News

Worldwide, seaweed cultivation and utilisation are multi-billion dollar industries, yet Australasia plays little role in either. This is set to change, with growing interest in using our coastal and offshore waters to produce seaweeds that will not only provide high-value products for global markets, but will help mitigate human carbon emissions both directly through products that lower methane emissions and indirectly through long term carbon sequestration.

“At a dog park in Sydney in 2018, my wife and I got to talking about food security; how the global population is forecast to grow to nearly 10 billion by 2050, yet we don’t have enough protein to feed everyone. I was looking at the ‘fur babies’, wondering how we could feed them more sustainably: could we feed them insect protein instead?” asked Shaun Eislers, founder of BuggyBix.

Council has joined forces with Lismore and Kyogle councils, and the Tweed and Border Ranges-Richmond Valley Landcare groups, to launch 'The Northern Rivers is on Feral Deer Alert’ program. This community awareness campaign aims to prevent feral deer numbers growing out of control in the region, before it’s too late.

The Tweed JUNKtion tip shop regular has been able to turn his passion for restoring discarded equipment into a lucrative business. With a keen sense of what can be repaired, Adam visits the JUNKtion more than once a week looking for mowers, chainsaws and whipper snippers.

One hundred and forty people have voted unanimously to oppose Clarence Valley Council’s (CVC) plan to install a new onsite sewage management system at the Brooms Head Holiday Park. The Brooms Head Community Action Group (BHCAG) held a meeting on Sunday July 3, so concerned “residents, holiday makers and day visitors” could “hear what CVC is proposing to do to their sand dune by the beach”.

Last Thursday marked the first anniversary of the opening of Australia’s largest and most advanced correctional centre, now accommodating 1,110 inmates. Clarence Correctional Centre is designed to support a rehabilitative approach to justice by providing education, training, and employment pathways for inmates through industry, business, and education partners ... “Staff support each inmate’s individual rehabilitation and reintegration needs by offering employment in areas such as hospitality, horticulture, centre services, and industries.”

In July 2021, timber mills in NSW have or are running out of timber in the middle of an Australian and international timber shortage, where timber supply comes from the NSW State Government. People have or are about to lose their jobs. These are real people. The little people or the battlers. Not the high paid executives of multinational companies. On 2 July 2021, one of these battlers in desperation called the ABC in Tamworth. The company for whom he worked had run out of wood and could not get any from the State supplier, because it was all going to one big company, the mate of the Government. Boral.

Fire and Rescue NSW’s (FRNSW) Ignitable Liquid Detection Canines have welcomed enhanced resources and a vehicle which will allow firefighters to transport canines across the state, including remote areas, to investigate fire scenes. Minister for Police and Emergency Services David Elliott celebrated the $100,000 NSW Government investment, which will guarantee the dogs - Xenos, Xando and Gandalf – will travel safely while also allowing the canines and their handlers to cover large areas, as they help firefighters undertake fire origin and cause analysis.

Toowoomba Region residents’ enthusiasm for recycling expanded polystyrene has seen more than 17 tonnes of the packaging material processed at the Greater Toowoomba Waste Management Facility at O’Mara Road since May 2020.

On World Zoonoses Day, Australia’s Chief Veterinary Officer Dr Mark Schipp has highlighted how the risk of zoonoses, diseases which can be transmitted to humans from animals, can be reduced through practising good animal biosecurity and hygiene control procedures. The bacterial disease leptospirosis is an example of a zoonotic disease of worldwide importance. The disease has been reported in over 150 mammalian species around the world, including wildlife, rodents, cattle, pigs, horses, dogs, and people.

Sweetman Renewables plans to expand its sawmilling operations to meet growing demand as the Australian construction boom plays out and the Hunter Valley's only other sawmill get set to close its doors ... The sawmill operations will support and be associated with other activities, including the acquisition, processing, logistics and transport of biomass for both export to bioenergy plants in Japan, local renewable energy consumption and for the production of syngas, green hydrogen and biochar.

A four-wheel drive track that connects Weipa with the Bamaga Road will be a smash hit with both locals and tourists in search of a new off-road experience. The controversial Bertiehaugh Road has only existed as a line on the map since the Irwins took over the property in 2006, renaming it Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve ... a team of determined locals, who asked not to be named, got the GPS coordinates from Cook Shire and went to work themselves. Using buggies and four-wheel drives, they created a 60km single-lane track that runs from Stones Crossing to Bramwell Junction.

The threat of COVID deterred a number of dance groups from attending, but that didn’t stop a sell-out crowd from enjoying the show at the Laura Quinkan Dance Festival. Around 2000 people filled the grounds around the traditional Bora ground and watched as groups from across the Cape and Far North shared their culture with a crowd filled with mostly southerners.

Could underwater hockey be the next big sport in Weipa? Scott Barton thinks so. The keen spear fisherman says its the perfect sport to hone your underwater skills and hopes it will catch on in the community ... “Weipa has got the ideal pool because it has great tiles and it’s not too deep,” Sean Hartley said. “Underwater hockey is a great sport in the tropics because you don’t sweat.”