Personal bankruptcies across Australia are at an eight-year high according to recently released research on the last financial year.

More than 32,000 Australians declared bankruptcy, and experts are warning that a combination of rising debt, stagnant wage growth and falling house prices could herald more bad news.

Queensland had the highest number of bankruptcies in the country, with more than 9,415 people declaring personal bankruptcy in the Sunshine State over the past year, but the rate of increase did slow to 1.5 per cent.

Researchers say for the first time an entire city, Townsville in northern Queensland, has been protected from the viral disease dengue fever.

Captive-bred mosquitoes with a naturally occurring bacteria were released, where they mated with local mosquitoes. By spreading a bacteria which hinders dengue transmission, the city has been dengue-free since 2014.

Researchers from Monash University also believe their work could stop mosquito-borne diseases Zika and malaria.

Dutton Park has been revealed as the site for Queensland's next high-rise school.

The Queensland government has been investigating several sites for a new inner-south high school to ease the enrolment pressure on Brisbane State High School.

The decision was based on the proximity to the city, connections with existing transport infrastructure and the nearby tertiary education partner, the University of Queensland.

New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has returned to work after spending six weeks away on maternity leave.

Ms Ardern, 38, gave birth to her first child in June, making her only the second world leader to give birth while in office.

The prime minister had continued to read cabinet papers and was consulted on significant issues during her leave.

Ms Ardern, who was elected in October, announced in January that she and her partner were expecting.

The Ebola virus has struck again just one week after the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Health Ministry reported the end of the viral outbreak.

The latest outbreak was the 10th time that Ebola has surfaced in the country.

The health minister, Dr. Oly Ilunga Kalenga, said in a statement that the authorities had notified his ministry on Saturday of 26 suspected cases of Ebola, including the 20 deaths.

Samples from six survivors were analyzed on Tuesday and four tested positive for the virus.

Trains will run every six and a half minutes in Melbourne’s north-east, with the Andrews government promising to duplicate single sections of track running through marginal seats if it wins the November election.

For $530 million, Labor has promised to rebuild Greensborough station and add three kilometres of extra track between Greensborough and Montmorency.

It will be built in 2020 and finished by 2022, benefiting commuters in the marginal, Labor-held seats of Eltham and Yan Yean.

New data from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has shown almost two million Takata airbags still need replacing.

While 1.1 million faulty Takata airbags have been replaced over the past 12 months, ACCC chair Delia Rickard says 1.8 million vehicles still have the recalled airbags.

"The airbags degrade over time and can become lethal by misdeploying and firing metal shards at the car’s occupants,” Ms Rickard said.

Queensland's July rainfall was more than 70 per cent below the long-term average and the driest since 2014, the Bureau of Meteorology says.

Despite it being the middle of winter, July was a month with an average temperature nearly 2 degrees higher than the long-term average.

In the second half of the month, some locations reported their highest temperatures on record, including Gatton, Amberley and Archerfield airport.