Mark 10th Birdlife Art Awards More than 280 people gathered to celebrate Hinchinbrook Shire Council’s 10th Birdlife Art Awards at the TYTO Regional Art Gallery on Friday night, 1 August 2025. This milestone event continues to honour the rich birdlife of the Hinchinbrook region through the eyes of talented artists from across Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria. It features an impressive 106 entries across various mediums, including drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, and m
Read the full storySporting and recreation clubs across North and Far North Queensland impacted by early 2025’s severe flooding can now apply for a share in a $30 million funding package to help repair and rebuild their facilities. The Sport and Recreation Recovery Program (SRRG) — a joint initiative by the Albanese and Crisafulli Governments under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA) — offers up to $1 million per facility for eligible not-for-profit sport and racing clubs, as well as local cou
Read the full storyLocally loved artist, Katie Louise, has graced the region once again, painting a beautiful mural on the wall of the infamous Frosty Mango building located 40km South of Ingham along the mighty Bruce Highway. Hailing from Townsville, Katie’s paint brushes have coloured many surfaces across North Queensland where she has artistically captured the unique qualities of several communities including the Atherton Tablelands, Charters Towers, and now Cardwell. Katie’s recent piece within the shi
Read the full storyFormer players, supporters, and families reunited in Ingham over the weekend of 18–19 July 2025 to celebrate the 55-year-long legacy of the Wallaman Rugby League Club, with attendees travelling from across Western Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and all corners of Queensland. Though no longer active, the Wallaman club holds a proud place in local sporting history. Formed in 1970 under challenging circumstances, the club faced early struggles just getting a team on the field. With determina
Read the full storyI was very pleased for the opportunity to attend our State Emergency Services headquarters in Menzies Street, Ingham last Tuesday to witness an incredible donation by Ergon, Energex and Powerlink of much-needed power equipment to our local SES units.
The donations included all modern appliances essential to our volunteers for undertaking their work in helping out our community in times of trouble—such as chainsaws, portable batteries, and other vital devices like blowers and heat guns.
The irony of the day was that all of the pertinent equipment donated was battery-powered, just showing how versatile, easy to use, and convenient battery-powered devices have become in our modern society. However, as was pointed out, batteries are good—very welcome and handy—but they still need to be charged from mains power somewhere.
On behalf of our SES units and our community, thank you very much to Ergon, Energex and Powerlink for your generosity. Our SES volunteers do a lot of heavy lifting and hard work in protecting and supporting our community, and every bit of equipment that can make life that little bit easier and lessen that load is appreciated.
Whilst on Ergon, I would like to take this opportunity to clarify one misnomer that continues to circulate in our community — and that is the belief that mains power into our district is restricted to, and only through, the Ingham substation.
The rhetoric is that if Ergon had other options in the electricity network, then the loss of power via the Ingham substation would not have been as bad as we all, unfortunately, experienced.
The fact is that Ergon does have the capacity to bypass the Ingham substation to supply the rural areas of our district. But unfortunately, that powerline was impacted by the disruptions that occurred at Ollera Creek, when power poles — as well as the bridge itself — were washed away.
I am extremely thankful for the effort of Ergon and all staff for getting the job done as quickly as they in fact did, given the extent of damage sustained to the network.