The AusDiab study recruited a population-based cohort of over 11 000 adults recruited from across Australia in 1999–2000. Follow-up of the cohort has produced a tremendous amount of valuable information on risks of diabetes, cardiovascular and kidney disease. Some of the more recent data will be discussed. Sedentary behaviour (as measured by time spent watching television) was a risk factor for total and for cardiovascular mortality. The finding was independent of traditional risk factors and of exercise time. In further analyses, not only was sedentary time associated with metabolic parameters, but a higher frequency of breaks in sedentary was associated with improved metabolic parameters. Vitamin D is increasingly recognised as being involved in protecting against a range of chronic diseases. AusDiab data showed that every 10 nmol/L increase in serum 25OHD was associated with a 9% reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes over five years. AusDiab included assessments of retinal vasculature. Analyses of these data have shown retinal vascular diameters to be independent predictors of diabetes, diabetic retinopathy and CVD, whilst greater complexity of the retinal vasculature branching patterns were associated with diabetes. At a public health level, recent AusDiab analyses have been used to develop a simple non-invasive questionnaire to assess risk for developing diabetes and have estimated the annual costs of obesity in Australia to be $14.5 billion.