In March we farewelled the late, great Bret Currie. Bret was the North West Star's cartoonist for many years. He had died suddenly at his home on Saturday, February 27. He was just 60 years old.For the best part of four decades, Bret had been seeing the funny side of Mount Isa, usually as soon as he scrubbed up after emerging from underground.As far back as 1999, the North West Star reported Bret was leaving the mines to concentrate on his artwork. But he always kept coming back. He juggled life in the mine and in the studio for rest of his life. He was as Mount Isa as they come.
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Local women were recognised for their extraordinary achievements at Zonta's International Women' Day dinner. The 2021 Woman of Achievement was presented to long standing Mount Isa resident Rowena Paine-Murphy. Rowena has been active in the Mount Isa and District Pony Club, Mount Isa Campdraft and Mount Isa Show Society. The 2021 Young Woman of Achievement Award was presented to Spinifex State College school captain, Brooke Troxell for her volunteer work at Mount Isa Fishing classic, rodeo ball, and many fetes, festivals, fundraisers and events.
Karumba's Barramundi Discovery Centre won two of the 15 national accolades at the 2020 Grey Nomad Awards, announced at a dinner on the Sunshine Coast Tuesday night. The Grey Nomad Awards is a niche tourism excellence program that shines a light on the best stays, attractions, tours and events on offer for older travellers throughout regional Australia and the Barra Discovery Centre took out Gold Winner Best Grey Nomad Attraction or Tour.
Commerce North West welcomed a new president, following an AGM in March. Emma Harman was elected president, one of many changes to the board of directors. Alongside Ms Harman, Jessica James was elected as the new secretary, Joe Castellano as continuing treasurer and other board members included Brian Atherinos, Bernie Harnett, Justine Cole and Chris Boshoff.
Mount Isa health care workers received their first jab of the AstraZeneca vaccine, commencing the roll out in North West Queensland.The COVID-19 Vaccination Hub opened at Mount Isa Hospital on Tuesday March 16, with several health care workers taking the opportunity to get vaccinated. Doctor Don Bowley OAM from the Royal Flying Doctor Service was the first in Mount Isa to be administered the vaccine.
Victorian man David Campbell is officially the new bard of the Australian Outback. Cloncurry Shire Council congratulated Mr Campbell as the winner of the first Cloncurry Prize ~ Spirit of the Outback poetry competition announced at an official event at Chinaman Creek Dam on Monday evening. Mr Campbell took out the $10,000 first prize in the national competition, launched in December 2020 ahead of over 220 poems from writers all over Australia. Mr Campbell's, 'The Heart and Soul of Australia', impressed the judges by capturing the essence of the Outback.
Former Mount Isa Mayor and National party MP Angelo Bertoni died in April aged 87. Mr Bertoni was mayor of Mount Isa City Council from 1973 to 1975. He owned a pharmacy in Brisbane from 1956 until 1961 before moving to Mount Isa where he also owned pharmacies. While mayor of Mount Isa he won the state seat of Mount Isa for the National Party at the 1974 Queensland state election and held it until 1983. He was the Minister for Health for three months in 1983 until he was defeated at that election by Labor's Bill Price. His funeral was in Brisbane on Friday, April 9.
The APA Group commissioned a third gas-fired power station in Mount Isa. To be called the Thomson Power Station, it will provide another 18-megawatts of gas-fired power generation into the region.
Cungelella Art have been reaching new heights and Instagram has been key to their success. It is the brainchild of Kalkadoon artist Glenda McCulloch but it's a family affair with her three sisters Jaunita Doyle, Dale Bruce and Cheryl Perez. Following a collaboration with the fashion label Deadly Denim Cungelella Art designs are appearing on the catwalk of New York fashion week. Deadly Denim's owner Rebecca Rickard showcased their work in the Big Apple in an exhibit called 'Our Country'.
North West Hospital and Health Service say people need to make an informed decision as the North West rollout began remote access. The plan to rollout vaccines suffered a blow after federal government health advice for people under 50 to use the Pfizer vaccine after testing found four to six cases of blood clots per million AstraZeneca vaccine doses. NWHHS CEO Dr Karen Murphy said the decision impacted their rollout plans which were based on the AstraZeneca vaccine but their priority remained keeping staff and residents as safe as possible.
The Federal environment department approved Multicom's Saint Elmo project which plans to mine for vanadium near Julia Creek. The approval granted by the department is "to construct, operate and rehabilitate a vanadium mine and associated infrastructure". The decision is an important marker towards financial close for the $470m project expected to begin in the next two years.
The 106th Anzac Day saw a return of a large crowd to the Mount Isa Cenotaph after the forced cancellation of public events in 2020. After the Mount Isa dawn service attracted almost two thousand people, hundreds more lined up every vantage point on West St as the traditional pre-main service parade took a new and shorter route to the Cenotaph.
Mount Isa was in chaos on April 23 after a five hour power outage which affected all of North West Queensland with 10,000 customers without power. Fuel operators and cafes and bars had to close their doors losing revenue. The fault was at Diamantina Power Station and owners APA blamed "transmission switchyard equipment failure". The failures prompted a call from Bob Katter for approval for the CopperString project to connect the North West to the National Electricity Market.
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
