Doctors and nurse practitioners will be offered the chance to have their university debt cleared if they work in rural areas under a new Federal Government scheme.

The program, which is designed to get more health professionals into Australia's regional and remote areas, will begin in January.

It's hoped that offering the chance to have up to $100,000 in university HELP debt paid off by the government will help fill critical job shortages in the country.

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The scheme will require doctors who go to a remote area to work for half as many years as they studied to have their university debt covered.

However, nurse practitioners will only need to work in remote areas for one year to have their fees paid.

Doctors working in larger regional towns or cities will have to work in the area for the same amount of time as they spent studying.

The incentive scheme is being welcomed by existing regional doctors, who are battling current staff shortages that are forcing patients to wait for basic healthcare.

Dr Kirby White only opened her Bendigo GP clinic three months ago and she has already had to turn patients away.

"My books are now closed and I have a waitlist of over 150 long," she said.

"There are many clinics now that have a wait time up to three weeks to see a GP.

"And if you go further out into remote areas of Australia, the wait can be up to four weeks."

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Three people were sitting around a conference room table in Sydney when Canva was born.

In ten years, that's grown to 2000 staff and the Aussie company has taken out an Apple award for 2021, for helping people connect in another COVID-19-ravaged year.

The numbers are "mind-blowing" to co-founder and CEO Cameron Adams.

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"We had millions of custom Zoom backgrounds created and downloaded on Canva," Mr Adams said.

"We've seen the amount of videos created on Canva grow to 2 million every single day, which is just an incredible amount."

What started on the web now runs natively on iPhone and iPad, and next year, a dedicated Canva app is coming to Mac.

"Every second on an iPhone or an iPad we have 23 designs created," said Mr Adams, whose platform is now being used in 190 countries and in more than 100 different languages.

"It's why 65 million people now rely on Canva to communicate effectively.

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"It's just a blur of design content.

"In the time that I've been talking to you, something like 7000 designs have been created."

Having heavily invested in improving its presentation features, photo and video editing, Mr Adams says 2022 will see the company double down on education.

65,000 schools and 150,000 not-for-profits have been given access to 'pro' features for free as part of Canva's mission to "empower the world to design".

"You can't be a successful Aussie tech company if you're not thinking about the world, which is very different to places like the U.S," Mr Adams said.

"Internationalising, localising in different languages, has been so crucial to our growth which is why we make it such a big focus."

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Here's the full list of Apple's trend winners for 2021:

Among Us! from InnerSloth
Banter, bluffing and teamwork are all critical to win a match in the hit game Among Us!

Bumble, from Bumble Inc.
The dating app that puts women in the power of their conversations.

EatOkra, from Anthony Edwards Jr. and Janique Edwards
EatOkra built a robust, user-driven guide to more than 11,000 Black-owned eateries that help people find tasty ways to invest in their community.

Peanut, from Peanut App Limited
Creating space for honest conversations on every aspect of womanhood.

Here's the full list of Apple's 2021 App Award winners:

• iPhone App of the Year: Toca Life World, from Toca Boca.
• iPad App of the Year: LumaFusion, from LumaTouch.
• Mac App of the Year: Craft, from Luki Labs Limited.
• Apple TV App of the Year: DAZN, from DAZN Group.
• Apple Watch App of the Year: Carrot Weather, from Grailr.

Australia's top free iPhone apps were dominated by COVID-19:

1. Express Plus Medicare
2. Check In Qld
3. Service NSW
4. Service Victoria
5. myGovID
6. Instagram
7. TikTok
8. YouTube: Watch, Listen, Stream
9. Snapchat
10. Facebook

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Meanwhile, the country's top paid iPhone apps were:

1. WikiCamps Australia
2. The Wonder Weeks
3. Monash University FODMAP diet
4. TripView – Sydney & Melbourne
5. Forest – Your Focus Motivation
6. Procreate Pocket
7. Rain Parrot
8. TouchRetouch
9. AutoSleep Track Sleep on Watch
10. 75 Hard

A huge thunderstorm has settled over Brisbane and is continuing to build, with heavy rainfall triggering flash flooding and damaging property across the Queensland's south-east.

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe thunderstorm warning this afternoon with Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast, and the surrounding areas of Somerset, Redland City and the Moreton Bay region in the firing line.

The BoM warned residents damaging winds, severe storms and large hailstones are likely, and heavy rainfall may trigger flash flooding.

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https://twitter.com/BOM_Qld/status/1468461664265768964

In Brisbane, Pullenvale in the city's west was hardest hit, with 59 millimetres of rain falling in just a few hours.

On the Gold Coast, Worongary got the most rain with 46 millimetres.

A supercell storm also hit the community of Runaway Bay, and the main street of Beaudesert, just south of Brisbane, was replaced by a river.

It received 67mm of rain within an hour.

The thunderstorms are moving east, and are heading for the town of Caboolture.

At the Gold Coast's Wet and Wild waterpark, families have run for cover while their cars were lashed by rain.

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Several flood warnings remain in place across the state, including major warnings for communities along the Condamine and Balonne Rivers, the Dawson River and the Weir and the Macintyre River, which last weak peaked at record breaking highs.

Residents are warned never to drive through or enter floodwaters.

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