Premium Content
Subscriber only
Mayor Greg Williamson is in talks about a potential quarantine hub in the Mackay Whitsunday region to deliver desperately needed fruit pickers from overseas to work on farms.
Cr Williamson held a meeting with Whitsunday, Townsville and Cairns mayors on Monday to discuss the issue, with talks ongoing.
“All of the mayors – Whitsunday, Townsville and Cairns – we’re all concerned about making sure that we have enough facilities available, particularly in North Queensland, to get us through this hump,” he said.
“Because tomatoes, capsicum – all those things will be very expensive if we can’t get them off the fields.”
Premium Content
Subscriber only
Future job seekers in the agricultural sector will need to know their way around a computer rather than a tractor if they want a long career in the industry.
Thatâs the message from Greater Whitsunday Alliance chief executive Kylie Porter, who said the pandemic had refocused attention on the critical need for places such as Mackay to produce and manufacture onshore.
The federal government will deliver a $10m funding injection in these new projects under the Regional Recovery Partnerships program to drive the regionâs recovery from COVID-19.
The projects include an upgrade of the Biocommodities Pilot Plant in Mackay, a new Aquaculture and Agriculture Tech Skills Hub for the Whitsunday region and delivery of stage 2 of the Clermont Saleyards and Showgrounds Revitalisation.
Premium Content
Subscriber only
Bookmark this article, save it and send it to your friends and family for it will become your go-to guide for what’s on for the rest of the year.
There are more than 200 events on the list, all in date order with still more to come.
If you know an event that should be on the list, email heidi.petith@news.com.au
This list will be updated as more events are announced so make sure to keep check on what’s happening, right here.
MAY
Mackay Roadshow by Audi Centre Townsville
When: 9.30am to 5pm, Wednesday, May 19 to Saturday, May 22 as well as 9.30am to 1pm on Sunday, May 23
Premium Content
Subscriber only
Three new major projects in the Mackay Isaac Whitsunday set to boost jobs and the economy have been revealed.
The federal government will announce on Wednesday a $10m funding injection in three new projects under the Regional Recovery Partnerships program to drive the region’s recovery from COVID-19.
These projects include an upgrade of the Biocommodities Pilot Plant in Mackay, a new Aquaculture and Agriculture Tech Skills Hub for the Whitsunday region and delivery of stage 2 of the Clermont Saleyards and Showgrounds Revitalisation.
The federal and Queensland governments have identified these projects as high priority.
Dawson MP George Christensen said the Whitsunday-based Tech Skills Hub would deliver ag-tech programs and training to boost the sugar cane, beef, aquaculture and horticulture industries.
Premium Content
Subscriber only
A new report found the Mackay Isaac Whitsunday region and Central Queensland had among the highest rates of non-natural child deaths in the state between 2014 and 2018.
The ‘Counting lives, changing patterns’ report was tabled in Queensland Parliament this week and explored findings from the Queensland Child Death Register from 2004 to 2019.
It found the five statistical areas with the highest rate of external cause deaths (deaths from injury, poisoning or other adverse events) between 2014 and 2018 were Outback Queensland, Darling Downs – Maranoa, Cairns, Mackay – Isaac – Whitsunday and Central Queensland.
In Mackay, these external deaths included transport, drowning, other non-intentional injury, suicide and fatal assault and neglect.