Quolls born on Australian mainland in a landmark win

A program to reintroduce eastern quolls to mainland Australia has achieved success with 15 babies found in the pouches of three adult females.

Twenty eastern quolls bred in a wildlife park in Tasmania were released into the Booderee National Park on the NSW South Coast in March.

At first there were serious concerns the repopulation program would not succeed as a number of the marsupials became roadkill, or fell prey to foxes.

Syphilis epidemic spilling over

In the last six years, six babies have died in Queensland from syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease that was nearly eradicated in the early 2000s.

In 2008, two cases were diagnosed in Queensland, and in the decade since, more than 1,100 other cases have been recorded in the north of the state, with about 200 new presentations each year.

Tape/Off: Broadcast Park

- Brisbane four-piece Tape/Off are undeniably a pounding, guitar-heavy noise making outfit, but they are far from your standard grinding grunge or moshing metal band. Their brand new, sophomore album, Broadcast Park, is about to be unleashed – a full four years after Chipper, their debut full-length effort first hit the airwaves.

Australian pilots seriously injured in South African plane crash

Two people have died and three Australians, including two experienced Qantas pilots, have been injured in a plane crash in South Africa.

Video from the airport shows the 64-year-old plane, with 19 people on board, barely lift off the runway, with smoke pouring from one of its engines, crashing shortly after.

A South African technician on board was killed in the impact, and three people were injured on the ground, one later succumbing to their injuries.

Baptist Pastor told to get out

Baptist churches in North America are fundraising for a baptist pastor facing deportation to New Zealand after being charged for confronting worshipers at a mosque in Brisbane’s south this year.

Logan Robertson, who is in detention and fighting charges of public nuisance, had a GoFundMe page with ten thousand dollars in donations until it was shut down on Wednesday, earmarked for legal fees.

The Churches from Vancouver and California are trying to match the donations, as they believe Mr Robertson was “Telling the truth about Islam”.

Oldest living pigment is neon pink

Scientists from ANU have discovered the oldest surviving biological colours from rocks retrieved under the West Sahara Desert.

The 1.1 billion-year-old pigments have a bright pink hue, but range from blood red to deep purple in their concentrated form. The pigments are fossilised molecules of chlorophyll produced by sea organisms.

“Imagine you could find a fossilised dinosaur skin that still has its original colour, green or blue... that is exactly the type of discovery that we've made," Associate Professor Jochen Brocks said.

Government must listen to struggling communities

 

One of the Prime Ministers top advisors, David Gruen, warned that economically marginalised communities must be taken seriously or Australia will face a political backlash that threatens the established economic order.

Gruen, the deputy secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, was backed by Treasury secretary John Fraser on Wednesday, who added the market was failing to come up with solutions to inequality and the government must be prepared to deliver policy solutions.

Take down that gold plating

Queensland and other state governments are being urged to remove or devalue so called gold plating from electrical transmission networks, by The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

That would include a voluntary government write-down of the regulatory asset base in Queensland, Tasmania and for Essential Energy in NSW, and use of rebates on network charges in NSW.

It was estimated the write-downs and rebates could result in savings of $100 a year for the average residential customer.