All Episodes

June 6, 2024 14 mins

On the podcast this week … a new lease on life for an ageing gold mine. 

What's caused a large sinkhole near a popular camping spot. 

RSV leaving a rising number of children in hospital. 

And meet the locals of a booming coastal town.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I have white Bernet.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Hey, I'm Taylor Larson with Iheartmighted bay Burnett, your local
news fix head. Today a sinkhole opens near a popular
camping spot and the virus putting a growing number of
kids in hospital. First though, a gold mine that's reaching
the end of its life could be transformed into a
green energy asset. Mining started at Mount Rauden, seventy five
k southwest of Bunderberg in two thousand and one. What

(00:27):
was meant to be an eighty year project has turned
into almost seventeen. Mining will stop later this year before
all processing finishes up in twenty twenty five. Here's Executive
chair of Evolution Mining Jake Klin to tell us about
the plans for the next stage.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Four years ago we were approached by ICA Partners, who
are experts in renewable energy consulting and advice, and they
had identified after a nationwide search that Mount Rawden was
the most suitable site for a pump hydro project.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Four years and twenty million dollars later, an environmental impact
statement has just been submitted for assessment. If all goes
to plan, the pump hydro power station will be operational
by twenty thirty two.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
It's going to have a capital cost of around seven
billion dollars. It'll take five or six years to construct.
During that time there will be eight hundred jobs in
the construction phase. It will not only generate a significant
local economic impact, but it will reduce power costs for Queensland.

(01:33):
It will generate a lot of power. We're talking about
twenty two gigawatts of power which can power up to
two million homes and will save Queensland consumers almost thirteen
billion dollars in the first twenty years of operation.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Farmers had been worried about what the initial fill would
mean for irrigators and their supplies.

Speaker 4 (01:53):
Potential impacts on ground order in the area, potential environmental
harm off site and probably the one that's spiked their
interests most of us, so that it requires around about
twenty six thousand megalleters to fill it after the completion
of the works, and with Paradise Dam at the lower level,

(02:14):
we we're concerned that that would negatively impact on the
reliability of irrigators.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
That's Dale Hollers from Bunderberg Agfood and Fiber Alliance. He
says GROW has lodged a list of concerns with the
Coordinator General's office, and shortly after we're contacted by representatives
from the project to go through their worries. Dal believes
the level of consultation so far has been exceptional.

Speaker 4 (02:37):
They've held a number of public meetings. Love also advised
our group individually of how they intend to operate some
of the measures that they're put in place to mitigate
our concerns and allow those concerns. Rawdon have said that
they will temporary transfer excess water of existing normal allocation

(02:58):
halers if they say Western temporary transer under a commercial arrangement.
They are strategic water allocated in the Burnet Resource Plan.
Access to it's dependent upon the level of the dam
and all of those things.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
It's still relatively early days for the project and we're
told some issues are still to be sorted out with
individual landholders. And as for the workforce, Jake Klein says
they could stay on in a different capacity. The existing
gold mine employs people from nearby Mount Perry, gingin Bigginden
and Gainder.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
The mine is a relatively low grade mine and it
has only really been sustained and continues to operate because
of the local community commitments. The employees have been outstanding.
There is a culture on that site that is unique
and we think given the amount of construction work, and
a lot of that construction work is effectively mining because

(03:54):
you need to develop two reservoirs, the upper reservoir and
the lower reservoir, which will be reshaping, the current open
fit is suitable for if we've been working at Mount
Orden previously.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
Some pretty impressive drone footage has been captured of a
in short landslip commonly known as a sinkhole at in
Skip Point. Aaomi Lynch has the story.

Speaker 5 (04:17):
That's Right Taylor. A large section at the western end
of the Gary Barge landing began crumbling into the ocean
around eleven thirty on Tuesday morning. Ranger Aaron Atkinson witnessed
the landslide after a tip off and managed to capture
some of it on film.

Speaker 6 (04:31):
I got a phone call from a senior ranger who
worked on Gary Fraser Island. He was on the barge
and he could see a landslip forming it in Skip
Point barge Landing. So I quickly grabbed the drone and
jumped in a work you and got the inskip in
about fifteen minutes and I could see immediately that a
fair chunk of the barge landing had disappeared. When I

(04:54):
got closer, I could see the sand caving into a
deep hole and it was sliding towards us slowly. I've
never witnessed a sinkerle happening of anything in the aftermath,
so it was very interesting to see. I put the
drone up to get an aerial view of what was happening.
In the footage, you can see the whole tip of

(05:14):
the peninsula sliding into the water.

Speaker 5 (05:17):
You can see from the tire marks that vehicles had
been in the area not too long beforehand. But Ranger
Adkinson says there was no real danger as the natural
phenomenon happened quite slowly.

Speaker 6 (05:27):
So there were actually cars lining up for the bar
in the vicinity when that land slide started to perform,
but they had ample time to move away from that
danger area because of the deepness of the whole You
can see it coming, so there would be plenty of time.
The only scenario that I could think where you would
not be able to move your vehicle with one of

(05:49):
these landslides, I would say, is if you parked your
car there and went for a long walk and by
the time you come back, you car might be in
the hole. But yeah, if you were there vehicle, you
would have enough time to get yourself into a safe area.

Speaker 5 (06:05):
It's not the first thinkhole to open up at Inskip
Point at the tip of Rainbow Beach. They happen in
the area every year or so due to the nature
hends location of the peninsula.

Speaker 6 (06:13):
Near sure landslides are a natural coastal event and they
can't be predicted. They usually occur when a large body
of sand moves quickly and they form an underwater cliff
that moves rapidly inshore and in Skip is a narrow,
low lying sands fit created by wind and waves over
many years. In Skip lies in the Great Sandy Straits,

(06:35):
which is a highly dynamic environment where strong winds and
waves naturally impact the sandy shoreline, which is why we
do get these near shore landslide events.

Speaker 5 (06:44):
Of the Inscip, the sand is constantly being replenished in
the area. In just a few days later, Ranger Atkinson
says there's little evidence the landslide ever happened.

Speaker 6 (06:52):
It's no longer moving. You couldn't even tell that this
has happened as the sand has washed back in to
tie and made a beach. People who know the area
could tell that a big count of the barge landing
has disappeared, But if it was your first time, you
would never even know that there had been a landslide happened.

Speaker 5 (07:10):
Drivers are still being urged to be cautious, but camping
and beach driving areas remain open and barge access hasn't
been affected.

Speaker 6 (07:17):
It never closed. The barge is still accessible on it,
off the barge, and the barge who always has moved
wherever there is a space landing spot.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
Coming up after the break. Meet the locals from a
booming coastal community.

Speaker 3 (07:33):
I heard I heard White.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
You're listening to Iheartwhite Bay Burnett. I'm Taylor Larson. As
the weather cools down, the germs are starting to creep in.
Hospitals across the country are on high alert due to
a rising number of respiratory illnesses. As Joseph Price reports,
our region isn't immune.

Speaker 7 (07:58):
RSV cases have soared past eighty thousand in Australia so
far this year. In the Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service,
there's been around five hundred and fifty confirmed cases, while
the Sunshine Coast HHS, which takes in GIMPI has seen eighteen.

Speaker 8 (08:12):
Hundred, but actually getting a true picture of the numbers
of all RSV cases is a bit challenging, as sure,
you'll appreciate many people won't get tested and they won't
need medical care. But since about twenty twenty one, laboratories
have had to report all positive tests to us, and
so we're getting a better idea of sort of that

(08:32):
activity in the community. So they said that they were
very high in April and other indicators of transmission, and
the numbers came down a bit but then increased again
in May.

Speaker 7 (08:44):
And Marie Baldwin is an advanced epidemiologist within the Sunshine
Coast Public Health Unit. She says the infection can be
quite serious.

Speaker 8 (08:52):
It's highly infectious and the children can get it more
than once. We commonly see it in childcare center and
also in aged care facility outbreaks. So that can lead
to chest infection such as bronchiolitis and pneumonia and sometimes
tragically death as well. So with that bronchiolitis, the bronchials

(09:12):
are tiny airways in the lungs and they swell and
fill with mucus, making the breathing really hard.

Speaker 7 (09:19):
The virus can be like the common cold, but can
be particularly harmful to infants. This year we're seeing a
surgeon children under the age of five ending up in hospital.
Parents are being encouraged to keep their kids' immunizations up
to date.

Speaker 8 (09:32):
We're one of the few areas of Queensland that do
have a free program, so we strongly recommend the RSV immunization,
including for newborns in hospital and from GPS. Just please
phone a head to check availability for infants born since
February twenty twenty four, Aberage Lontorro Straight Islander children younger

(09:52):
than eight months, and there's also other children younger than
twenty months with certain medical conditions that we recommend it for.
And if anyone's experiencing difficulty finding a GP with the
RSC immunization, just phone one three hell and they should
be able to assist.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
About forty minutes south of Bunderberg lies a sleepy coastal town.
Driving along the Esplanade during the week, you're lucky to
see about a dozen people out and about around lunchtime.
Weekends and holidays, though that's when Woodgate wakes from its slumber.
Holiday rental signs sit in front of beach houses nestled
between modern, multimillion dollar homes on the foreshore A couple

(10:33):
of streets back. It's a construction zone as work progresses
on more modest brick homes. According to the twenty twenty
one census, just over fifteen hundred people called the town home.
I expect that figure will rise come the next census
in twenty twenty six. Residential developments are picking up in
what's traditionally been a holiday area. Michelle Sullivan has called

(10:54):
Woodgate home for a year. It was a last minute
discovery for her and her husband, who relocated from the
Gold Coast. In the end, it was the beach that
won them over.

Speaker 4 (11:03):
It's nice.

Speaker 6 (11:04):
It's exactly what we wanted to away from.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
As her colleague at the local post office and former
mine worker, Mel Austin, relocated from Wa ten years ago.

Speaker 9 (11:14):
Basically, we bought our house as an investment property, and
every time we come in holidays, we just didn't want
to leave the place. It's a beautiful little town and
we wanted to move here, so we made that happen.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
Speaking with residents, there is a clear trend. Many moved
up from the southeast. One even coming down from Airly
Beach for work. Beth Hooper and her husband owned land
for about ten years before they built and settled into
the seaside community.

Speaker 9 (11:38):
We're surrounded by National Park, so it can only get
to a certain size and that's it.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
And is that sort of the appeal, Yes, just that.

Speaker 9 (11:47):
When people buy here they have to be aware that
to do your shopping it's Spunderbourg or Childers. But we
are lucky that we have coals and mollies delivered down here.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
Residents are pretty so sufficient. The closest ambulance station is
half an hour away in Childers, so a group of
volunteer first responders are usually first on the scene. They
receive hundreds of callouts every year. There's also a community
bus that takes people to medical appointments and social outings.
It's especially appreciated by the older residents. And while it

(12:20):
seems like the most idyllic place to live on gooing
erosion has been eating away at Locals Paradise. Former picnic
areas have been washed away, trees uprooted and pathways cracked,
leaving many anxious of a storm surge or cyclone. Craig
Bradley manages the hotel across the road from the area
of main concern.

Speaker 1 (12:40):
Over the last twelve tiny months, you've really noticed that
where and wyn Send the trees just hanging on the
edge sort of thing.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
After a lengthy state government approval process, machinery is finally
on the beach. Workers started building a rock wall and
backfilling the seven hundred meter stretch with sand. It's something
locals have been fighting for four years.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
It's definitely good. You know, it's been a long time coming.
You see the beach wearing away sort of thing.

Speaker 6 (13:06):
So it's progress.

Speaker 5 (13:07):
I think it will saves the beach at that end.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
Buneberg Regional Council sees delays in starting the shoreline erosion
protection works have caused millions of dollars in additional damage.
Mayor Helen Blackburn sees the projects costing six point six
million dollars.

Speaker 10 (13:22):
We're not certain that that won't overrun, and you know,
we are looking at how we're going to manage that
if that happens. The fact is that in the period
of time that we've been waiting to get our permits,
there has been further erosion of the beach and that's
caused the job to be a little bigger than what
we'd first anticipated.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
Counselor Jason Bartel's adds, there's a real urgency to get
the job done by December. Now that everything's finally good to.

Speaker 11 (13:46):
Go, we're very lucky that we didn't get a cyclone
while we're waiting for the long delayed permit, which has
taken many, many years to secure. But the works are
finally underway. The project has grown significantly in the time
we've had to wait for the approvals, but we're hoping
we can continue to work with state government to continue
doing works along the foreshore as required.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
Well that's all for this week. If you want to
hear this episode again or search for previous ones, look
up iHeart White, Baby Burnette on the iHeartRadio wapp or
wherever you get your podcasts. Tune in again next week
for more local, trusted and free news I Hear White
Bay Burnette
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