Gladstone

It’s official. The water quality in Gladstone Harbour is fine despite one of the world’s biggest dredging programs. Sick fish are getting better, there are no health problems and the three week fishing ban over 500 sqkm of waterways has just been lifted.

Apparently more than 20 fishermen who presented with serious infections and skin lesions after coming into contact with what they claimed to be infected fish and contaminated water are mistaken.

Queensland Seafood Association president and cardio-surgeon Dr Michael Gardner doesn’t think so but swimming in the harbour has also been officially sanctioned by State Government authorities and all the kids who had to pack their fishing rods away during the school holidays can dust them off and get back out in the harbour while the dredging continues as part of a program to move 46 million cubic metres of silt.

Continue reading "Something’s really fishy in the Gladstone waters" »

Australia’s burgeoning liquified natural gas industry is no laughing matter for Central Queensland farmers faced with falling property prices and a growing maze of gas wells on prime agricultural land.

With the recent green light for two controversial multi-billion dollar LNG projects, and a third granted conditional State Government approval this week, a national land rights organization has urged landholders to exercise “extreme caution” in dealing with gas exploration ventures.

Many farmers themselves are madder than Jumping Jack Flash and threatening a “Lock the Gate” campaign.

Continue reading "Gas, gas, gas, it’s actually no laughing matter" »