons, have failed to find their place in the mainstream system? This school may have found the answer.
Each year, hundreds of people who "fall through the cracks" are buried in country Victoria by volunteers who never knew them.
Charger anxiety replaces range anxiety for the growing number of electric vehicle users relying on slow infrastructure.
The story of the dying country town is a familiar one, but what happens when a town turns its luck around and becomes a tourism destination?
A pathogen branded a "biodiversity bulldozer" is the second biggest threat to native flora and fauna after rabbits but has not received the same attention as other pests. A new trial aims to change that.
An epic and sometimes violent battle led to the end of native-forest logging in Victoria's Otway Ranges, a victory some say made the region what it is today.