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2 weeks ago | 
abc.net.au | Jenae Madden |Melissa Maddison
Murder charges will not go ahead against Mackay parents who have always maintained their innocence over their daughter's death. The DPP says there is no prospect of proving murder beyond a reasonable doubt. Diana Hanbury's death will now be referred to the Queensland Coroner's Court. Charges against the Mackay parents accused of murdering their toddler daughter have been dropped.
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2 months ago | 
abc.net.au | Josh Dye |Tim Wong-See |Jenae Madden
The founder of a charity that gives homeless people a safe place to sleep says he has run out of money fulfill a promise he made to regional areas. Melbourne businessman Simon Rowe started the non-profit Sleepbus organisation in 2016 but says he is winding it up in June due to financial struggles. Sleepbus operated buses providing temporary accommodation in Maroochydore, Hervey Bay, and Redcliffe in Queensland, and Queanbeyan in NSW.
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Jan 15, 2025 | 
abc.net.au | Jenae Madden
A night shooting campaign will begin on a public beach in Queensland next week to protect sea turtle nests being plundered by foxes. Introduced European red foxes have been caught on camera, digging up sea turtle eggs and biting hatchlings at East Point in Mackay. Mackay and District Turtle Watch Association president Steve Fisher said after seemingly co-existing for decades, foxes were now showing an interest in the nests.
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Jan 14, 2025 | 
abc.net.au | Jenae Madden
A fire in a conveyor system on top of grain silos at the Port of Mackay has sparked an emergency response. An exclusion zone was declared while six fire units tackled the blaze. Workplace Health and Safety Queensland is investigating the incident. Firefighters have lugged hoses up a 60-metre-high staircase to extinguish a fire burning on top of grain silos at the Port of Mackay in north Queensland.
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Jan 10, 2025 | 
abc.net.au | Owen Jacques |Jenae Madden
Australia is facing a national downturn in property prices, pushing investors to hunt for bargains in regional Queensland. The Sunshine and Gold coasts may be facing a small drop in property prices after years of increases. Analysts say the downturn is not expected to be severe, with a fall in interest rates or a rise in incomes likely to send property prices up again.
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Jan 5, 2025 | 
abc.net.au | Jenae Madden
A 71-year-old woman has died in a house fire at Sarina south of Mackay in north Queensland. Firefighters and emergency services were called to the high-set house in Kathleen Street at around 4:25pm on Sunday and found the home fully alight. Police said the woman was found dead inside, and a man in his 40s was taken to hospital with life-threatening burns to his arms. A crime scene has been declared and the cause of the fire is being investigated.
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Dec 19, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Jenae Madden
The resting place of hundreds of South Sea Islanders who died in a north Queensland hospital in the late 1800s remains a mystery after a search using a ground-penetrating radar failed to find any burials. Construction work to expand Mackay Base Hospital was paused in July to search an area that historians believed once housed a hospital for Pacific Islanders. Health authorities at the time referred to it as the Kanaka hospital.
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Dec 3, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Jenae Madden
A 5.12-metre crocodile in Queensland's north could be the largest of its kind in captivity following the death of the previous record-holder. Galopin, 38, has been raised in captivity on a wildlife farm at Bloomsbury, north of Mackay. Co-owner Zeb Bredl said staff measured Galopin after the death of 5.48m Cassius in Cairns. Cassius held the Guinness world record for the largest living crocodile in captivity. "They estimate Cassius was around 120 years old, and this fellow is only 38," Mr Bredl said.
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Nov 27, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Jenae Madden
Police are investigating the suspicious death of John Patrick Hackett, 67, who was found dead in his home earlier this month. It is thought a physical altercation on the night of November 5 may be connected to his death. Police are appealing to anyone who may have been in the Gold Street area on November 5 to contact them. Police have identified a critical two-hour window in the investigation into the death of a 67-year-old Queensland man.
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Nov 1, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Jenae Madden
Farmer Michael Seymour gets up each morning to work cattle on land that was earmarked to be flooded as part of the largest renewable energy project of its kind in the world. Standing on the flat of a former cane paddock, he looks up at the towering Eungella Range that surrounds him on three sides and imagines his land submerged for the lower reservoir of the project.
