Twenty-one rural New South Wales communities have been awarded state funding to develop websites promoting their towns and villages to the travelling public.
The grants of up to $5000 will go towards technical assistance and software to build websites to promote the region, including tourism attractions, investment opportunities and even as a unique holiday destination.
Aboriginal children as young as eight-years-old are being trained up as child doctors in Central Australia as part of a project to boost health outcomes in remote communities.
The pilot Tjitji Doctors (Child Doctors) program is a partnership between the Malpa Project and St Vincent de Paul and will run out of Alice Springs from next month. It will see children aged eight to 10 learn basic health skills from western medical professionals, traditional healers and Aboriginal elders to become health ambassadors in their communities.
Rebuilding New South Wales is the catchcry from today’s first Liberal/National New South Wales budget in 14 years.
Of the $4.2 billion allocated to regional rural roads, more than $2 billion will go towards the Pacific, Princes, Hume and Great Western highways and the Hunter Expressway.
East of the Blue Mountains, $8 million has been committed to the construction of passing lanes and safety improvements on the Newell Highway, and $24 million for the restoration of natural disaster damage to roads and bridges in the Barwon electorate.
Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Senator Barnaby Joyce has hit out at the Federal Government’s lack of action on its promises to regional Australia.
Tomorrow marks one year since the since the Gillard Government took office, with what Senator Joyce says was a promise by Julia Gillard that she would deliver for regional Australia in a deal with the independents.
“The government promised $10 billion in funding but a year after the agreement the biggest "regional" project they have funded is $480 million for the upgrade of roads around Perth airport. There is still no guarantee that the money in the regional agreement will actually be spent on regional Australia,” says a statement from Senator Joyce’s office today.
Australian farmers are the most pessimistic they’ve been in two years, with global economic uncertainty and concerns about public policy impacting on farmer sentiment.
Results from the latest quarterly Rabobank Rural Confidence survey show rural confidence has dropped into negative territory, with more farmers expecting conditions to worsen rather than improve.
Around 1,200 farmers across a broad range of regions and commodities took part in the survey, which indicated a significant drop in confidence despite positive seasonal conditions and commodities prices.
LiveCorp and Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) have released their latest livestock export statistical review showing the nation shipped out 806,855 head of live cattle, 2.91 million head of sheep and 68,282 head of goats during 2010-2011.
The value of exported cattle, at A$660.4 million, was down 16 per cent on last year’s total, while sheep exports dropped five per cent to A$348 million, and goats were down 28 per cent to A$9.7 million.
Properties in Victoria are being quarantined following the detection of a deadly pigeon virus for the first time on Australian shores.
The avian paramyxo virus has begun killing hobby pigeons in the state, and is feared to be a risk to Victorian poultry farms.
Australian Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr Mark Schipp says human infection of with the virus is extremely rare, usually only occurring in people who have close direct contact with infected birds, but it can cause conjunctivitis or flu-like symptoms.
Police arson investigators have arrived in the Kimberley after a freak bushfire left two women with life threatening burns over the weekend.
Organisers of the Kimberley Ultramarathon event, RacingThePlanet, have told the ABC they were told that there was no risk of fire occurring on the course when 41 marathon runners set out from Kununurra for El Questro Station on Friday.
The 100 kilometre rough-country race was called off just hours after it began, when several competitors became trapped by a grassfire in the remote Salerno Gorge.
Last night’s earthquake is the talk of the town in Peterborough, South Australia, today.
Geoscience Australia says the magnitude four quake hit between Peterborough and Jamestown at around 8.45pm local time, and was reported to be felt as far away as Port August and Port Pirie. It was followed by a 2.1 magnitude tremor about 15 minutes later.
Anita from the Peterborough post office says it’s the topic on everyone’s lips this morning, but as yet nobody has reported any damage to property.
The dust has settled on Australia’s most iconic outback race meet, with organisers of the Birdsville Races dubbing the weekend a great success.
Spokeswoman, Prue Fargher says the crowd peaked at around 6,000 to watch Mount Isa horse Just A Touch take out the $30,000 Cup.
