Category: Featured Story

Crispin Hull looks back on the year of living precariously, reflecting on why life in Australia is so much less precarious than in most other places on earth and what we should do to make it remain so….

There is a common belief that certain creatures are insentient blobs, twitching unconsciously at the ends of the strings of their biological predispositions. We suspect insentience in many of the more primitive creatures, the liver fluke for instance, or slime mould, but the poster child for the “insentient blob” in the common understanding, are jellyfish.

Today’s results of Douglas Shire Council’s consultation on the Daintree River Crossing Option confirm that 66% of Douglas Shire residents and ratepayers prefer a two-ferry service compared to 33% of people who choose a bridge. 1% prefer a single ferry.
These results consolidate the excellent work completed by the previous Council under the leadership of Julia Leu as mayor. The new consultation has wasted a year of time and resources. The previous Council approved the two-ferry option on December 3, 2019. New ferries would have been operational on July 1, 2021, in seven months time. Now, this will not happen, as a new contract needs to be signed before the contractor can commence construction of the new ferries.

Douglas Shire Sustainability Group (DSSG) welcomes the results of a survey conducted by Douglas Shire Council into the appetite for a bridge crossing the Daintree River.The survey results confirm the views of DSSG members that a bridge is neither required nor desired and that this community prefers conservation over development. Two thirds of those surveyed said they preferred a two ferry system.

The survey results are in with Douglas Shire preferring a two-ferry crossing over a bridge at the Daintree River. The detailed results, released on Douglas Shire Council’s website today, revealed a majority of those who completed the Daintree River Crossing Survey preferred a two-ferry service with 66% of the count, compared to 33% of people who chose a bridge.

At Tuesday’s Ordinary Council meeting, Item 5.8 on the Agenda was a request for funding by Cape York Weekly to establish a news platform in the Douglas Shire.The recommendation was that Council approves $10,000 towards supporting the Cape York Weekly to commence a community newspaper. Council staff would develop KPI’s for the allocated funding that would focus on strong support for advertising for not-for-profit and community groups in the Shire. The proposal for Council to fund a newspaper comes only after an advancement from Cr Kerr, and no other alternatives were sought.

Join us for a visual exploration of the DAB End of Year Exhibition, an invitation for you to stop by at this wonderful showcase of a diverse range of artwork created by local members during the year, including paintings, botanical drawings, urban sketches, sculpture, ceramics, glass work, jewellery and mosaics.

A Cairns-based commercial hatchery is creating history by successfully breeding coral trout fingerlings. The Company One is the home of world-class production facilities, including a state of the art breeding facility and a grow-out pond farm. Today’s development is the culmination of 18 years of dedicated research under the guidance of Dr. Richard Knuckey.

The team at Zinc Port Douglas have been rewarded for their exceptional efforts in an extraordinary year. Last night they were announced as the winner of the Best Contemporary Australian Restaurant in Queensland and the Northern Territory at last night’s Restaurant & Catering Hostplus Association Awards.

An alternative ingredient for speciality soy sauce will provide a boost for Far North Queensland sugar cane farmers when a Mossman food processing facility commences operations next to the Mossman Sugar Mill.