Zac the wander-dog mystery solved

Australians perplexed as to how a dog missing for six weeks turned up 1,500 miles (2,300km) from home have had the mystery solved.

Zac the Labrador was found in Cairns after disappearing from his home in Port Macquarie in New South Wales.

Police have now arrested a man they say has admitted the "dog-napping".

Zac has been booked on a Qantas flight to be reunited with his owners, who were delighted their pet seemed to have been enjoying an exotic holiday.

"We were all very upset, especially my daughter. He just disappeared. Nobody had seen hide nor hair of him," Neralie Grieve told the Cairns Post newspaper.

Zac was picked up by animal control officers in Cairns in Queensland after making friends with children at a local school.

Theories that he may have walked the long journey were quashed by a local vet who said he was in good condition and showed no sign of sores on his paws.

The Cairns Post began investigating whether he may have been picked up by an "itinerant animal lover".

Eventually, Cairns police said they had arrested a Sydney man who admitted picking up Zac and driving him north. He is facing drug and stolen property charges, police said.

Owner Neralie Grieve said Zac was constantly escaping from their home and making trips to the beach.

She said one of their fears was that he might have been taken by a shark.

He was eventually identified because of the microchip he had had injected behind his neck.