Tom Price - 6751

The multinational Schlam Group employed Ambrose Walton before his death in the Pilbara last week and will pay to send the 33-year-old's body home to his family in Canada.

Ambrose Walton, 33, was planning to return to Canada just weeks after the date he was killed in a crash in remote WA. Now his family is working to bring his body home.

As another school year begins, the ABC speaks to 10 recent high school graduates from all over country Australia about their hopes, dreams and fears for the future. 

The employer of a fly-in fly-out worker found two days after crashing his work vehicle in remote Western Australia says the utility was due to have a tracking device installed next week.

WA police confirm 33-year-old fly-in-fly-out worker Ambrose Walton, missing in the Pilbara region since Tuesday, has been found dead after his vehicle crashed near an unsealed access road.

Ambrose Walton, described as having a strong Canadian accent, was last seen near Tom Price on Tuesday and never turned up to meet a friend in Karratha.

Temperatures in the small Pilbara town of Paraburdoo reached their highest recorded level of 48.1 degrees Celsius on Sunday, as an extreme heatwave continues to bake the region. 

Living in regional Western Australia remains a costly enterprise, with prices consistently higher than Perth for basics including groceries and fuel.

Regional towns look to local government for a creative solution to bank closures.

After the only bank in town closed, the residents of Tom Price had to get creative to solve the issue of cash.

A thousand kilometres from Perth and situated between red dust and mountain ranges, cash is still king at the Tom Price drive-in theatre.

With cash and change now a 700-kilometre round trip away, community groups and businesses in Tom Price are donating, bartering and looking for any available solution after the town's bank branch closed.

Spurred by community outcry, the changes include new penalties for on-selling alcohol to banned drinkers, with a view to reducing family and domestic violence.

Lodging objections to permits for mining activities is currently free in Western Australia, but the state government says it needs more resources and funding to meet an increase in challenges.

A two-kilometre exclusion zone around the crash site of the deadly chemical truck blaze has been lifted, allowing investigators to begin closer inspection.

Authorities say a disastrous Beirut blast in 2020 influenced their decision to wait days before investigating the site of this week's fatal collision.

Mining giant Rio Tinto says it has apologised to traditional owners after a blast at one of its operations in WA's Pilbara caused damage to an ancient heritage site. 

After two weeks of hearings in WA's remote Pilbara, Yindjibarndi traditional owners and mining company FMG are no closer to resolving their $500 million dispute.

As the dispute between Yindjibarndi traditional owners and Andrew Forrest's Fortescue Metals Group enters its second week, the Federal Court has been hearing evidence at Bangkangarra.

As the Federal Court hears testimony from Pilbara elders, lawyers for Andrew Forrest's Fortescue Metals Group have continued to deny the iron ore miner is liable for compensation for traditional owners.

A remote court sitting has heard competing claims from FMG, traditional owners and the WA government amid a $500m dispute.

The Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation seeks $500 million a year in compensation from Fortescue Metals Group, for losses caused by the company's Solomon Hub in WA.

The Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation has fought for years for compensation from iron ore mines in the Pilbara, but may soon be producing renewable energy to sell to those same companies.

The Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura who suffered the destruction of a 46,000-year-old rock shelter by a mining company say debate on WA's new legislation have been sidetracked.

It's been three years since Rio Tinto blew up sacred rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in WA's Pilbara region. While nothing will make up for the destruction, traditional owners are working to rehabilitate the site.