The Cairns Diaries

Did I mention Cairns has it first female mayor? Val Schier did it, as did a stack of independents including Rob Pyne, the paraplegic son of a former mayor.

I'm glad to have learnt that you council workers are ordered "to cover up", even in summer! :wink:

I'm at a loss as to what you're talking about Walter!

Slip slop slap I assume Hinge.

Walter I assume you have seen an artical highliting sun protection for city workers. It may amuse you but in reality sun protection (or rather a lack of it) is a major occupational health issue in most outdoor jobs. Local councils employ a large amount of outdoor workers who spend large amounts of time in the sun maintaining roads, parks, gardens.

Well the headline is somewhat amusing.

Oh I see, sorry Walter, I rarely read the local rag (die rupert die). In fact I think I'll rely on you to tell me what's happening in this burg.

Although I do know that Jenny Macklin was up here yesterday launching something at Mossman Gorge

That had some mention of indigenous employment and entrepreneurship.

oh, here's the story

Damn imported hippy voters!

I have never been to Kuranda, honest!!

Damn imported communists, then! Be the death of the place!



(You haven't been to Kuranda!!!!
What are ya?)

Ok, I lied, but I didn't want you to know think I'd caught the hippy virus from the Nimbin of FNQ.

As if I would think that, hinge!

Perish the thought!

Yours is an entirely different variety! :wink:

I've been to nimbin. got hte tshirt to proove it too.

The town looked kinda sad.

All the action is naked and muddy in the boondocks, so I hear.

Jeez - I've been to Kuranda - stayed there for a week, many moons ago, and visited again more recently. What does that make me?

Ain't niver been to Nimbin, though....yet!

Tainted & corrupted! :wink:

Yikes - and here I thought I was a quiet-living Sin City virgin....or something!

Well I'm back in Cairns after two months in Italy. I will not be comparing the two.

I also have a new colleague who's returned to Australia after 6 years in Singapore. She is very impressed with Cairns' 'City in a garden' theme. I'm no luck finding a photo of what the council days with roundabouts - basically they look like window boxes on steroids. Very cool. I will take a photo and show yas.

I forgot to mention that I took the big dog for a walk last Saturday morning and came across 'crime scene' tape covering a big block of land and lots of little yellow flags ala CSI. Detectives were asking questions and knocking on doors. Four days later and I still don't know what it was about - this is the only police thing that happened at the right time in my bit of Cairns.


Someone will die
Caitriona Murtagh

Monday, July 14, 2008

© The Cairns Post



ROCK-throwing teens are primed to kill unless a night curfew is enforced to keep them off the streets, says the victim of a highway attack.

And police have warned louts could face time behind bars for assault or manslaughter if their missiles injure or kill.

A shaken Brian McLean contacted The Cairns Post to make an impassioned plea for the crackdown on teens after copping a fist-sized rock through his windshield at the weekend.

The rock blindsided Mr McLean as he drove home along the Bruce Highway, between Forest Gardens and The Rock tavern, at 4am on Saturday.

"There was this enormous bang," said Mr McLean, a professional driver of 46 years.

"I put my foot down on the brake, I went up sideways on the road. I pulled up and there was this massive bullseye on the windscreen.

"It was a massive stone, it would've had to have been as big as your fist.

"A less experienced driver could've been killed."

Mr McLean warned: "Someone's going to die because of this stupidity.

"This is disaster waiting to happen."

Mr McLean believes the only answer is to keep youths off the streets at night.

"They're bloody oxygen thieves these kids," he said.

"I do firmly believe in a curfew.

"If you're under 16, you're under lock, off the street after nine o'clock, or 10 o'clock, unless you're with a parent or guardian."

Youths wandering the streets should be taken to the watchhouse overnight.

"The next morning the parents have to come and get them. I don't think the parents know where they are. Maybe this'd wake them up."

Mr McLean's warning follows news in January that rock-throwers had turned Cairns bus routes into a "war zone".

Rocks launched at Smithfield and Mooroobool last year terrified motorists, leaving them with smashed windows and shattered nerves.

And in New South Wales, a rock thrown from an overpass cracked open beauty therapist Nicole Miller's skull, leaving the 26-year-old with permanent physical and psychological injuries.

Acting traffic Insp Preben Farbaek warned offenders faced assault or manslaughter charges if missiles caused death or injury.

"We're talking jail terms," he said.

"Throwing a rock through the windscreen of a car has killed people in the past, and caused serious injury.

"It's extremely hazardous."

And he called for parents to exercise supervision and responsibility.

"We've got to ask the parents to take responsibility and know where their children are, that their children are gainfully involved in activities and that they're educated to know throwing rocks is dangerous and not the done thing."

Apparently it got down 8 degrees last night (first time since I got here that it's got to single figures)

Cold weather not over yet
Thomas Chamberlin

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

© The Cairns Post

Original story

THE cold snap will peak today after parts of the Far North yesterday experienced temperatures well below average.

Lockhart River dropped to a chilly 10C yesterday morning - 9C below average.

But it was still above the lowest temperature recorded in the Cape community - 3.3C in 1965.

Forecasters were predicting an even "colder snap" today with Cairns expecting its coldest temperature for 2008 at 11C.

Forecaster Michelle Hollister said July was typically the coldest month but low temperatures could also happen in August.

"It is still quite possible we will get a colder snap," she said yesterday.

"A cold pool which originated over Queensland is being dragged up to the northern tropics by a southerly flow resulting from a high pressure ridge.

"It is still quite possible we will get a colder snap. It's drying out the air which allows us to get cooler at night."

Ms Hollister said temperatures closer to the long-term average minimum for August, of 17C, should be expected by the weekend.
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I actually wore clothes to bed (I never did that even in Canberra).