Best videos from around Australia for August 20, 2021

But in amidst the heartbreak, there have been a few moments of reprieve. Our video editors here at Australian Community Media (ACM) have compiled a few of the clips that acted as an oasis in the desert of good news this week.

May they provide you a moment's respite too.

The internet exploded when the auto-captions in ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr's press conference on Monday announced that he would like to "thank Ken Behrens for doing the right thing".

And so, the world went in search of the elusive Ken Behrens in order to thank him for his commitment to the local lockdown restrictions in Australia's capital.

'Ken Behrens', apparently, is what the word 'Canberrans' sounds like to the auto-caption software. But Ken Behrens is also a real person. A nature photographer in deepest Africa, as it turns out!

NSW's lockdown has been extended to at least August 28. Much of Sydney is now in their eighth week of lockdown with no indication that it will end soon.

And that means the animals at Taronga Zoo have been without an audience for months. So the keepers have opened their enclosures to the internet to provide a behind-the-scenes view of what goes on at the zoo.

So, what do the animals get up to when they think no-one's watching? Gorgonzola the little penguin will never tell.

Learning-from-home requirements across the country put a dampener on National Science Week celebrations.

So ACM commissioned science writer and author Cristy Burne to give us the goods when it comes to science experiments you can do from home.

From the Mobius strip mystery to defying gravity, Ms Burne offered the secrets to a few of the funnest things you can do from your lounge room - or a safe distance from anything breakable in your backyard, as is more appropriate with that water trick!

The lockdown has meant that many of us are now working from home, but for Bree How and her right-hand Kit, that's just a regular Tuesday really.

The Tasmanian duo are competing in this year's Cobber Working Dog Challenge. They're up against 12 of Australia and New Zealand's finest working dogs, and we think they may well be in with a good chance to take home the crown.

But we might be a bit biased, such a good, good girl!