Exclusive: anonymised notes reveal concerns about injuries, self-harm, security incidents and sickness in overcrowded cells
A child locked in the Cairns police watch house is self-harming by banging his head against the cell walls.
Anonymised notes about more than a dozen children in the far north Queensland watch house last week, seen by Guardian Australia, detail concerns about sickness spreading in the overcrowded cells, injuries and serious security incidents.
Continue reading...Boat occupants on a surfing trip found clinging to the hull as more than 110mm of rain falls over the outskirts of Cairns in 24 hours
Seven seafarers are lucky to be alive after their boat capsized in rough seas as monsoonal weather brought flooding to rivers across Queensland.
Heavy rain persisted across the state’s drenched far north on Sunday as towns near the Victorian-New South Wales border faced their own flooding concerns.
Continue reading...Qantas and Jetstar to offer special airfares, with accommodation deals to come, as Queensland premier insists region is ‘open for business’ after Cyclone Jasper
Images of Tropical Cyclone Jasper’s devastating impact on far north Queensland may have driven away tourists during peak season.
But the Queensland premier, Steven Miles, insists the region is “open for business”, making a $5m pitch to lure visitors back.
Continue reading...Two men, who have been denied bail, claim three boys were trespassing in Mareeba when they allegedly assaulted and handcuffed them
A pair of alleged vigilantes have been charged with assaulting and handcuffing three boys they believed to be trespassing in an industrial area in Mareeba, near Cairns.
A 36-year-old man and a 27-year-old man, both from Biboohra, have been denied police bail over the incident, involving three boys aged 12 to 14 on 23 December.
Continue reading...Floods exceeding 1977 levels expected, Steven Miles says, as heavy rain leaves 10,500 homes without power
Cairns airport has been closed in anticipation of record flooding in the far north Queensland city as the state premier, Steven Miles, declared a “serious weather emergency” in the wake of ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper.
On Sunday afternoon Miles said flood levels in Cairns were expected to exceed the previous record of 1977 and there were “significant concerns” for many communities in the far north.
Continue reading...Major flood warnings for state’s far north as storm system moves towards Northern Territory
A 10-year-old girl is fighting for life after being struck by lightning as more wild weather descended on Queensland, causing major flooding in Cairns.
The girl was injured at a private property in Beerwah on the Sunshine Coast at 2.30pm on Saturday during severe thunderstorms due to ex-Cyclone Jasper.
Continue reading...More than 36,000 homes without power but BoM downgrades storm to tropical low despite warning of more rain and high winds
Far north Queenslanders faced damaging winds and life-threatening flooding after Tropical Cyclone Jasper made landfall and moved inland.
Minor flood warnings were issued for the Daintree, Tully, and Mulgrave rivers on Wednesday but the Bureau of Meteorology downgraded the storm to a tropical low.
Continue reading...BoM tracker map shows forecast path of category 2 cyclone will hit north of Cairns and Port Douglas on the Queensland coast at about 1pm with heavy rain, 140km/h winds and storm surge predicted. Follow the latest Australia news and weather updates today
Ceasefire ‘can’t be one-sided’
Emergency management minister Murray Watt is also speaking to ABC RN this morning, and was asked about the PM’s joint letter with his New Zealand and Canadian counterparts urging a ceasefire.
[It] shows that we want to work with like-minded countries towards what would be a just and enduring peace. I think the whole world has been pleased to see the release of hostages and the pause in hostilities that we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks, but what we need to do is move towards a sustainable ceasefire …
I think everyone who watches this conflict unfolds on their television screens, is really disturbed about the loss of life that we’re seeing go on at the moment.
I think that’s the value that a country like Australia can play here by really taking that even-handed approach that does call out the abhorrent behaviour by Hamas, but also as a friend of Israel, calls on them to respect international humanitarian law.
We are alarmed at the diminishing safe space for civilians in Gaza. The price of defeating Hamas cannot be the continuous suffering of all Palestinian civilians.
Continue reading...BoM issues warnings as radar forecasts intense rain, destructive winds and possible flash flooding in parts of Queensland
Tropical Cyclone Jasper has intensified into a category 2 system and is producing damaging wind gusts that will increase as it continues to approach the north Queensland coast.
The cyclone, which was situated 125km off the coast of Cairns on Wednesday afternoon, has left thousands of homes without power and caused heavy rain and strong winds in the state’s far north.
Continue reading...BoM expects storm to strengthen into category 2 cyclone on Tuesday before arriving near Cairns in far north Qld on Wednesday afternoon
Residents in north Queensland have been told to prepare for up to five days without power, amid warnings that the approaching tropical cyclone Jasper could dump 500mm of rain in 24 hours.
Jasper is expected to intensify on Tuesday, ahead of making landfall north of Cairns on Wednesday afternoon.
Continue reading...Slow-moving tropical cyclone forecast to strengthen before weakening slightly and heading for Queensland next week
Cyclone Jasper is gradually intensifying as it moves towards the Queensland coast.
The severe tropical cyclone is expected to strengthen further and move from category 3 to category 4 on Thursday night or during Friday, the Bureau of Meteorology said.
Continue reading...Atherton hospital staff were offered blood tests but the state’s chief health officer says he would be ‘very surprised’ if they showed high levels of lead
Lead contamination has been discovered in the water at a new hospital building and at an Aboriginal health clinic in far-north Queensland.
The Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service (CHHHS) announced that a number of water samples taken at the new clinical services building at Atherton hospital and at a health facility in nearby Yarrabah contained lead at levels that exceeded the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recommended guidelines for safe drinking water.
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Continue reading...Arrest follows $1m reward offered for the location and arrest of 38-year-old Rajwinder Singh in relation to alleged murder of Queensland woman
A key suspect in a long-running Queensland murder investigation has been arrested in New Delhi, India, less than a month after a large reward was offered for his location.
Toyah Cordingley, then 24, was found dead on Wangetti beach, north of Cairns, in 2018 after what police described as a “personal and intimate attack”. She had been out walking her dog.
Continue reading...Singapore agrees to vaccine ‘dose swap’ with Australia; NSW confirms 1,164 cases and three deaths; lockdown extended to 17 September in ACT; Victoria records 76 new cases; AMA says vaccinations for healthcare staff must be mandatory. Follow the latest updates live
Andrew Leigh to Josh Frydenberg:
Gerry Harvey has now repaid $6 million in JobKeeper out of the $13 billion that went to companies with rising revenue. Gerry Harvey think it is money should be paid back. Why doesn’t the Treasurer?
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
My question as to the prime minister. Most economists expect the economic growth to slow in the June quarter and it is now going backwards in the September quarter. Why does the prime minister not take responsibility for the fact that Australia’s economic recovery was always hostage to his failures on vaccines and quarantine?
Australia is one of the few countries in the world that after the Covid-19 recession of last year saw our economy grow back to a level higher than it was before the pandemic started, and that is before Delta hit, and saw 1 million people, a million people get back into work.
That was the product of economic policies that not only provided significant, in fact unprecedented economic support, both to individuals who had lost hours and had been stood down, through jobkeeper but also through ... the many other measures that supported businesses to see their way through at a time. Particularly last year at the outset of Covid when the uncertainty was at such a level that it was like looking into an economic abyss. And so the certainty that was provided by the government that stepped in with the single largest economic intervention in Australia’s history. Gave businesses, gave families, gave individual employees the confidence to be able to get up the next day and see it through, and do it again, day after day, month after month.
Continue reading...Cyclone Kimi could rise to a category two system as residents in far north told to bunker down
A tropical cyclone has formed off the coast of far-north Queensland, with residents told to prepare to bunker down for gale-force winds and heavy rain.
The Bureau of Meteorology on Sunday declared the formation of tropical cyclone Kimi – a category one system – about 140km north-east of Cooktown.
Continue reading...A woman was also injured when the pair fell from the flying fox at Cape Tribulation
A South Australian man has died and a woman is in hospital after they fell about 10 metres from a zipline in Queensland’s far north.
The pair were believed to have been harnessed together when they fell from the flying fox run by Jungle Surfing Canopy Tours at Cape Tribulation about 2pm on Tuesday.
Continue reading...