Local community group says whatever the cause ‘kids shouldn’t be in the water’ with dead fish
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Queensland authorities are investigating the deaths of thousands of fish that washed up on a popular Gold Coast beach.
The state environment department said dead baitfish had been observed at The Spit, at the northern end of the Gold Coast since last Wednesday, but no obvious source of pollution had been found.
Continue reading...Police allege Gold Coast business owner used charity to secure euthanasia drugs as 53-year-old charged with aiding suicide and trafficking dangerous drugs
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Police have uncovered an alleged “end of life” business believed to be linked to as many as 20 deaths, with investigations across three states after a man died from a veterinary euthanasia drug.
Queensland police have charged a Gold Coast man alleged to have operated the business, Brett Daniel Taylor, with two counts of aiding suicide and several drug offences including trafficking dangerous drugs.
Continue reading...BoM path track map predicts TC Alfred will cross coast on Saturday near Brisbane, the first storm of its size to do so in decades. Follow the latest updates today
Welfare recipients told to perform mutual obligations as cyclone bears down
We have a news story this morning about the impact the cyclone is already having on life in Queensland.
Fallen trees and giant stands of bamboo blocked the single road to our farm until the army and council brought heavy machinery to clear a path some time after.
We were without running water or power for days, maybe weeks, the packing shed a makeshift kitchen where we ate meals cooked off a gas barbecue and drank instant coffee made with rainwater and UHT milk to the hum of a generator.
Continue reading...BoM path track map predicts TC Alfred will cross coast on Friday near Brisbane, the first storm of its size to do so in decades. Follow the latest updates today
Speaking of preparations, adjunct senior lecturer at the Centre for Disaster Studies at James Cook University Yetta Gurtner gives advice here:
Chalmers confident insurance companies ‘know their responsibilities’
I’m confident they know their responsibilities and obligations to people.
Continue reading...Woman dies in tubing accident near Toowomba, while another drowns scuba diving near Wave Break Island on the Gold Coast
A woman has died in a New Year’s Day scuba diving accident at a popular Gold Coast swimming spot.
Meanwhile, another woman was found dead on Wednesday after an extensive search following a water tubing accident north-west of Brisbane on New Year’s Eve.
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Continue reading...A 46-year-old Carrara woman due to appear in a Gold Coast court, police say
A 46-year-old woman has been charged with murder after investigations into the death of a 10-year-old girl on the Gold Coast.
Police and paramedics were called to a home in the suburb of Carrara at about 6pm on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Exclusive: After months of speculation the fundraising giant has identified more electorates where independent campaigns meet its criteria for support
Climate 200, the fundraising giant that bankrolled the teal independent wave at the last election, has thrown its support behind independent campaigns in nine more Coalition-held seats.
After months of speculation, the group said it would support independent campaigns in the Queensland electorates of McPherson, Moncrief, Fisher and Fairfax as well as the New South Wales electorates Cowper and Bradfield, and Casey, Monash and Wannon in Victoria.
Continue reading...Two men, aged 38 and 65, leapt into water after child fell into deep end on Sunday night
A father and grandfather have died trying to save a two-year-old child who fell into a Gold Coast pool on Sunday.
The toddler was reportedly playing beside the apartment block pool when they slipped and fell into the deep end about 7pm on Sunday, sparking a double Easter tragedy.
Continue reading...David Crisafulli criticises pill testing trial in sign opposition may roll back harm minimisation polices if elected in October
The Queensland opposition leader, David Crisafulli, has criticised the state’s new pill testing regime, a potential sign his party would roll back Labor’s new drug policies if elected in October.
The sunshine state opened its first festival clinic on Thursday and will open the first fixed site clinic in Brisbane next month. The Labor government has committed to open a second once a site has been confirmed.
Continue reading...Woman, 43, died after paramedics were called to a Surfers Paradise hotel on Friday night
A woman has died and two others have been hospitalised after suspected drug overdoses on the Gold Coast.
Queensland paramedics were called to a hotel in Surfers Paradise at 10.58pm on Friday night. Emergency responders found seven patients, three of whom were in critical condition, including a 43-year-old woman who was experiencing cardiac arrest at the scene.
Continue reading...Prosecutors previously alleged Brian Earl Johnston, 37, tied up the mother-of-three before dousing her with petrol and setting her alight
The estranged husband of Kelly Wilkinson, who was doused in petrol and set alight, has pleaded guilty to her murder less than a month before his scheduled trial.
Brian Earl Johnston, 37, appeared before Brisbane supreme court on Wednesday via video link for arraignment on one count of murdering 27-year-old Wilkinson on 20 April 2021 in a Gold Coast backyard as a domestic violence offence.
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Cricket begins
Day two of the Boxing Day Test between Australia and Pakistan has just started in Melbourne. You can follow the latest on our separate live blog here:
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Assistant climate change minister asked whether Australia ‘can be taken seriously’ without fossil fuel phase-out promise
The assistant minister for climate change and energy, Jenny McAllister, was also making the rounds this morning amid the Cop28 summit.
We, of course, are working towards transforming our national electricity system to incorporate 82% renewables by 2030. This is a really ambitious transformation, but one that we believe will lay the foundations for a cleaner and more affordable energy system for Australians.
If you think about what it means to take our energy system from 33% renewables to 82%, that does mean that our fossil fuel use within our own energy system at home is changing very dramatically over the course of a decade.
We know that globally, we need to see similar changes and similar investments in the new technologies to drive low emissions power, not just here in Australia, but actually, right across the world.
… or any electorate around the country where it is proven to be technologically feasible, has a social licence and it is going to get prices down.
We have to be humble enough at these conferences at Cop to say what are other countries doing? What peer countries are doing is they are saying we are looking at nuclear energy as part of the balanced mix.
We must in Australia be driven not by ideology, but by economics and engineering and learn from those countries and that includes consideration for zero emissions nuclear energy, and people may be arguing all they like, but we will be very open and transparent as we always have been.
Continue reading...The UK series, which employed hundreds of Australian cast and crew, is the latest victim of cost-cutting measures at Disney and beyond
A big budget series filmed in Queensland which employed hundreds of Australian cast and crew has become the latest victim of cuts at Disney, being dropped by the studio after filming – and before it even had a chance to be released.
Nautilus, a UK series that had been set to stream on Disney+, is a prequel story to Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Shazad Latif stars as Captain Nemo, an Indian prince who became a prisoner of the East India Company and sets off on a mission of revenge on submarine Nautilus.
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Continue reading...Invasive Species Council releases material showing contrast between original $133m plan to fully eradicate the ants and $89m ‘revised work plan’
Lack of proper funding is hindering efforts to contain the spread of invasive fire ants by Australian authorities, according to documents obtained by the Invasive Species Council.
The documents show a stark contrast between the original $133m plan to fully eradicate the ants and an $89m “revised work plan” to continue for the next 12 months. This revised plan would only treat half the area needed, even as the ants continue their southward march towards New South Wales.
Continue reading...David Littleproud left parliament early in February to travel to the Gold Coast, three days after he and his spouse settled on a new apartment there
The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, has repaid travel expenses he claimed after leaving parliament early to travel to the Gold Coast in February.
In a statement Littleproud said he had “mistakenly sought the wrong advice” and “incorrectly” re-entered Queensland in between sitting weeks via the Gold Coast.
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Continue reading...Griffith University researcher captures video of five whales doing ‘bizarre rolls’ on the sea floor as they exfoliate and socialise
Whales have been caught on camera enjoying a marine version of a day spa, returning to their favourite spot off the Gold Coast to scratch off itchy skin and parasites, and catch up with their cetacean buddies.
Griffith University whale researcher Dr Olaf Meynecke and his colleagues were trying to shed light on the behaviour of competing pods of humpbacks that use Gold Coast waters to rest, breed and socialise.
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More than 80% of council areas declared disasters in the past four years, Watt says
Murray Watt was hesitant to attribute the individual disaster in the Kimberley to climate change, unlike his colleague Chris Bowen. But he said the overall pattern of increasing disasters was “undoubtedly climate change”:
I don’t think that you can point to one particular event and say it’s due to climate change, but there is no doubt that we are seeing before our eyes is climate change happening. We know from all the scientists that we’re going to be facing more of these intense events more frequently.
I was actually advised yesterday by our agency that just in the last 12 months we’ve seen 316 of Australia’s 537 council areas disaster-declared: that’s about 60% of the council areas in the country. And if you go back four years to the black summer, 438 council areas in Australia have been disaster-declared, which is over 80%.
A lot of people aren’t aware but the wet season in northern Western Australia … generally doesn’t begin until later this month. So their wettest months actually tend to be February and March rather than starting as early as January. So to have this amount of water come through the system this early in the wet season is a concern.
Continue reading...Australian Transport Safety Bureau says anticipated date for completing its investigation is between July and September 2024
The Glenmore Park community in western Sydney has attended a Catholic mass to pray for the survival of Nicholas Tadros, 10, who is on life support after the fatal Gold Coast helicopter crash.
An estimated 200 family and friends attended the mass at St Padre Pio church, where Nicholas received his first holy communion. Nicholas’s mother, Vanessa Tadros, 36, was killed when the two Sea World helicopters crashed into one another on Monday afternoon.
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‘Challenging night’ for WA fire crews in south-west
Earlier today, Western Australian Department of Fire and Emergency Services incident controller Peter Thomas said it had been a “challenging night” for fire crews in the south-west, as bushfires threaten the region.
So our volunteers from the Donnybrook area across the south-west [who have] come to deal with this incident.
We’ve had some strong winds that have been coming consistently from the east, but been fairly strong and making it challenging for our crews.
When we allow sportspeople from Russia to participate in the Australian Open, we do exactly what Putin wants.
It doesn’t matter what flag Russian Federation players compete under. It has Ukrainian blood on it.
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