Whitsundays News. Local News from around and about the Whitsundays: June 2009

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Rates go up by a whopping 17% in Airlie Beach

Whitsundays Online

Airlie Beach will bare the brunt of the Whitsundays Regional Councils attempt to reign in debt with some owners about to cop a whopping 17% increase in rates.

According to Mayor 'Moscow' Brunker, a new rates system in the Shire was needed to help get the council out of a $27 million defecit. He said "Probably the biggest rises would be in the Airlie Beach area, at the top end which has been under rated over the years."

"There will be very small rises in Proserpine because they were paying higher rates than usual."

Mayor Brunker foretold the increase in an interview last week in which he said the council can no longer afford to build two new water and sewerage treatment plants."Now if we have to make that up, people are whingeing about 10 and 15 per cent rate rises - well hallelujah, she's going to be a lot bigger than that."

Full story by Penny Timms at ABC News
Image from first Airlie Beach webcam

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Woolies buys Magnums Hotel for $8 million

Whitsundays Online

Woolworths (Australian Leisure and Hospitality - ALH) has continued its hotel buying spree by purchasing the well known Magnums Backpacker Hotel (Map) from National Leisure and Gaming (NLG).

NLG CEO Andrew Jolliffe described the sales as positive outcomes in an unpredictable market, with the troubled hotel group making a tidy profit after effectively paying nothing for its Airlie leasehold and $3.5m for the Bribie Island hotel business.

NLG earlier owned the freehold of the Airlie pub, which it onsold to the private Aussie Leisure Group, but retained the leasehold. It's understood to have received about $8m from the latest sales.

Liquor expansion has been a crucial source of growth for Coles and Woolworths. Most of Woolies' market share gains have been in liquor, not in its supermarkets, in the past three years.

Coles and Woolies have made liquor their focus, increasing their combined market share from 32 per cent to 52 per cent in the past four years, according to Citi research.

Woolworths owns 279 pubs through the ALH venture. It also has 1138 bottleshops across the country, including 100 Dan Murphy stores, 610 BWS stores and 428 Woolworths/Safeway liquor stores.

More on this story at The Brisbane Times and The Australian.
Map by Channel Whitsunday

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Monday, June 22, 2009

Swine Flu closes Cannonvale school

Whitsundays Online

Whitsunday Christian College, Paluma Road, Cannonvale, (map) has been closed due to a student there testing positive to the H1N1 (Swine flu) virus. This is the first school in the Whitsundays, and third school in the Mackay Health District to have been hit by the Swine flu in the past month.

The QLD Chief Medical Officer, Dr Jeanette Young, advised the school to shut down for a week - Parents were informed over the weekend about the closure.

The school's closure will run into the school holidays, so the school will actually be closed until the 15th of July.

More on this story at the Daily Mercury
Map by Channel Whitsunday

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Sunday, June 21, 2009

Chalco Alumina Refinery postponed?

Whitsundays Online
Sourced from The Australian and Bloomberg

Chalco plans to complete a feasibility study on an alumina refinery at Abbot Point (Map), however, depressed demand for alumina makes early construction of a new refinery unlikely, and maybe never.

The Australian has reported that work on the study is on schedule and will be concluded in accordance with a commitment to the Queensland state government, quoting a spokeswoman for Chinalco, as the state-owned company is known. "Chalco is committed to honouring its undertaking to the Queensland government to complete the feasibility study into the establishment of a bauxite project at Aurukun," she said. "The feasibility study is thorough and on schedule, and no investment decision will be made until it has been completed."

The Australian quoted a spokesman for Queensland's Department of Infrastructure and Planning ; "Chalco has confirmed that its priority is to complete the feasibility study for both the mine and refinery at Bowen later this year," he said. "The company will then be able to inform the Queensland government of their conclusions." An analyst, who did not want to be named, said that while the focus for Chalco was now back on a refinery at Bowen, market conditions meant construction was unlikely to begin soon.

Editors note : If the Chalco refinery at Abbot Point (Bowen) was to be cancelled. will this have an effect on the value of the Abbot Point Terminal, proposed to be sold off by the QLD Government in the recent budget?

Full story at The Australian and Bloomberg

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Whitsundays WebSites Directory

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Second rape in 3 months on Hamilton Island

Whitsundays Online

Police have charged a 28-year-old man after he allegedly raped a woman on Hamilton Island at around 3am this morning.

The man, of Hamilton Island, has been bailed to appear in Proserpine Magistrates Court on July 13. The man and woman were known to each other.

This is the second reported rape on Hamilton Island in less than 3 months. On Saturday 28 March this year, a 29 year old NSW man broke into a house on Hamilton Island and raped a 19 year old woman.

Queensland Police Media Statement
Image taken from this websites Mobile WebCam 4 years ago.

Ex Prossie boy delivers QLD State Budget

Whitsundays Online

The QLD State Government has delivered a budget that they say is committed to protecting existing jobs and creating new ones in a difficult economical environment. It was delivered by Andrew Fraser, the QLD Treasurer. (Andrew was born in Proserpine on 15 September 1976).

The QLD State Government has slated the Abbot Point Terminal and $15 billion of state owned infratructure (including the coal rail services) to pay back debt and get the state's finances back in to the black in 3 years.

Whitsundays
The regular power blackouts in the Jubilee Pocket - Airlie Beach - Cannonvale area will hopefully be behind us as $15 million has been allocated to fix up the electricity supply in these villages. Other spending allocated in our immediate area include:

Proserpine will get a new maternity service and family drop-in clinic.
$304.9 million towards the $913 million expansion of Abbot Point Coal Terminal.
$55.9 million for a new electricity substation at Bowen North and a transmission line to Strathmore.
$15 million to reinforce the electricity supply in Airlie Beach.
$4 million towards upgrading the Whitsunday Airport.
$410,000 to complete the Whitsunday Islands Great Walk in the Whitsunday National Park.
$36 million over three years for Tourism campaigns (statewide).
$468,000 to Whitsunday Council for a Historical Foreshore Plaza, the Catalina Commemorative Area and Sinclair Soundshell.

Queensland State Government Budget 2009 - 2010 in PDF

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Man falls head first from Terraces

Whitsundays Online Update below

A 36 year old man has fallen seven metres from a balcony at Whitsundays Terraces Resort, Airlie Beach (map).

He is currently in a critical condition in Townsville Hospital after first being transported to Proserpine Hospital around midnight last night. He is due to undergo neuro surgery at around this time.

The man apparently slipped on a stairway, fell over the balcony railing, and landed head first, 7 metres below.

The man was in Airlie Beach apparently looking for work and was not an employee of the resort.

6.00 am Wed Update
The man was found by the caretaker at around 11.45pm.
Police believe the incident was an accident and are treating it as non-suspicious.
CQ Rescue performed the transfer from Proserpine to Townsville early Tuesday morning.
The man has undergone surgery at Townsville Hospital and is still in a critical condition.

Image: Whitsunday Terraces Resort as seen from Muddy Bay (now Port of Airlie) taken in 2003. Photographer: Laurie Mills lmills@dodo.com.au
More on this story at Brisbane Times
Chat site by an acquintance
Map by channelwhitsunday.com.au

Monday, June 15, 2009

Best Whingeing Job in the World

Whitsundays Online

The 'World's Best Marketing Campaign' saga continues with British and Australian news agencies over the weekend calling the 'World's Best Job' winner a 'Whingeing Pom'.

British newspapers have called the winner of the 'Best Job in the World' a whinger, after he admitted he would miss the English long summer days and traditional roast dinners.

Over 30,000 hopefuls from around the world applied for 'The Best Job in the World' in a recent competition held by Tourism Queensland, which was won by Ben Southall from England. Ben's duties for 6 months are to live in a private house, write a blog, swim, and get paid the equivalent of $300,000 a year.

Ben hasn't even started work, yet, The Sun reported 'Paradise isle Brit's moaning', while The Sydney Daily Telegraph headlined their story "Best job winner a $150k whingeing pom". Australian Internet Portals NineMSN headlined their story "I'm no whingeing pom: Dream Job winner", and Perth Now reported that the "'Best job in world' winner Ben Southall now complaining". Even the conservative Australian ABC headlined their story "'Best job' Brit already moaning about weather".

And while the Tourism and Advertising agencies scramble to rescue this expensive marketing campaign, the Lions Club on the Sunshine Coast and Virgin Blue are quietly giving away free holidays on the Sunshine Coast to Victorians who were affected by the recent bush fires - 70 at last count.

One has to wonder how many free holidays for our fellow and distressed Australians we could have given away instead of a junket for a British backpacker.

Toursim QLD defends 'whingeing pom' - Herald Sun
Fake Video by tourism advertising agency backfires
Map by channelwhitsunday.com.au

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Editors Note : It is interesting how others and ourselves, can manipulate an innocent remark and make a story out of it, knowing pretty well that the persons intentions were probably sincere. I honestly would not have had the 'patience' to have lasted this long.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Get your 8 cents worth - Dial a Polly today

Sourced from the Mackay Daily Mercury
Fallon Hudson | 10th June 2009

Former Mackay businessman and passionate Labor supporter Terry Riches is spearheading a 'call to action' day today because of Anna Bligh's decision to end the eight-cents-a-litre fuel subsidy on July 1. Mr Riches wants us to ring the premier and our local Labor MP's, to demand the State Government keep the fuel subsidy.

Mr Riches said he also predicted hard times ahead for the region's tourism industry.

“As a result of the higher cost for fuel, people won't travel as far and also won't spend throughout Queensland,” he said.

Mr Riches said he hoped the 'call to action day' would get the Labor Government to reverse its decision on the fuel subsidy.

“It's wrong to take it away at a time when money is so tight,” he said.

Contact the Member for Whitsunday Jan Jarratt
Freecall: 1800 811 799
Phone: (07) 4945 3343
Fax: (07) 4945 3278
Website: http://janjarratt.com/
Email: whitsunday@parliament.qld.gov.au
Snail Mail: PO Box 1302, Proserpine, 480

Contact the Premier Anna Bligh
Office: (07) 3224 4500,
Email: thepremier@premiers.qld.gov.au
Snail Mail: PO Box 15185, City East, 4002 or

Latest story from the Daily Mercury
Previous story by the Daily Mercury

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Bowen man arrested over alleged 1995 NSW murder

NSW Police

NSW Unsolved Homicide Team detectives, with assistance from the Queensland Homicide Unit, have today arrested a man over the alleged murder of another man at Fairfield in Sydney’s south-west in 1995.

Detectives from the NSW Unsolved Homicide Team travelled to Bowen (Map) in Queensland yesterday, where they arrested a 43-year-old man with assistance from the Queensland Homicide Unit.

An arrest warrant was executed and he was refused bail to appear at the Townsville Magistrates Court tomorrow (Monday 8 June) where NSW detectives will make an application for his extradition to Sydney. He will be charged with murder upon his return to Sydney.

Today’s arrest relates to the death of then 20-year-old Russell Lyons, who sustained fatal head injuries during an assault in a car park behind The Crescent in the early hours of 3 June 1995.

Mr Lyons’ body was located in the car park about 8.30am the same day.

Strike Force Gullalie was formed in July 2008 to investigate the circumstances surrounding the alleged murder and comprises detectives from the NSW State Crime Command’s Unsolved Homicide Team.

Investigations into the fatal incident are continuing and detectives are appealing to anyone with information who has not yet spoken to police, to contact their local police station on Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

NSW Police Press Release
Story by NineMSN
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Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Bush fire visitors up for Coast holiday

MySunshineCoast.com.au

GREATER NOOSA-VIRGIN BLUE BIG SISTER PROGRAM TAKES OFF

The first contingent of residents from fire-affected Victorian communities has arrived on the Sunshine Coast for a rejuvenating holiday as part of the Greaternoosa-Virgin Blue Big Sister program.

Launched in response to the Victorian Bushfires in February by Greaternoosa Living Publisher Jonette Wilton, the program will see 70 visitors from fire-torn townships arrive here between now and October.

Virgin Blue has donated the visitors’ flights and over 50 businesses have gifted accommodation and a range of goods and services, including tours, meals, theme park and entertainment passes.

Full story at MySunshineCoast.com.au .

Editors note : Nice to see tourism being used to help the needy, not the greedy for a change. Congratulations to the Sunshine Coast Lions Club. It's a pity our Regional Tourism Organizations are more interested in "employing" a British backpacker on Hamilton Island.

Local MP fights back on expenses use

ABC News

North Queensland MP Jan Jarratt says she is seeking legal advice after a newspaper article claimed she was improperly using her parliamentary allowance.

The Courier Mail last week reported Ms Jarratt, Labor's Member for the Whitsunday and Parliamentary Secretary for Employment and Economic Development, used the money to pay credit card bills and council rates.

Full story at ABC News
Jan Jarrett's Press Release

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Abbot Point Terminal For Sale

Whitsundays Online

Premier Anna Bligh told Parliament today that "the future of Queensland’s economy is dependent on the sale of key assets, such as the Abbots Point coal terminal . . . "

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According to the Premier, a private sale of the port could increase it to even greater capacities. “Abbot Point’s long term plan... to export between 80 and 100 million tonnes a year can only be achieved with significant new investment of funds,” she said. “Those funds in my view are best sourced from the private sector. The private sector is in a good position to invest in the infrastructure needed to export coal.”

“While the coal companies are enduring a drop in demand from world markets, their medium to long term forecasts for volume have not changed. Developing an important part of the coal supply chain such as Abbots Point will benefit both the State and the country." Premier Bligh said.

“It will grow local jobs. More importantly, it will grow prosperity for the whole region and indeed the whole country.”

But according to QRC chief executive Michael Roche, a consultation process with the resources industry is vital to its success. “The government must avoid the failed experiment of excluding industry from participating in the sale of Government-owned export infrastructure, as occurred with the sale of the Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal,” he said.

More on this story at Australian Mining
Thanks to Google Earth for the satellite image.

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