Matt Nicholls, Cape York Weekly

A proposed silica mine that will give Traditional Owners a direct slice of the pie has Cooktown and Hope Vale residents excited about its prospects. Diatreme Resources has received a shot in the arm this month with former Treasurer and political heavyweight Wayne Swan agreeing to join Diatreme as chairman of the board.

Aurukun mayor Keri Tamwoy last week joined Kailung Hudson, Estelle Yunkaporta and Sheryl Pamulkan from the Akay Koo’oila Women’s Art Centre for the opening of the Mermaid ‘Zeloh’ exhibition as part of the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair. The women created the mermaid and woven bowls from a ghost net they retrieved from underneath the art centre.

Cape York’s future Olympic stars were put through their paces by two of the most qualified coaches you could come across at a two-day clinic in Cooktown earlier this month ... members from Cooktown Amateur Swimming Club had the opportunity to be coached by former Olympians – breaststroke champion Leisel Jones and backstroke star Meagen Nay.

Cook Shire mayor Peter Scott and two councillors have heard the concerns of residents living in the council’s smallest locality. Around eight Portland Roads residents – or Iron Range if you want to be technical about the actual locality – attended a community forum last Tuesday to voice their concerns ... One of the hot topics was the desire for better water access in the area.

Mining and cattle magnate Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest has become one of Cook Shire’s biggest ratepayers after he paid $42 million for Lizard Island. Mr Forrest and his wife Nicola’s private investment company Tattarang splashed $42 million for the Great Barrier Reef resort ... Tattarang declined to comment on the Lizard Island deal, but the vendor, Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed SEA Group, announced the deal in an investor statement.

This time last year, Athol Ryan was in hospital with severe facial injuries after an innocuous incident while preparing to gallop a horse at Mount Garnet ... “When you’ve got a horse like Macipenko it keeps you going,” he said of the horse that has now won four races this year. While seven winners might not seem like a lot, it’s not bad considering Ryan only has a few horses in work at any one time and has to travel more than 300km one-way for just about every race meeting.

More than 100,000 acres of pastoral land in Cape York has been lit up by a fire bug on the Peninsula Developmental Road ... “The cost is astronomical. Not only do the domestic herd of cattle now need to be fed, but we’ve lost carbon credits and been pulled away from our regular work looking after the environment. There's also a massive psychological cost when it comes to fighting fires": Sally Gray, Piccaninny Plains.

A company's grand plans to launch rockets and satellites from Cape York will be revealed in Weipa this month. Space Centre Australia hopes to start construction of its facility in 2023 and be launching rockets by the start of 2025. Director James Palmer said preliminary discussions between SCA and Traditional Owners had been progressing well and hoped this month’s trip would result in further community consultation.