iHeart Wide Bay-Burnett: Episode 10

A recap of this week's top stories and a deep dive into the issues that matter across the Wide Bay-Burnett

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I have White Bay Burnette.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Hey, I'm Taylor Larson, joined by Bruce Atkinson with Iheartwhite
Bay Burnett, your weekly news wrapp for the region. What
do we have in store today?

Speaker 3 (00:11):
Bruce details on why two major councils are linking up
and creating a legacy for a gimbee team.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Already looking forward to it. First, though, an alleged early
morning crime spree has caused Harvey Bay business owners thousands
they're having to foot through apair bill after a group
of young people allegedly smashed into businesses along the esplanade
at Torquay Hospitality Venues. A boutique and hairdresser were targeted.
Acting Detective Inspector Wade Lee says further allegations have been made.

Speaker 4 (00:40):
Two members of the community were approached by another two
young people and there was a There is an allegation
that a robbery has taken place.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
We are once again.

Speaker 5 (00:49):
Looking at that.

Speaker 4 (00:49):
There is CCTV footage of the incident and that is
still with investigators.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
One young person has been arrested in relation to the
break in, Detective Inspector Lee. Police aren't worried about youth
crime escalating during the school holidays, but adds it's a
time for the community to be vigilant.

Speaker 4 (01:07):
There are greater numbers in our community over the holiday period,
so there is an opportunity for the community to come
together and make sure that they're looking after each other.
But we're certainly not concerned.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
The Youth Crime Task Force will return to Harvey Bay
early next year to address serious offending, while police response
is expected to be ramped up across the entire White
Bay Burnett. Six District duty officers began in the role
this week. Senior Sergeant Nev Zakovich is among them and
says the group will be based in Merriborough but will
travel from Bunderberg to Gimpy and smaller communities in between.

Speaker 6 (01:43):
I think just gives abilities, particularly as you know what
Bay He's got a number of smaller stations, so at times,
you know there can be one offsho out there. So it
just gives us the ability to have that overarching ability
to great assistance from neighboring stations.

Speaker 7 (01:54):
Just to bring that coordination to the Ward Bay.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
There'll be a focus on coordinating a response from a
distance using technology like drones and phones. Each officer has
between fifteen to thirty five years experience and has achieved
the rank of Senior sergeant. Senior Sergeant, Zakovich says the
program will also provide valuable mentorship for junior officers.

Speaker 7 (02:15):
Always nice to have someone a bit more senior there,
just to give you that guidance. Officers of the world,
they do a really good job now, but I think
it's just the more on the policing's constantly changing, so
it's just good to have that support there for those officers.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
There's been a tragic update and an alleged serious assault.
A fifty one year old Mirraboro local has died from
his injuries suffered in the November twenty fourth incident. Police
say a fight start at the outside a Ferry Street
pub when a twenty year old Tanana man allegedly struck
the older man, causing him to fall and hit his
head on the pavement. A twenty year old had been
charged with grievous bodily harm that's now been upgraded to

(02:52):
unlawful striking causing death.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Two memorials have been approved to remember a teenage boy
who was killed near Gimpi earlier this year. Joseph Price
has the details.

Speaker 8 (03:05):
Fourteen year old Levi Hannah hopped off his school bus
in February and was hit by a passing car on
tin Cambay Road. He died in a Brisbane hospital a
few days later. Now, the Gimpi Council, along with his
family have named a nearby creek colvert Levi's crossing. There's
already a wooden bench there with pictures of Levi on it.
A fishing rod rests against it. The mayor, Glenn Hartwig,
says the spot had special significance for Levi.

Speaker 9 (03:28):
He was just one of those achive young men who
loved to fish, loved the camp, loved the outdoors, and
you used to go and catch fish in his dam
and take them down to the area where the proposed
crossing is to be named in his honor and vice versa.
And was just one of those kids that you know,
any parent would be very proud to have them as
their son. And after discussions with the family, it was

(03:49):
seen that's naming this crossing that meant so much to
Levi and so much to the family. I think it's
a really timely and important that we just let this
family help with their grieving process and also remembering who
was a fine Young.

Speaker 8 (04:00):
A permanent bench will also be installed at another of
Levi's favorite places, Mullins Creek Park at Kelula Cove.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
Friendly rivalry has turned into a strong partnership between Bunderberg
and the Fraser Coast. The two mayors have come together
announcing they'll be pushing to get more funding for the
collective Wide Bay region. Our population mass is the largest
outside of the southeast. Fraser Coast. Mayor George Seymour says
our increasing migration is putting pressure on infrastructure and resources.

Speaker 10 (04:31):
By working together, by going to Parliament together, by advocating
to different loves of the government, we think we're a
much louder voice on behalf of our community.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
Bunderberg Mayor Jack Dempsey says it's as local governments are
forking out more money in response to declining federal and
state assistance.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Currently the Australian tax dollar, eighty three percent of that
tax dollar goes to the federal government, three percent goes
to local government in rates, fees and charges, and the
other fourteen percent are collected by state. Currently we get
less than one percent back to local government. Because of that,

(05:07):
we also supply over seventy seven percent of local roads
and we supply thirty three percent of the infrastructure needs.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
The collaboration aims to grow recycling, education and tourism opportunities.

Speaker 10 (05:21):
I'd like to see a greater recognition of the manufacturing
opportunities here across the Hall Wide Bay, with a port
here in Bunderberg and the emerging factories in the Marraba
district and elsewhere. I would like to see us work
much better together to expand the range of educational opportunities,
particularly in the tertiary sector. I think that we share

(05:42):
so much in terms of tourism potential.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
Met Dempsey explains how it could work.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
The needs at the Phraser case may need to be
able to have a priority, and what we do is
we all stand together and we'd least get that funding
coming into our region instead of disappearing somewhere else across Australia.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
While Mayor Seymour believes councils shouldn't be the only ones uniting.

Speaker 10 (06:06):
And I think that this can be followed through elsewhere.
So for example, chambers of commerce in our two cities
joining together, the two university campuses working together on behalf
of their students. I think there is a lot of
opportunity for our two communities to grasp those opportunities going
forward to meet the challenges.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
Stay with us after the break, dozens of fines handed
out at a popular beach, and Mary Street transforms into
a Christmas wonderland.

Speaker 11 (06:32):
I Herb White by Bernette. I Herb White by Bernette.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
Welcome back to iHeart Wide bay Burnett, your weekly news
wrap for the region. I'm Bruce Atkinson, joined by Taylor Larson.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
Forty four people have now been lost in crashes in
the Wide Bay Burnette this year. It includes a seventeen
year old boy who died in a motorbike crash on
Koona Beach Saturday night.

Speaker 11 (06:58):
That's another young person that whight' be around the table
at Christmas time.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
That's Acting Superintendent Paul Algae, who sees police are working
to curb certain behaviors on the beach. Patrols have increased
in the popular camping spot in recent months.

Speaker 11 (07:12):
This year, we have already charged eighteen people on thirty
three serious criminal offenses. And that also includes twelve persons
that have been charged with honing, but also more importantly
recording the horning and posting it online. So that's those
post and boast laws that have recently come in.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
Sixty five infringement notices have been handed out as well,
with police watching closely for vehicles with defects. Acting Superintendent
Algae has this warning for drivers heading onto the sand
this summer.

Speaker 11 (07:44):
You've got spray coming off the water, so that impinges
on your visibility. You've got people using the beach. We
often see it at Gari. People driving along the beach
are driving between people that are fishing, people that are sunbaking,
so there's a lot more variables in bars.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
Speaking of Gary, rangers of investigating separate dingo attacks on
two young children this week, Taylor, It's been a while
since runnings like this have been reported. Of course, we
did see a spade of attacks on the island earlier
this year. However, on Sunday, a five year old girl
was nipped on the thigh and then bitten near a
thumber beach. On Monday, a dingo ran and lunge at
a seven year old boy in the same area, but

(08:21):
didn't make contact with him.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
Do we know what the kids were doing at the time.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
In both incidents, the children were running to get away
from the dingoes. Rangers are attempting to identify the juvenile
dingo to see if the same animal was involved in
both incidents.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
Of course, it's prompted as safety warning because tourism is
expected to step up over the Christmas break and for
the rest of summer.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
That's right, Visitors and residents on Gary are reminded to
keep their children under constant supervision. A rare and endangered
lizard is close to being brought back from the brink
of extinction. A captive breeding program recently released fourteen more
critically endangered angus spiny skinks into the water wild as
part of recovery efforts. It's the second group to be

(09:03):
released into their habitat west of Gibbee. I caught up
with senior collegist Dan Ferguson to learn more about the skinks.
There are less than a thousand remaining.

Speaker 12 (09:11):
We just don't want to lose an other species from Australia.
We've already had quite a number of extinctions across Australia
and a few in Queensland and it would be a
real shame to lose what I think is a really
iconic little isard. It's quite a pretty little skink but
does some really unique things. Like it burrows and lives
by itself and has care of its babies as well,

(09:33):
So the individual babies will actually stay with their mother
for anything up to twelve months.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
Will be done to keep an eye on this latest
release scare. How do you monitor these things?

Speaker 12 (09:43):
Yeah, they're only about as big as the palm of
your hand. We use a lot of camera technology. There's
some great technology out there now that you can almost
live few animals out in the wild. So I can
sit at my desktop here while I talk to you
in this interview, see that all the animals that we've
released are okay in the wild five minutes ago. Basically

(10:05):
we can keep really close tabs on what they're up to.
And this species lends itself really well to that sort
of monitoring because it really never moves very far from
its burrow entrance.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
So you have a camera set up somewhere static rather
than like you don't have a little miniature camera on
the head of what are these skinks? I imagine? Do you?

Speaker 12 (10:22):
No? No, definitely, you're right. The static cameras pointing at
the artificial burrows that we created to release them into.
So we did little burrows out at the release site
for them try and replicate as best we can the
wild surrounds that they would have originally come from. So
a bit of a rock or a tree route and
we'll create a short ten twenty centimeters burrow underneath that.

Speaker 3 (10:45):
It's like a little skink hotel.

Speaker 12 (10:48):
It is like a little skin hotel. And we've had
great success in creating those little burrows. From the first
release of six animals that we did earlier this year,
five of those six remained with the artificial burrows, and
the other animal trekked around a little bit and found
his own new burrow.

Speaker 3 (11:03):
Why do they become close to extinction? What happened?

Speaker 12 (11:06):
It's an interesting question. So they do live in a
vine forest habitat, which is type of brain forest basically,
and these rainforest patches have been heavily cleared over a
very long time now, so something like ninety percent of
their vine forest habitat or potential bind forest habitat has
been cleared in that sort of gimpy west region, which

(11:27):
is probably a big driver of their declines historically. Some
of the problems now that they face threats from predators
you know, cats, foxes, even pigs, and one of the
ones that we're trying to address with the captive breeding program,
is their population size is now just shrunk to such
tiny levels that we see a lot of in breeding

(11:48):
issues and it's just that critically small population size that
we need to intervene for to improve the prospects of
the species.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
Hundreds of ham there's been delivered to families in need
across Bunderberg. The Mayor's Christmas Chair appeal raised about forty
thousand dollars with the funds securing groceries for hampers. Volunteer
Kim Gittle was one of the dozens of people who
helped pack the items earlier this week.

Speaker 7 (12:15):
I'm on the custed stand, so I've got vanilla custid,
we have week bex, we have milk.

Speaker 11 (12:21):
We have a little bit of fun down the end.
Somebody's needed some little Christmas decorations.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
Charities are distributing the hampers to their clients. Trish Kluebuck
from Saint Vincent de Paul Childers says it comes at
a time when many in the community are struggling.

Speaker 13 (12:35):
We had figures through just recently where the people seeking assistance.
The numbers have risen recently by fifteen percent and sixty
four percent of them have never asked for assistance before.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
The Christmas spirit is alive in Gimpi as well. There's
one more chance to get along to the Merry Christmas event.
A big crowd turned out on Wednesday night as Mary
Street and the CBD closed for four hours of festive fun.
It's on again next week and Tony Goodman from the
CBD Action Alliance says there are market stalls, food vans,
and a whole lot more.

Speaker 5 (13:12):
We have street music as in muskers for for length
of Mary Street, and a lot of street entertainment like
fire toilers, fergus acts. We have silt walkers, roving jugglers
the whole lot and a train, a train that goes
from the bottom of Mary Street right at the top
of Mary Street getting people right about.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
Forty shops are open on the night and it's a
chance for locals to hunt for some last minute presents.
Tony says. It's also an opportunity for businesses to close
out a tough year.

Speaker 5 (13:41):
Cost a living pressures is really biting at the moment
due to inflation. It's fair to say that a lot
of the traders are probably having some challenging times, particularly
in retail. So this is a way of getting people
to come in and hopefully spend up big time. Because
if the trade is too well at Christmas, they have
a good lead in for next year. If they don't

(14:02):
have a good Christmas, it's a less than ordinary year.
So that's why we're persevered in having these events.

Speaker 3 (14:07):
And just a reminder, the Merry Christmas Party is on
again next Wednesday from five pm until nine.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
Well that's your weekly wrap for the region. Don't forget.
You can hear iHeart White Baby Burnette on the iHeart
app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
Have a merry and safe Christmas. We'll be back in
twenty twenty four.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
I have White Bay Bonnette