Researchers from Griffith University are looking to collect cell samples of every marine species on the planet with the launch of Australia’s first Marine Wildlife Cell Bank. 

Australian rivers institute marine ecologist and eco-toxicologist Dr Jason van de Merwe said the cell bank was established to address the lack of available marine wildlife cell cultures for research purposes. 

Police actions at a Refugee Solidarity Meanjin rally on Sunday at Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation Centre raised concerns by Action Ready legal observers. 

The Action Ready observers reported the Queensland Police Service had aggressively conducted over 20 ‘random spot compliance checks’ of driver licences, car regos, ‘random’ drug and alcohol swab testing at a peaceful protest area. 

Reportedly fines were threatened to protesters whose vehicles were only partially parked in no-standing areas as well as not wearing their seat belts ‘tight enough’.

A new major shopping precinct in Ipswich got the official green light by the city council.

The retail complex located in Yamanto will be built on a 15.7 hectare site, as a single storey development with 15 goods tenants, two food and drink outlets and over 500 car parks.

The project is expected to create over 400 jobs.

After a month filled with powerful storms, heavy showers and flooding, Perth is on track to break a 20 year rainfall record this week.

Meteorologists said the west coast needs just 3mm of rain today and that will make it the wettest July for the state since 2001. 

The record currently stands at 182.6mm of rain and with still a week left in this month, Perth is likely to exceed 200mm, well and truly above the current record.

A NSW court has fined a property developer and a demolition company a combined $155,000 over the illegal clearing of 21 trees to make way for a possible new boarding house in Sydney’s north-west suburbs.

The City of Parramatta Council launched legal action against developer Grand Epping in the NSW Land and Environment Court after a resident noticed the trees had been chopped down on the block of land in Epping.

Mayor Bob Dwyer said on Monday the case was a “win for the community” and “sends a message that illegal behaviour by developers will not be accepted”.

Jeff Bezos, the richest man on the planet, is preparing for a rocket powered, 11 minute excursion to the edge of space scheduled to kick off tonight after 10pm eastern standard time. 

Though the New Shepard capsule can carry up to 6 people, Mr Bezos is bringing just 3 others along on this extraordinary journey. They include his brother Mark Bezos, Wally funk, an 82 year old pilot, one of the Mercury 13 women, and an 18 year old recent high school graduate named Oliver Daemen.

More explicit and age appropriate education on consent and reporting sexual assaults will be delivered in Queensland schools following a state government review of its respectful relationships program. 

Education Minister Grace Grace ordered the review in March this year after Queensland student’s claims of sexual assault and rape were amoung thousand of anonymous testimonies published on a petition for better sex education. 

Veterinarian researchers from The University of Queensland are diagnosing the Hendra virus in horses quicker than before, by developing a diagnostic point-of-care kit capable of detecting pathogen in under an hour rather than days. 

The process involves taking samples from potentially infected horses and inactivates any virus which could be present in the samples. The non-infectious samples are then tested using a molecular diagnostics machine known as LAMP Genie III.