COUNTRY CALLER FOOTBALL COVERAGE SPONSORED BY INTURA
By Caitlin Crowley
A RECORD number of Downs Rugby representative sides from U-12s boys through to senior men and women are on their way to the Southern Queensland Rugby Championships on the Sunshine Coast, including the first ever U-15s girls’ team, playing 15-a-side rugby.
Captain Pypah Campbell said although none of the Downs girls had played 15-a-side rugby before, they were all keen to give it a go.
“We’re really excited to play,” Ferguson said. “It’s a big change, a lot more girls on the field but we’re all ready to go out there and have a good time.”
Downs Rugby general manager Matthew Hammond said this was unprecedented representative action, with Downs Rugby usually sending just four teenage boys teams to the state championships.
“All the Downs Rugby teams participating, with the exception of the U-12s boys, have the opportunity to be selected for Southern Queensland Country,” Hammond said.
Under 13s boys Ethan Bradey and Oien Campbell
He singled out Oien Campbell in the U-13s boys and Pypah Ferguson as players to watch and said there’s “exciting talent” on the Downs right now.
Darling Downs sides will play teams from the Gold and Sunshine Coasts, at Sunshine Coast Stadium this weekend.
Players selected for Southern Queensland Country will go on to the Queensland State Championships, hosted at Toowoomba Grammar School and Toowoomba Stadium July 1-3.
“Obviously all the boys teams have been going for ages and we’re just keen to join them, have fun and support them too,” Pypah Ferguson said.
“It’s so exciting, the women’s sport is growing everyday now, so it’s exciting to see and see the opportunities that are being presented to us.”
“We have really good pathways for our teenage girls, be that in 7s or 15-a-side – what we’re seeing this weekend,” Matthew Hammond said.
“We have the 2029 Rugby World Cup in Australia and the 2032 7s pathway with Brisbane hosting the Olympics, so there’s a massive future.”
Two men are recovering from police dog bites and facing a string of charges after allegedly trying to steal copper wire from an Ergon Energy depot in Rockhampton.
It’s alleged the 19 year old and 24 year old, both from Rockhampton, broke into the storage yard around 2am Sunday morning.
An extensive CCTV network at the facility captured the alleged incident and police were immediately notified, with Rockhampton police and dog squad officers quickly searching the premises.
The pair was found hiding in separate areas of the depot and were bitten by PD Sacco during their arrests, with an officer heard shouting at one of them to “stop fighting the dog”, on body cam vision released by Queensland Police.
Both men were treated at Rockhampton Base Hospital for minor injuries.
The 24 year old man has been charged with enter premise and commit indictable offence and possessing dangerous drugs.
The 19 year old man was charged with enter premise and commit indictable offence.
Both men are due to face Rockhampton Magistrates Court in July.
DARLING Downs family-owned business Jim’s Jerky is celebrating a monumental milestone after sending its very first export shipment of Australian beef jerky to Japan.
While exporting has been a key goal for the company in recent years, Jim Tanner said he never dreamed his jerky would be tasted by international consumers when he co-founded Jim’s Jerky with his wife Cathie almost 18 years ago.
“When I cast my mind back to when we first started, the difficulty we had in even getting anyone to try and taste it,” Tanner said.
“We’ve had false starts before and attempts before, and to actually have packages going, it was a bit surreal.”
Jim and Emily with their first export shipment
Tanner’s daughter and company CEO Emily Pullen said there was a lot of excitement and a sense of relief around finally achieving their export goal.
“We’ve been banging on about export for probably 4-5 years, so there’s a certain amount of relief that we’ve got it done,” Pullen said.
“Even though it’s such a modest order, you still have to have all the same processes in place as if you were sending a 40 ft reefer.
“It’s really a difficult process to go through to get yourself aligned with all of the requirements and then to actually connect with retailers.
“It’s difficult in Australia for a whole heap of reasons, then you just transplant that to a different country, different language, different culture.
“It’s a far trickier, multi-faceted landscape than we ever considered when we first started.”
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Jim’s Jerky has sent four cartons of its original flavour beef jerky and biltong to be sampled by Japanese consumers, who have a reputation for paying top dollar for Australia’s clean, green and traceable beef.
“We’re working with an Australian company who works in the e-commerce market, so it’s going to be featured on a site that specialises in premium, imported products,” Emily said.
“They’re testing the market with those two products to see if there’s an appetite for it, which is a really nice, sustainable way of testing the market and then if we get really good feedback, we’ll hopefully grow that footprint.”
One of the products bound for Japan
General Manager of TSBE Food Leaders Australia, Justin Heaven, said exporting to Japan was a fantastic achievement.
“Japan is a mature market for the red meat industry and a target market for Australian businesses,” Heaven said.
“Australian red meat is very popular in Japan and this is a great opportunity for them to grow their global market.”
Jim’s Jerky took part in Shell’s QGC Emerging Exporters Program, delivered by Food Leaders Australia, back in 2018.
The business has evolved from direct-to-customer sales from its shopfront and popular show stalls to a thriving online business and most recently, cracking major wholesale markets including service stations United and Puma, and Woolworths in Queensland.
“When mum and dad first started, beef jerky or protein snacking was not that well-known in Australia but that’s certainly changed,” Emily Pullen said.
She said she’d seen an explosion of jerky brands, particularly in the last five years, but that market growth had helped Jim’s grow alongside an increasing appetite for protein snacks.
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Having cleared its first export hurdle, Jim’s Jerky is setting its sights on more international markets, exploring options with Wellcamp Airport, just 13kms from the company’s Charlton factory, its home and headquarters for the foreseeable future.
“We’ve had a meeting with a possible importer from Vietnam via that connection and that’s really exciting and we’re working on that at the moment,” Pullen said.
“If we could match our domestic sales with our export sales, that would be a really nice, sustainable way to grow the business.
“It feels a little bit pipe-dreamy at the moment but when we first started doing our paperwork for export we didn’t think we’d be sending four cartons to Japan.”
While Jim Tanner himself is starting to think about stepping back from the business, he said he had “optimistic goals” for its future, particularly under his daughter’s leadership.
Emily Pullen is leading Jim’s Jerky into the future
“It needs new, young, enthusiastic people in the business to make that continue to grow,” Tanner said.
“Over the next 10 years, I think we won’t be known just as a beef jerky company. We’ll be pushing into alternative snacks.
“If you take the blinkers off at just producing beef jerky and look at what else we can make, it opens up a huge amount of opportunity here and overseas.
“That’s the way we’re looking to push the business, with Em’s energy.”
QUEENSLAND’S peak resources body is indignant following revelations the state government is “looking at” slugging the coal industry with higher royalties to pay for the woes being experienced in the public health sector.
Treasurer Cameron Dick conceded the government was considering taking a greater clip from coal industry revenues when the budget is delivered on June 21, as the Australian Medical Association asks for $2 billion to fix ambulance ramping and hospital bed shortages.
“Obviously that resource (coal) belongs to the people of Queensland and now we’re looking at what that might look like in the future,” Dick told journalists yesterday.
“We’re working through that detail at the moment. But ultimately we’re talking to the industry about that, and then we’ll make an announcement at an appropriate time.”
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Queensland Resources Council (QRC) chief executive Ian MacFarlane said plans to impose higher royalty taxes than the annual $6 billion it currently pays to support the health budget was “disingenuous”.
“The resources sector is already paying more than double the coal royalty taxes it paid last year due to higher commodity prices, so every Queenslander benefits when our sector is doing well,” Macfarlane said.
“Queensland’s royalty taxes are already the highest in Australia. They’re almost double what NSW producers pay and are one of the highest amongst coal exporting countries.”
MacFarlane said the coal royalty taxes paid by the industry this financial year are expected to reach more than $6 billion – at least $2 billion more than predicted by Treasury – which is a record and the highest amount of royalties ever paid to a Queensland Government.
“Imposing higher taxes on our sector is a short-term, political decision to plug a hole in the state budget that will inflict an immediate, negative impact on foreign investment and confidence in our industry, and will have long-term consequences for regional jobs and businesses,” he said.
Meanwhile the Queensland leader of Katter’s Australian Party is calling on the Palaszczuk Government to urgently commit to keeping the 700MW Callide B coal-fired power station online until at least 2038.
Callide Power Station near Biloela, owned by government operator CS Energy
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MP Robbie Katter made the plea while visiting Biloela yesterday to campaign alongside the party’s candidate for the Callide by-election, Biloela local Adam Burling, who works at the government-owned Callide coal mine and power station.
Robbie Katter said it was necessary to keep the government-owned coal mine running for another decade.
“The wholly State Government owned Callide B generator will reach the end of its life in 2028, but it’s understood with the necessary investment it can be kept online for at least another decade,” Katter said.
“Callide, home to coal mines, gas exploration and power stations, is ground zero when it comes to the climate wars consuming the country.
“In their mindless, and ideologically-motivated, attempts to ‘out-green the Greens’ and appease affluent inner-city voters on the Net Zero catch-cry, the major parties have driven Australia to its absolute brink.
“We should be enjoying the cheapest power in the world, but instead we are feeling the effects of the renewables lie that we have been spoon-fed for the better part of two decades.”
KAP Callide candidate Adam Burling with Queensland party leader Robbie Katter
CONSTRUCTION has started on the long-awaited upgrade and expansion of Mitchell Memorial Park, with the first stage of Maranoa Regional Council’s project due to be finished by the end of this month.
The council worked with the community over the past 12 months to develop the site master plan, which now includes an upgrade to the existing playground area, new footpaths, a new shelter and BBQ area, as well as new shading for the skatepark.
“This is an exciting time for our Mitchell community,” Maranoa mayor Tyson Golder said.
“This project will provide new equipment and a space for families and visitors to come together and enjoy the elements this park will have to offer.”
While stage one will lay the foundations for the new space with a shared footpath, shade shelters, BBQ area and new seating and lighting, it’s stage two local families can really look forward to.
An artist’s impression of what the new playground will look like. IMAGES: Urban Play Australia
The council partnered with award-winning playground designers Urban Play to develop a bespoke adventure playground, to draw families from far and wide.
“We wanted to provide a destination that provided thrilling play opportunities for all ages and abilities,” said Kate Heise-Seabrook from Urban Play.
“My favourite play element is the custom Sky Cabins that stand at over 7m tall and offer exciting climbing opportunities with elevated views over the surrounding parkland.”
Other playground elements include mountaineer features specific for toddler play, a tipi carousel, net twister and two bay swing including a birds nest seat, standard seat and baby seat.
Work on the playground is scheduled to start in August and should be finished by the end of September.
The existing playground will be removed and reinstated at the Mitchell Weir area.
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The new playground coming to Mitchell Memorial Park. IMAGE: Urban Play Ausrtralia
The park project received funding under the Australian Government’s Local Roads and Community Infrastructure (LRCI) program.
“This project will provide a vital boost for the local community, backing local jobs and economic growth while delivering lasting upgrades that will benefit residents for years to come,” Maranoa MP David Littleproud said.
“We also get councils to use local businesses and workforces to deliver these projects as much as possible, ensuring this stimulus flows directly into the hands of hard-working Aussies, their families, their businesses and their communities.”
Work has been coordinated to minimise interruption to the overall park however some elements may need to be temporarily closed while construction is underway.
THE co-founder of the Home to Bilo campaign, which has helped the widely publicised plight of Biloela’s Murugappan refugee family, says the success of the campaign demonstrates her ability to create grassroots change as she vies to become the first Labor MP for the seat of Callide.
Bronwyn Dendle helped instigate the change.org petition which drew international attention in the fight to allow the Sri Lankan Murugappan family to return to their adopted home of Biloela.
A Biloela local who met the family through her work in healthcare, Dendle has for the past week been campaigning as the Labor candidate for the Callide by-election on June 18.
“It was all about listening to people, understanding the issue and advocating for people, and I didn’t let that go until we got a result,” Dendle said of the Home to Bilo campaign.
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The Murugappan family will return to Biloela from Perth this week while their VISA application remains before the courts. Newly appointed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had promised to act on the matter if elected.
“It’s about negotiation and supporting local initiative and ideas and coming to the table and being solution focussed. Mud slinging and political point scoring is useless to people on the ground,” Brownyn Dendle said.
ALP candidate Bronwyn Dendle with fellow Home to Bilo co-founder Angela Fredericks. IMAGE ABC Capricornia
Now the Labor candidate for Callide, Dendle said her values aligned with the ALP so she jumped at the opportunity to run for the party.
“I was that little girl who said “one day I want to be Prime Minister” so politics is something I’ve always been interested in, so when the opportunity presented itself I grabbed it with both hands,” she said.
“I’m big on social justice and integrity and the whole philosophy of standing up for what you believe in, mobilising communities to do what’s right and get results.”
Dendle’s family, originally from Monto, has a trucking, logging and dairy background.
She’s had a career spanning more than two decades as a social worker and has lived with her husband Matt and five children in Biloela for the past seven years.
ALP candidate Bronwyn Dendle campaigning at a Callide voting booth in Chinchilla
Callide, which encompasses parts of Queensland’s Wide Bay, Burnett, Capricorn and Western Downs regions, was vacated by previous MP Colin Boyce after he successfully ran for the federal seat of Flynn at last month’s general election.
It’s a firmly held LNP seat. Colin Boyce amassed a 15.3 percent margin at the 2020 Queensland Election.
The new LNP candidate is Bryson Head. Adam Burling is running for Katter’s Australian Party, the One Nation candidate is Sharon Lohse while Fabrice Jarry and Paula Gilbard are running for the Legalise Cannabis and Animal Justice parties respectively.
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“For nearly 70 years this electorate has been represented by the LNP or their equivalent. If you keep doing what you’ve always done you’ll keep getting what you’ve always got,” Dendle said.
“I can offer what no other candidate in this election can offer, and that is a seat at that table for real change. More than that, my philosophy is grassroots change. I’m all about listening and understanding people on the ground and advocating for their solutions.
“What this by-election does offer our communities is the opportunity to have someone who’s in a sitting government, who’s actually got a seat on the government benches, who can take the local solutions, resource them and make them a policy.”
COAL seam gas developer Santos has announced a major new investment in the Surat Basin with a $360 million expansion of its gas fields north of Roma.
Works to drill 130 new wells at the company’s Fairview project will begin in June this year and the first gas production is expected as early as October.
At peak production the expansion will produce around 78 terajoules per day, equivalent to about 25 percent of domestic demand in Queensland, a statement from Santos said.
The project will create employment for 160 drilling and construction contractors over the next two-and-a-half years and generate an additional $91.5 million in royalties for Queensland.
Santos managing director and CEO Kevin Gallagher (pictured) said the gas would feed the company’s GLNG exporting plant in Gladstone, freeing up other gas supply sources for the domestic market.
“Queensland’s coal seam gas would never have been developed without access to huge international markets and the massive capital investment of our joint venture partners and customers in Asia.
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“Without that investment, there would be less gas supply in the domestic market today.
“Since the GLNG project was sanctioned a little over a decade ago, Santos and its GLNG partners have contributed nearly AU$300 million in royalties to State revenues.
“Importantly, local communities and businesses will benefit with over AU$100 million to be spent on local goods and services to support the project.
“The investment will also see an extra AU$600,000 go to the Maranoa and Banana Regional Councils for road upgrades and maintenance.”
An aerial view of Santos’s Fairview gas plant north of Roma
COUNTRY CALLER FOOTBALL COVERAGE SPONSORED BY INTURA
By HARRY CLARKE
ST GEORGE will enter the second half of the Roma and district rugby league competition sitting comfortably within the top four, following a comprehensive victory over Chinchilla on the club’s annual Ladies Day.
With several games of junior footy happening and a ticketed function set up to recognise the contribution of St George’s women of rugby league, Rowden Park was in full flight by the time the Bulldogs bus rolled into town.
Travelling out to the banks of the Balonne River to take on St George at home is notoriously one of the tougher games of footy to play in the south west.
Despite a slightly depleted squad Chinchilla felt up to the challenge, but from the first set of six it was clear the visitors would be having a tough day in the office.
Under the command of veteran playmaker Sam Davis, St George forwards led by Barney Watts and Josh Cochrane spent much of the first half steamrolling through the middle of the field and wearing out Chinchilla defenders.
St George prop Barney Watts breaks free from a Dan Gleeson tackle. IMAGE: Maxine Hicks
From that platform, the points piled up quickly out wide with two tries from fullback Marcus Cochrane, two from winger Rory Weribone, one from centre Adam Parkes and one from Malcolm Lassere.
An early hamstring injury to Bulldogs halfback Jeff Gilbert didn’t help Chinchilla’s attacking structure when had the football, but by the end of the first 40 minutes the visitors had rallied in defence and begun to find holes in St George’s defence.
Having shifted into pivot from his original position of inside centre, Matt Hart put a clever grubby through for a Declan Bell try and then slotted the conversion from out wide to bring the half time score 34-6.
COUNTRY CALLER FOOTBALL COVERAGE SPONSORED BY INTURA
Chinchilla coach Tim Keating told his players at half time “if we start turning those big fellas around and keep the ball in hand we could go a long way to closing that gap”.
There was a big defensive effort from the Bulldogs over the second 40 minutes, particularly from dummy half Hayden Bender and second rower Billy Playstead, but it was too little too late.
Chinchilla won the second half with two tries over St George’s one, but a continual bruising from St George’s tough forward pack and a strong conversion rate by second rower Barry Tapau-Fewquandie prevented any real scoreboard threat from Chinchilla.
In the end it read 40-18 to St George.
Bulldogs fullback Romada Barnes, met by St George defenders Adam Parkes and Rory Weribone. IMAGE: Maxine Hicks
“It was a good start to the game. I think we got a bit excited at half time and slowed down for a bit there in that second half,” said St George coach and player Andrew Hart, who was off injured.
“I’ve got a dodgy hip. I’m 26 going on 56. They didn’t really need me today and I figured I was probably best suited on the sideline.
“We really worked for each other in that first half. We completed our sets well, just played good footy and came up with the result.
“We defended well too, but we’ve just got to learn to stick it together for 80 minutes.”
St George will travel to Roma in a fortnight’s time to commence the second round of the competition while Chinchilla will host the Miles Devils.
THE Katter’s Australian Party candidate running in the Callide by-election is calling for improvements to what he describes as “stagnant” systems around the processing of firearm licensing and permit approvals.
KAP candidate Adam Burling, a recreational shooter, said rural Queenslanders were “fed up” with “glacial” waiting periods for license and weapons applications to be approved, hindering efforts to manage pest animals.
“Even though people with a firearms licence have been through all the police background checks, done the safety training, and proven they have a genuine need for a firearm – a process that has already taken at least six months and probably more – it can still take weeks, sometimes months, to get the Permit To Acquire a farmer needs to buy a firearm,” Burling said.
“A firearm is a tool of the trade for farmers, but the unrealistic wait endured after submitting a firearms licence application or PTA for a new firearm, means weeks or months of lost productivity and income, yet it is met with a very nonchalant attitude from Brisbane.
Adam Burling, KAP candidate for Callide
“A tradie can purchase a nailgun or a drop saw on the spot, they can buy a ute and drive it off the lot before the ink has finished drying on the paperwork, but for a licensed farmer needing a firearm for dealing with wild dogs killing their livestock, or pigs rooting up their crops it comes after substantial cost and losses to primary production,” Burling said.
“These Brisbane-based bureaucrats are taking away Queenslanders’ freedoms to hunt recreationally or preserve our natural heritage and biosecurity through humane pest control.”
In a statement to the Caller, police minister Mark Ryan said Queensland police received hundreds of license and renewal applicants every week and that thorough reviews were necessary to ensure community safety.
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“The QPS will never put community safety at risk and is continually reviewing processes used to determine the suitability of an individual to possess a weapons licence and firearms,” Ryan said.
“To ensure public and individual safety is appropriately balanced with the rights of current and future licence holders the process is necessarily and absolutely thorough.
“Queensland has a strong legal firearms ownership culture with licence numbers and registered weapons continuing to grow each year.
“The QPS receives approximately 350 new licence applications, 1100 Permit to Acquire applications, and 365 renewal applications on a weekly basis.
“Each application is assessed on an individual basis.”
There about 200,000 licensed gun owners in Queensland.
The Caller reported in April that authorities believed there were about 260,000 illegal firearms circulating in Australia, and that the Western Downs was one of the country’s hotspots for weapon theft and possession of illegal weapons.
ONLINE betting companies will soon be forced to pay their “fair share” of tax under sweeping changes to racing funding in Queensland, announced today.
The move has been described as a “game changer” by racing industry leaders, particularly for provincial, rural and remote race clubs.
Treasurer Cameron Dick said the changes were about “levelling the playing field” for all wagering operators, after an influx of new, online betting companies in recent years, effectively undermined the current funding arrangement.
“We forecast this will put about $80 million dollars a year into Racing Queensland, replacing all other sources of revenue and doing so on a much broader and sustainable basis,” the Treasurer said.
“Ensuring that organisations profiting from Queensland’s thriving racing industry are investing into its future too.”
The changes include a new five percent racing levy added to the betting tax, broadening the betting tax to include free and bonus bets and increasing the proportion of betting tax revenue that goes directly to the racing industry from 35 per cent 80 per cent.
“This is not a tax on punters, this is a levy on big online betting companies,” Cameron Dick said.
Country racing will benefit from significant funding changes announced today
Toowoomba Turf Club CEO Lizzy King said the funding model was a “game changer” which will allow clubs to improve facilities for stakeholders and guests.
“Toowoomba and the Darling Downs is absolutely the heartland of racing in Queensland,” she said.
“We’re very excited about this announcement today.”
There are 125 racing clubs in Queensland and for 85 of them, a race meeting is the biggest or second biggest event in their community each year, according to the state government.
“For many of those clubs, a race meeting is a once-a-year event that is an unparalleled opportunity for people to get together,” Cameron Dick said.
“Our government recognises how important those gatherings are to the social fabric of Queensland, and today’s announcement will help them thrive into the future.”
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Critically for country clubs, Racing Minister Grace Grace said the changes would also offer more sponsorship opportunities.
“While Tabcorp will still offer on-course betting services and retain retail exclusivity, its on-course ‘sponsorship and advertising’ exclusivity will end once these changes take effect,” she said.
“This means race clubs across Queensland will have opportunities to enter into new sponsorship agreements with other wagering service providers.”
“We’ve got sustainable funding that will be incorporated for country racing – country racing will continue to thrive.”
The huge crowd at Burrandowan Races last month
Since 2014, Racing Queensland funding has been reliant on an agreement with Tabcorp that will now be unwound as part of the new funding model.
Tabcorp’s CEO Adam Rytenskild welcomed the move as a “big shot in the arm for the Queensland racing industry.”
“It’s also great for TABs in pubs and clubs, and great for punters right across Queensland,” he said.
“The Queensland racing industry will finally receive a fair share of funding from foreign-owned betting companies – who have grown rapidly, taking the TABs market share and therefore undercutting racing industry funding.”
Racing Queensland CEO Brendan Parnell said it’s a strategic and substantial shift that will give the organisation the confidence to invest in infrastructure and jobs.
“This is unique – this is a really sustainable way forward for the racing industry,” Parnell said.
