Mabel Quakawoot at has been named 2021 Citizen of the Year. Mackay Australia Day Awards Gala Dinner. Picture: Tara Miko  If he s the measure of our next generation of adults, Mackay is in safe hands.  Young Citizen of the Year Emmett Withers started his charity Emmett 4 Animals when he was five years old and has gone on to help thousands of stray animals across the region. The other heartwarming moment of the night was hearing from last year s Lori Burgess Community Volunteer Award Kathryn Andrews. Speaking eloquently and passionately, she talked about how the disability sector, like many of us, had to find a way to explain the lockdown to their clients and find ways to maintain contact while we were in isolation.
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Subscriber only New data shows Mackay Whitsunday region rivers have the worst herbicide pollution throughout northern and central Queensland. The results come from samples taken from 11 sites covering the Wet Tropics at Cairns down to the Fitzroy region near Yeppoon, which tested for 26 herbicides and pesticides commonly used in agriculture. Repulse Bay, between Conway Beach and Midge Point, ranked in the highest percentiles for nine types of herbicides while Flat Top Island, not far off East Mackay, was in the highest percentiles for seven varieties - both topping the list for diuron. In line with previous monitoring years, diuron, atrazine and hexazinone were the most frequently detected and abundant of the pesticides at most sites, reflecting their high usage in sugar cane cultivation, which is located along much of the Great Barrier Reef coastline, the report by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority stated.
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A jetski owner had no reason to worry when he found himself stranded off Flat Top Island without power, thanks to his “meticulous” readiness.
Volunteer Marine Rescue Mackay volunteer Daryl Howland said they received the call for help at 9.50am and were at the man’s aid within the hour.
“He was not able to give us GPS coordinates as he had complete electrical failure,” Mr Howland said.
But Mr Howland said he did have everything else, including a VMR membership, tall antenna, two anchors, a medical kit, EPIRB, flares, marine radio and a smart-coloured backpack.
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Hundreds of Austrians, Italians and Slavonians migrating to Australia from the early 19th century were actually Croatians.
One of Mackay’s few Croatian migrants was instrumental to the building of Paxton’s Warehouse; his name was Joseph Vidulich.
Mr Vidulich arrived in Queensland in 1873 and worked as a seaman in Townsville before making the switch to boatbuilder and timber merchant, wrote Sutalo in