Property

A delightful tiny (or as the grandkids say "small" home) has been moved to 9 Norman Street. Arriving on the back of a truck in May this year owners of the tiny home, Allyn and June Jones, have settled in nicely to their new abode.

Patricia Gill. The Shire of Denmark can approve the use of caravans and small houses for accommodation for up to two years on private property from September 1. The changes announced last week on Sal and Justin Bellanger’s Nornalup property aim to ease the housing shortage for seasonal workers and homeless people, and give an option while a house was being built or renovated.

We all know Woodside, Australia’s biggest gas producer, but many might not realise it is also one of the country’s biggest CO2 emitters ... the Australian energy sector has been all too willing to overpromise on what is achievable in reducing their CO2 footprint, as a result they are now desperately searching for solutions. This, unfortunately, is where WA farmland comes into play ... That win-win plan is to plant trees – lots of trees – on productive farmland and then lock that land up for the next 100 years so it no longer produces food or fibre.

The Community Disaster Action Group (CDAG) has called attention to the severe human cost of the NSW government’s lack of action on assistance for people whose properties have been affected by landslips. "... There’s not even a policy 2 ½ years on, yet hundreds of landslip-affected residents are still living in damaged homes or caravans or unable to return home," CDAG co-ordinator Chels Hood Withey said.

New data released by the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) today shows that the impact of extreme weather on the Australian economy has more than tripled over the last three decades. Insured losses from declared insurance catastrophes have grown from 0.2 of GDP from 1995 to 2000 to 0.7 per cent for the last five years ... The new data analysis is contained in the Insurance Council of Australia’s Insurance Catastrophe Resilience Report 2023-24, released today.

AgForce has said it is increasingly concerned that delays to urgently needed reforms to the Wind Farm Code could put agricultural landholders at potentially crippling financial risk. Queensland’s peak representative body for farmers is disappointed that despite a review of the Wind Farm Code last year, the Queensland Government has not released any reforms to the Code since.

Clarence Valley Council’s Draft Local Housing Strategy has been amended to limit the construction height of new dwellings in Yamba and Iluka after Council received 873 public submissions and a petition containing 1086 signatures against the previous draft. When Clarence Valley Council CVC placed its draft Local Housing Strategy (LHS), and draft Affordable Housing Policy (AHP) on public exhibition … they also received 7 NSW Government agency submissions, and one from a non-government organisation.

Joanna Tucker. With Yorke Peninsula’s population expected to increase by up to 10,000 in the next decade, and more than 500 homes expected to be built on the Copper Coast in coming years, calls for a serious upgrade of the region’s health-care system have strengthened. Hundreds of residents are currently travelling to Adelaide regularly to access health care and with the region’s biggest hospital at Wallaroo offering only 21 beds…

The Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) Leader and Member for Traeger, Robbie Katter has slammed the Labor Government and their ideologically driven departments, while backing the Charters Towers Regional Council’s decision to wipe their hands of the Big Rocks Weir Project. “This just demonstrates that the Government and the bureaucracy in Brisbane have no appetite whatsoever to help develop and progress North Queensland,” the KAP Leader said.

Lyn Lenehan. It's hard explaining to city people why wind farms are so bad and why they destroy lives and livelihoods. There is a list of reasons, but one stands out the most – the loss of enjoyment of one's land ... What happens when the reason for living in a special place is ripped away?

Charters Towers Regional Council has ... made a decision to relinquish its role as proponent, developer, owner and operator of the Big Rocks Weir Project (BRW) to the State Government. Council’s original aim was to build and operate a weir in the Big Rocks area, located on the Burdekin River approximately 35km north of Charters Towers.

How come the value of cattle stations is skyrocketing? The bar of the Centralian Beef Breeders Association was a good place for a pub test ... The  [Alice Springs] News  spoke to several of the bar’s patrons on the condition of not naming them, about what is clearly a historic switch from a 150 years old family-based industry to investment opportunities for big companies, some from overseas, and superannuation firms.

The project will support the 64,000 hectare  expansion of the Crystalvale Nature Refuge, about 15km south-west of Coen, and  establish the new 244,000 hectare Abingdon Downs North Nature Refuge, about 85km north-west of Georgetown ... Abingdon Downs North and Crystalvale make up the largest dedication of private protected area in the past six years.