Category Archives: Queensland

NSW solar farm to supply almost half energy needs of major gas company

Posted on by

Shift away from fossil fuels by BOC is expected to cut company’s Australian emissions 40% by 2035 and follows similar commitment by Rio Tinto

A major industrial gas company in Australia will shift its power use away from fossil fuels and instead meet nearly half its electricity needs across three states from solar.

BOC, owned by global gas and engineering company Linde, supplies speciality gases to large manufacturers, industry and oxygen to hospitals.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

‘Where am I going to go?’ Dismay as Queensland council begins tearing down tent encampment

Posted on by

Homeless residents given an hour to move belongings as City of Moreton Bay brings excavator to Eddie Hyland Park in Lawnton

Homeless residents of one of Moreton Bay’s largest encampments watched on as council rangers and an excavator began tearing down their tents on Wednesday.

A dozen police and council officers arrived at Eddie Hyland Park in Lawnton on Wednesday morning. The large park, next to the Pine Rivers Showgrounds, has been home to a dozen or more people, with about 15 tents standing when authorities arrived on Wednesday morning.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

Double murderer fails in bid to overturn Queensland’s no body, no parole laws

Posted on by

Rodney Cherry was found guilty of killing his wife and stepdaughter but argued no body, no parole became law after he was sentenced

A double murderer has failed in a high court bid to overturn Queensland’s “no body, no parole” laws, in a case which also involved almost every other state and territory government.

Rodney Michael Cherry, 65, was found guilty in 2002 of killing his 35-year-old wife, Annette Cherry, and 18-year-old stepdaughter, Kira Guise, at Roma in central Queensland and sentenced to life in prison.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

LNP orders review of Queensland’s emissions reduction target of 75% by 2035

Posted on by

Conservation groups condemn the move along with the government’s decision to extend the life of coal power stations

Queensland’s target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2035 could face the scrap heap, with the state energy minister ordering a review of the ambitious legislation.

The Clean Economy Jobs Bill was passed into law last year, with the backing of both Labor and the Liberal National party.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

Brisbane woman charged with murder after allegedly giving terminally ill partner lethal dose of pain medication

Posted on by

Police say David Mobbs was in ‘last stages of his life’ with motor neurone disease and had been in and out of hospital before his death

A pensioner has been charged with murder after being accused of administering a lethal dose of prescription medication to her terminally ill partner.

Kylie Ellina Truswell-Mobbs, 50, was arrested more than a year after the death of David Ronald Mobbs, 56, at Alexandra Hills, in Brisbane’s south-east, in December 2023.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

‘Australia is a landlord’s market’: rents still at record high despite slow growth, report shows

Posted on by

Kingsford Smith, Bradfield, Sydney, and Warringah in New South Wales and Fadden in Queensland are the five most expensive electorates, data shows

Rents are growing at the slowest rate in four years thanks in part to increased supply, but are still at record highs, Domain’s March Quarterly report has revealed.

It comes as Anglicare Australia launches a heat map showing rental affordability in each electorate, with Kingsford Smith, Bradfield, Sydney, and Warringah in New South Wales and Fadden in Queensland the five least-affordable electorates in the country.

7.7% in Darwin to $700 per week;

6.2% in Perth to $690 per week;

5.1% in Adelaide to $620 per week;

4.8% in Brisbane to $650 per week;

3.6% in Hobart to $570 per week;

3.35% in Sydney to $775 per week;

2.2% in Canberra to $700 per week; and

1.8% in Melbourne to $580 per week.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

Queensland’s recovery to ‘take months and years’ after floods sweep across vast interior

Posted on by

Bureau of Meteorology predicts flooding could continue for weeks as stock losses already estimated at over 150,000

Queensland’s premier has declared “day one” of a recovery that will take years as the state prepares to wake to clear skies that should reveal the vast scale of its outback floods.

But despite forecasts the rain will pass for soaked central and south-west Queensland by Thursday, towns and homesteads could be cut off or at risk of flooding for weeks to come, according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s senior meteorologist, Dean Narramore.

Continue reading...

Australian police will testify at trial of US man linked to Wieambilla shootings

Posted on by

Arizona allows testimony in the case of Donald Day who is accused of making threats to public figures and the FBI

Australian police officers have been given the green light to testify in the US trial of a man accused of links to the deadly Wieambilla shootings in rural Queensland.

The Queensland officers will be allowed to testify in an Arizona court but will have to stick to “neutral factual” accounts of the incident.

Continue reading...

Queensland premier warns worst flooding yet to come after NSW man swept away by rising waters

Posted on by

Man had been attempting to cross a causeway through rising flood waters that have now cut off a campsite, stranding more than 20 people

Police have resumed the search for an elderly man who was swept into a flooded river on Saturday night, as authorities warn more heavy rain could isolate inland parts of New South Wales and Queensland for up to six weeks.

Flood warnings remain in place for vast areas of eastern Australia, after a record-breaking rain event.

Continue reading...

Small town flown out as ‘dynamic’ flooding hits large parts of Queensland

Posted on by

Floodwaters have cut roads and isolated central and south-west communities after days of rain, forcing many to flee

Flood warnings remain in place for large parts of Queensland with heavy rainfall to continue on Saturday after significant falls overnight.

Inland parts of the state affected by severe floods in recent days are subject to major flood warnings, including on the Thomson, Barcoo, Bullo, Paroo and Warrego rivers.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Stinging deaths, back yard poisons and billions spent: model predicts Australia’s fire ants future

Posted on by

Exclusive: Cost blow-out has experts worried people will use ‘huge’ volumes of pesticides to protect themselves from ‘tiny killers’

Australian households will spend $1.03bn every year to suppress fire ants and cover related medical and veterinary costs, with about 570,800 people needing medical attention and 30 likely deaths from the invasive pest’s stings, new modelling shows.

The Australia Institute research breaks down the impact of red imported fire ants (Rifa) by electorate, with the seats of Durack and O’Connor in Western Australia, Mayo in South Australia and Blair in Queensland the hardest hit if the ants become endemic.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Blair: $1.7m in medical costs, $1.5m in vet costs and $5.1m in household pesticide costs.

Dickson: $1.4m in medical costs, $1.2m in vet costs and $4m in household pesticide costs.

Ryan: $1.5m in medical costs, $1.3m in vet costs and $3.4m in household pesticide costs.

Continue reading...

Brisbane Olympics infrastructure body urges LNP to fast-track controversial venues with special laws

Posted on by

Save Victoria Park says it has briefed barristers and could launch a legal challenge to protect the site

The infrastructure authority for the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games is pushing the Queensland government to suspend normal procurement rules and consider special planning laws to fast-track the approval and construction of controversial new venues.

The Queensland government announced its venues plan for the Olympics on Tuesday, including plans to build a new stadium in the heritage-listed Victoria Park, Brisbane’s largest inner-city parkland.

Continue reading...

Methane emissions from Queensland mine may be gross underestimates, UN research finds

Posted on by

Data collected by two planes suggests large open-cut coalmine in Bowen Basin is releasing methane at higher rates than official estimates

Emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane at a Queensland coalmine were likely between three and eight times higher than officially reported, according to UN-backed research that flew aircraft over the site.

Queensland’s open-cut coalmines are known to be a major source of methane and experts are worried that official figures could be a gross underestimation of actual emissions.

Continue reading...

The ‘hot mess’ Olympics? How Queensland’s 2032 Games planning descended into farce

Posted on by

The LNP’s vision is for an Olympics held in venues rather than a city – and guarantees controversy across Brisbane and beyond

Few people in Queensland disagreed with the former state premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, when she described plans for the 2032 Olympic Games in Brisbane as a “hot mess”.

Tuesday’s announcement by the new LNP government was framed as an end to the sort of disarray that has plagued Olympic planning during the past four years.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Murder charge for man arrested at Brisbane airport after 79-year-old woman found dead

Posted on by

Body discovered with fatal stab wound at home in Brisbane’s north-west

A man will remain in custody after he was arrested at Brisbane airport and charged with murdering a 79-year-old woman whose body was found at a suburban home.

Emergency services were called to a residence on Chestnut Place about 4.20pm on Monday at The Gap in Brisbane’s north-west, Queensland police said.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Queensland plans to build 2032 Olympics stadium on significant Indigenous site

Posted on by

Despite premier David Crisafulli ruling it out during election, the government is expected to announce plans for stadium at Victoria Park

The Queensland government is expected to announce that a significant preserved site of Indigenous heritage in central Brisbane, a massacre site on a songline, will host the main stadium of the 2032 Olympics.

Premier David Crisafulli repeatedly promised not to build a new stadium to host the athletics during last year’s election, and also specifically ruled out building one in Victoria Park.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Brisbane Olympics 2032: why these Games could turn out nothing like we had planned

Posted on by

The IOC – which gave us 11 years to plan – must be nervous about the state of affairs

The 2032 Olympic Games loom for Brisbane residents with equal parts promise and fear.

On one hand, there is the opportunity to write Brisbane’s name alongside some of the world’s great cities.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Fire ant sting hospitalisations surge post-Cyclone Alfred as reports of first pet death also emerge

Posted on by

Twenty-three people hospitalised with fire ant stings amid an increase in reports of the highly invasive pest in south-east Queensland

Twenty-three people have been hospitalised with serious fire ant stings amid a surge in reports of the invasive pest in the aftermath of Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred and a new $24m package targeting suppression of the insect.

The National Fire Ant Eradication Program has received notifications of 60 serious red imported fire ant (Rifa) stings in south-east Queensland since 1 March, with 23 serious enough to warrant hospital care. Separately, a puppy stung to death 15 months ago was reportedly the first pet killed in Queensland by the ants.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Ningaloo and Great Barrier Reef hit by ‘profoundly distressing’ simultaneous coral bleaching events

Posted on by

Scientists say widespread damage to both world heritage-listed reefs is ‘heartbreaking’ as WA reef accumulates highest amount of heat stress on record

Australia’s two world heritage-listed reefs – Ningaloo on the west coast and the Great Barrier Reef on the east – have been hit simultaneously by coral bleaching that reef experts have called “heartbreaking” and “a profoundly distressing moment”.

Teams of scientists on both coasts have been monitoring and tracking the heat stress and bleaching extending across thousands of kilometres of marine habitat, which is likely to have been driven by global heating.

Continue reading...

US man linked to Wieambilla shootings seeks to bar Australian police from testifying at trial

Posted on by

Donald Day Jr, facing charges over guns and making threats overseas, is trying to block testimony from Queensland police

An American man accused of messaging with an Australian family whose delusional beliefs contributed to them killing three people has objected to Queensland police testifying at his trial.

Donald Day Jr, 60, from Arizona, was arrested by FBI agents in December 2023 and charged with making threats to public figures and law enforcement agents and with illegal firearms possession in the United States.

Continue reading...