The Cairns Diaries

Not specifically related to cairns I admit but up that way ... kinda

I've just watched (on TV) Imalu tigers pound the Ranku eagles into submisson in the annual Bathurst island Aussie rules premiership.

Bathurst island is home for the late great Mr. Maurice Rioli who distinguished himself at richmond football club and also Michael Long (Essendon) I believe.

I was impressed by both teams ground skills and athleticism.
The match started with Rangu peppering the goals in the first quarter but imalu back 6 stood up to be counted.
Ranku's frustrations at being unable to penetrate boiled over in the second quarter and their play became undisciplined. They played the man not the ball staging for free kicks like an italian soccer player

Imalu wanted the ball in the third and chased and tackled at every opportunity, Ranku players lost focus as the game slipped away. The umpires seemed to put the whistle away where ranku were concerne with the free kicks standing at 6 - 16 to Imalu by three quarter time.

Imalu ran away with the game in the last quarter thanks to drive from their backline and some assistance from a brown dog that wandered onto the ground. Ranku were Ill disciplined but toughed it out and were not discraced however they need to learn not to sweat the small stuff and could have done much better going up the middle instead of wide at every opportunity.

What a hoot! Good old fashioned grassroots fotball at its best.

Imalu 13.10 Ranku 6.7.

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A player from Cairns kicked the first goal for the Goldcoast Suns in their debut match against Carlton. That achievement will go down in the history books.
The Suns have a longway to go to be competetive after their 100point drubbing at the hands of The MIGHTY Mighty Blue boys.

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Did you feel this quake?

Magnitude 5.2 - QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA
2011 April 16 05:31:19 UTC

Earthquake Details

This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.

Magnitude 5.2
Date-Time

Saturday, April 16, 2011 at 05:31:19 UTC
Saturday, April 16, 2011 at 03:31:19 PM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 20.034°S, 147.659°E
Depth 10 km (6.2 miles)
Region QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA
Distances 124 km (77 miles) SE of Townsville, Queensland, Australia
145 km (90 miles) E of Charters Towers, Queensland, Australia
991 km (615 miles) NW of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia
1697 km (1054 miles) N of CANBERRA, A.C.T., Australia

-----------------------------

Magnitude 4.7 - QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA
2011 April 16 07:06:54 UTC

Earthquake Details

This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.

Magnitude 4.7
Date-Time

Saturday, April 16, 2011 at 07:06:54 UTC
Saturday, April 16, 2011 at 05:06:54 PM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 20.270°S, 147.632°E
Depth 16.2 km (10.1 miles)
Region QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA
Distances 142 km (88 miles) SE of Townsville, Queensland, Australia
143 km (88 miles) E of Charters Towers, Queensland, Australia
970 km (602 miles) NW of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia
1671 km (1038 miles) N of CANBERRA, A.C.T., Australia

1 Reply

Nothing here but we're waaaaayyy sth. I wouldnt have expected to feel anything.

Geoscience Australia said the Queensland quake occurred at about 3.30pm (AEST), some 180 kilometres from Townsville.

The quake was felt as far away as the Whitsundays off the central coast of Queensland and in the state's capital Brisbane, a Geoscience Australia spokesman said.

"It's a shallow earthquake, that means it's close to the surface and potentially damaging," he said.

"For this type of event we would definitely expect aftershocks ... and generally they are smaller than the original event."

Townsville councillor Natalie Marr said there had been no immediate reports of damage.

But she told how her windows rattled and her young daughter leapt into her arms during the quake.

"It scared my daughter enough she jumped on the couch with me and my windows were rattling," Ms Marr said. "I haven't heard of any damage at the moment.

"We usually get SMS warnings if there is more danger and to stay inside and that hasn't happened."

Ms Marr said she had been listening to the local radio for updates and had heard people as far south as Bowen calling the station saying they felt the quake.

"It's hard to say how long it lasted, but it was probably about 10 to 20 seconds I think," Ms Marr said.

"I heard a guy on the radio say he timed it and it lasted 40 seconds, but it's hard to tell."

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/quake-shakes-qld-christchurch-20110416-1din8.html#ixzz1Jfz1wRvI

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@Butrflynet,

Nah BFN - didn't get to Cairns, I think the furthest north it was felt was 100km north of Townsville which 350km south of us. From what I saw on the news it wasn't so much a quake as a tremor that made glasses rattle. The big plus about living on the oldest continent is the paucity of tectonic phenomena.

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@hingehead,

Ah, I thought you were a lot closer than that after all the talk about Yasi.

Have your gardens recovered from all that storm damage?

1 Reply

@hingehead,

I was wondering about you & yours when I read the news reports, hinge.
Glad you received a reprieve this time & it wasn't anywhere near as ferocious as Yasi was on Townsville & the surrounding area.
Phew.
Enough is enough.

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@Butrflynet,

Gardens are back to their dishevelled best - we've moved out of that house now, into a new place - still spending weekends at the old one getting it ready for sale.

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The crime scene is not far from where we live, I drove past the day of the crime and wondered why there were hordes of police scouring the grass around the railway. Later found out that Miss Liddy had been brutally beaten.

Only days ago the police took the unusual step of releasing the podcast of the 000 call that reported the incident in an attempt to get the reporter to come forward - not sure if the reporter was the attacker, but can only imagine that somehow that podcast led to this arrest.
source

Quote:

Kuranda man charged with murder
A 51-year-old Kuranda man has been charged with murder and will appear in the Cairns Magistrates Court tomorrow.

The arrest follows the death of 22-year-old Aboriginal woman Erica Liddy who was found with serious head injuries at a Freshwater bus stop on April 12th.

Erica Liddy, originally from Coen, had her family with her for the last three days, before her life-support was switched off.

Erica was found unconscious around 2am at a Freshwater bus stop near the corner of Kamerunga and Old Smithfield roads.

Kuranda is so little and so many work colleagues live up there that I imagine someone will know the alleged perpetrator.

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Saw an interesting thing in Woollies, Cairns, last week.

3 German boys (or 3 x roughly 20 y.o. quite solid boys/men speaking in German) were arguing quite vociferously in the meat aisle - presumably about what meat they were going to buy (I don't speak any German) - then suddenly one grabbed a pack of sausages and a bottle of tomato sauce, and stormed off away from the others, looking like a thundercloud.

An aisle or two away, there were 3 French lads, about the same age, but not as solidly built, also arguing, discussing, reasonably and quietly, in French, about varying types of rice. No one stormed off - but I didn't hang around to see what the decision was.

The contrast, in the space of a few minutes, really struck me as amusing.

Some observations on Cairns:
The tourist industry still seems to be struggling (I was last there 2 years ago) and prices for lots of tourist-type things are quite heavily discounted. This is good for me as a tourist, but it doesn't seem to be attracting extra visitors - things seem very quiet. Lots of empty shops. A friend who is in the tourist business has remarked on how slowly things are going.

Bananas in Woollies were $12 or $13/kg, the same as in Sydney; In Rusty's markets they were $4.50-$5. I can't understand Woollies charging Sydney prices for local grown fruit and vegetables.

Port Douglas, on the other hand, doesn't appear to be struggling too much at all. While accommodation was slightly discounted, all the other tourist things, excursions, etc., were all at full price. The owner at my hotel says they attract a different type of customer, lots of international visitors, but not many back packers. Not so many empty shops. (I'm not much of a tourist - I hate shopping!).

Weather was bloody magic, though.

1 Reply

@margo,

Glad the weather treated you well Margo - it was a bit crap last time wasn't it?

Quote:

Bananas in Woollies were $12 or $13/kg, the same as in Sydney; In Rusty's markets they were $4.50-$5. I can't understand Woollies charging Sydney prices for local grown fruit and vegetables.

Well there's the rub - Coles and Woollies have a central distribution model, so any locally grown fruit or veg you buy has done a round trip to Brisbane. A new place has opened up in Aeroglen/Stratford called Jonsson's Farmers Market
http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2011/03/30/156731_local-news.html
Quite big which makes a point of telling you exactly where stuff comes from. Meat in particular is of amazing quality, and they even tell you whose farm it came from. Great location for us too. Seems to be doing well....

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@hingehead,

Hi hinge

Good to see this thread again.

I was wondering, have you managed to sell your house yet? (I hope so.)

And how are you finding your new home? All settled in now, like you've been there for yonks?

1 Reply

@msolga,

Only just opened for inspection - no joy as yet. Still settling into new place - spent way too much time prepping the old place to get this one into shape. Hopefully that changes now, although I still have to go there three times a week to water the garden.

2 Replies

@hingehead,

Gosh, I thought it would have been sold by now, hinge.
You & Mrs h must have put in quite a bit of work on the place before putting it on the market.
You must both be stuffed if you haven't had the time to properly settle into your new home.
Anyway, good luck!
I predict an offer you can't refuse, late this afternoon. And I'm generally right about these sorts of predictions! Smile

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@hingehead,

Pleased to hear of the farmers' market - but Aeroglen / Stratford is a bit off the tourist track. (my friend lives at Stratford)

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@margo,

True - but on the plus side it's the businesses that have regular local custom that ride the hard times up here.

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At least, a fairly good outcome ...

The Cairns Post, 29.06.2011, page 7

Quote:

Tourist left behind on Great Barrier Reef snorkelling trip
Melanie Petrinec
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
© The Cairns Post

A CAIRNS reef operator has sacked an employee responsible for a bungled headcount that resulted in a tourist being left behind on a snorkelling trip.
US tourist Ian Cole, 28, told The Cairns Post he was panic-stricken when he pulled his head from the water at Michaelmas Cay on Saturday afternoon and saw no sign of the vessel Passions of Paradise anywhere.
Mr Cole estimated the boat left at least 20 minutes before he swam to another vessel owned by the same company, whose employees radioed for Passions of Paradise to come back.
Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators executive officer Col McKenzie yesterday confirmed the incident, and said it had been reported to Marine Safety Queensland and Workplace Health and Safety.
Mr Cole said he was making his way back to the boat when the incident unfolded.
"I lifted my head up and I saw the boat had gone – it had left me," he said.
"The adrenalin hit in and I had a moment of panic, which was the worst thing I could have done at that point.
"I was able to calm myself just a little bit because there was another boat still out there and I made my way to that vessel.
"Lucky it was there because otherwise I may have drowned, I did not handle the situation well and I was tired."
Mr McKenzie said the tourist was "never at any stage at risk", with a beach and other vessels close by. ... ...

Source and full report >here<

1 Reply

@Walter Hinteler,

I had a similar incident in Hawaii. We went snorkeling in Maui, and I was enjoying looking at the sea life not far from the boat. When I looked up, I or the boat had drifted about 25 yards away, and I panicked, but was able to barely swim back to the boat. Haven't gone snorkeling on a boat since then. Many years later, I took my younger son to Hawaii, and he wanted to go snorkeling, so we got up early in the morning to catch the boat to a small island off of Maui. On the way to the snorkeling spot, we saw many whales, so that made my day. I stayed on the boat while my son enjoyed the water.

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Saltwater croc on main street story
http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2011/07/28/175855_local-news.html

http://twitpic.com/show/thumb/5wuo9a.jpg

Click to enlarge.

Well seeing how the main street is the highway that goes from Brisbane to Port Douglas (1750km) not strictly true, but the suburb of Westcourt is only a couple of kilometres inland of Cairns central. There a drain nearby to the river that apparently crocs have got out of before.

1 Reply

@hingehead,

Quote:

A QPS spokesman said there were plenty of drains in the area and it was a fairly common occurrence.

"I'm not sure why everyone is getting a bit excited about this," he said.

Yeah. What a bunch of wusses! Smile

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