A drone image showing the vehicles amid mineshafts. Photo: Holden Australia

Travel

This is real outback Australia

Driving off the beaten track in far north South Australia is not for the faint-heated – especially when your adventure takes you underground. But there are plenty of hidden gems to discover in the strangely Mars-like landscape, writes Stephanie Richards.

News

Knoll moves closer to winding up under-fire council

Local Government Minister Stephan Knoll has given Coober Pedy Council three weeks to explain why he shouldn’t shut it down and replace the elected members with an administrator.

News

Crown law "covered off" under-fire council's legal exposure

A South Australian council was assured by a senior state bureaucrat that Crown law had legally ‘covered off’ a controversial power deal, 20 months before the same council was found guilty of “serious maladministration” over agreeing to sign the agreement without going through its internal procurement processes.

Opinion

"God this looks like Gillman 2"

A deal designed in offices in the city and negotiated largely between several layers of government and corporate executives looks set to bring down a tiny local council. David Washington asks whether an Ombudsman’s investigation into serious maladministration has left some of the biggest questions unanswered.

News

Council committed "serious" maladministration in SA energy deal

The Ombudsman has found a South Australian council committed “one of the most serious examples of maladministration” he has seen when it signed a controversial deal with a major power company, with the council now under threat of being wound up.