In the face of a rural doctor shortage in Australia, two medical professionals are building a healthcare centre in the small town of Jandowae on Queensland’s Western Downs.

The new medical centre will have the capacity to host more visiting specialists, as well as more room to train doctors in remote care.

In 2017, there were almost 20,000 medical practitioners employed, with almost three quarters residing in metro areas such as Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

The New South Wales government has used unclaimed gambling winnings to fund a Jackie Chan film in a move they say was “beneficial for the community”.

The $850,000 grant issued in 2016 by the Community Development Fund was their largest grant to a single project, with other funding contributing to community projects like schools and memorials.

The Community Development Fund, financed through unclaimed poker machine jackpots and gaming machine tickets, has also garnered criticism for a substantial donation to Racing NSW.

Recent rainfall has come too late to ease the drought and frost that rural analysts say is the cause of  Australia’s worst winter harvest in a decade.

Western Australia will provide over half of the national winter crop, and is the only State stopping the harvest from slipping to a 20-year low.

NSW Farmers' Grains Committee chair Matthew Madden said growers are worried their “reputation” will be “jeopardised in [the] rush to import grain from other states and overseas.”

Surveillance footage has shown that a body double of Jamal Khashoggi was seen seen leaving the Saudi Consulate on the same day of his alleged death.

Footage unearthed by CNN shows that a man wearing Khashoggi’s clothes was seen leaving the back exit of the consulate along with a member of the Saudi team.

The footage comes amid increasing pressure on Saudi Arabia to clarify what happened to Khashoggi.
 

A category 4 hurricane is likely to hit Mexico’s South-Western Coast later this week.
 

Hurricane Willa is expected to bring torrential rains, landslides, and flooding to the area, and the National Hurricane Center has called the storm "potentially catastrophic".
 

The hurricane is the second to hit the region this month following the US’ Hurricane Michael.

Queensland is set to become the world’s second largest gas exporter, according to the latest Deloitte Access Economic review.

The review predicts that Queensland’s liquified natural gas industry is set to take overtake the coal industry and take the state out of its current economic mining downturn.

In November 2017, the sector produced its first 1.1 billion export.  

A Senate estimates hearing has heard a P&O cruise ship spilled 27, 000 litres of food waste and grey water on the Great Barrier Reef marine park in August.

Deputy Greens leader Larissa Waters delivered Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s report, which had been supplied anonymously, and said the public had a right to know about such events.

Waters said cruise ship companies are less likely to take the issue seriously if they believe the public won’t find out about their pollution.

The $50 billion education gap between urban and regional areas could soon be reduced with help from travelling bush tutors and rewards for student effort.

In a report conducted by UNSW economic professor Richard Holden, $53 billion could be added to Australia’s annual GDP if investments were made into the education of rural and regional schoolchildren.

Head of the Gonski Institute, Adrian Piccoli, said the report was commissioned in order to “get decision makers to understand the economic consequences of having this gap”.