Vanuatu's battle at the World Court: The verdict that could determine the future of our planet
Independent news and stories connecting you to life in Australia and German-speaking Australians. Discover extraordinary books that will make a difference in your child's life.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
2 hours ago
- ABC News
Tumby Bay newspaper deliverer to retire after 20 years of serving town 'rail, hail or shine'
When Wendy Russ tosses her last newspaper at the end of the month it will be the end of an era in Tumby Bay. She has been the unofficial neighbourhood watch angel of the seaside town for about 20 years — the eyes and ears of the community in the dark of pre-dawn. Ms Russ scooted around town in her little two-door hatchback with its "Toss" number plate, delivering newspapers seven days a week, every day of the year except Christmas Day. There will be no more home newspaper deliveries in Tumby Bay after Ms Russ retires. Her delivery service was the last one to operate in a small town on the Eyre Peninsula — however, deliveries will continue in the regional centre of Port Lincoln. Every day for the past 20 years, Ms Russ has risen at 4:30am to start her deliveries, and in that time, she has only had three short breaks — two of them for medical reasons. "Once was when I tore the tendons in my shoulder [throwing a paper]" she said. Thirty-eight per cent of Tumby Bay's adult population is retirement age, with the town boasting 108 people over the age of 85 at the 2021 Census. Shirley Bierwirth, 89, remembers having the newspaper delivered over the fence as a child and reads it daily. She said Ms Russ did more than deliver her newspaper. "She's been wonderful, when she saw me struggling to get the paper because I can't walk too well, she now comes right into the drive to drop the paper at my door," Mrs Bierwirth said. Ms Russ has organised a volunteer to pick up papers from the shop for Mrs Bierwirth and other close-by neighbours. "If they don't get Meals on Wheels, no-one sees them but if they get the paper every day, if I toss the paper, and I still see it there in the afternoon, I know something's wrong. "I'll pop in or I'll ring one of the family and say, 'Is Mum alright? The paper's still out on the lawn', and they'll ring them and make sure things are okay." Her early morning check-ins helped save another woman's life. "I saw her light on and knocked and opened up the door, and there she was on the floor, and she'd been there all night," Ms Russ said. "She'd fallen over at 5:30 the night before, and she couldn't get up, she'd broken her hip. "She kept saying to me, 'You've saved my life.' "It's lovely to have helped someone." Ms Russ has reached retirement age, and so has the unviable business. "When I first started, I needed room in my car for 525 Sunday Mails, and now I'm down to 120 papers for the whole town — that's how much it's dropped off," she said. Her customer base halved when the freight changed from air to road, and the paper price went up by a dollar. "That really affected our newspaper sales — my round dropped in half in two weeks, so I went from 150 customers down to about 60 customers and it never picked up," she said. "Because most of my customers are in their 70s or 80s or 90s or hundreds — I don't get them replaced when they pass over. She said the younger generation relied on social media news alerts. "They don't want to sit and read about the whole story and the 50, 60-year-olds, they go digital and read it on their laptops," she said. There was no question of anyone buying the paper round. "I couldn't fudge those figures — it's just not viable," Ms Russ said. "It's really been running as a charity for the past year." She only earns 50 cents for each of the 30 papers she tosses daily (earning $15 a day), and 25c each for the 100 or so papers she drops at the newsagency. "No one wants to get up at half past four in the morning to do an hour's work tossing 30-odd papers." The 22-kilometre Tumby Bay round takes her an hour to do, with her trusted dog Rusty in the back of the car barking if she misses a house — a bit of a nuisance when a family is on holidays. She has mastered her toss technique and has only landed two on roofs, after the wind took them. The only other mishap was hitting the local doctor with the paper once. Ms Russ is looking forward to sleeping in and working in her garden. She will also be popping in to see many of the customers for a cuppa, just to check they're OK.
Daily Telegraph
11 hours ago
- Daily Telegraph
Humpbacks swim into tiny Shellharbour bay
Don't miss out on the headlines from Animals. Followed categories will be added to My News. Eight humpback whales on a heat hunt in a small bay along the NSW coastline have been captured in rare footage by a marine mammal rescue volunteer. Ty Peters spends four days a week during June monitoring whales off the Illawarra coast for Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia (ORRCA), an Australian not-for-profit dedicated to saving marine mammals. He headed down to Bass Point Reserve in Shellharbour, south of Sydney, about 10am on Monday and witnessed seven males chasing a juvenile female into Bush Rangers Bay. Mr Peters said when female humpbacks are on heat the males chase them and while that is relatively common, what was not common was the bay they swam into. ORRCA volunteer Ty Peters captured rare footage of humpback whales on a heat hunt in Bush Ranger Bay near Shellharbour, about 115kms south of Sydney. Picture: Ty Peters 'We occasionally get one solitary whale going in there and investigating but to my knowledge that's the first time we've ever had a heat run go into the bay,' he said. 'Getting eight whales in that confined bay is pretty wild.' Mr Peters said what the drones did not capture was the incredible noise that came from the whales as they hunted down the female. 'The whales have got a really deep sound and it vibrates through your chest,' he said. 'They exert a lot of energy, which makes them get out of breath quite quick so their sound is deep. 'Then you've got the slapping of the tails and the pectoral fins, imagine dropping your front door just flat onto ground, you get that sound almost like a cannon launch.' ORRCA volunteer Ty Peters said it was rare to see eight humpbacks in Bush Rangers Bay, which is about 75m across at its widest and 200m long. Picture: Ty Peters Mr Peters said about 40,000 humpback whales swim past Australia's east coast each year, along with southern right whales, minkes, false killers and others. He said they sighted about 150 whales a day if the conditions were right for the huge mammals to migrate north to Queensland. 'If the currents are pushing north then they don't have to do a lot of work, which means they don't exert a lot of energy and don't have to breathe as heavy, they just cruise,' he said. 'If the ocean is flat then you don't get water splashing into the blowhole so they're very hard to spot then, whereas, if they're having to exert themselves a little bit more than they're taking deeper breaths. 'If it's a little bit choppy, then they're doing bigger blows to clear the air.' About 40,000 humpback whales swim past Australia's east coast each year, along with southern rights, minkes, false killers and others. Picture: Ty Peters Mr Peters said one of the best vantage points to see the whales was along the Illawarra coastline and people could help ORRCA monitor the mammals swim past on their 2025 Whales Census Day on June 29 by registering at 'Whales are a protected species so there is 100m exclusion zone around whales for all watercraft and drones,' he said. 'We have quite a lot of problems with people coming in and flying 10ft above them. Originally published as ORRCA volunteer captures rare footage of six humpbacks on a heat hunt in a tiny bay along Shellharbour's coastline
ABC News
14 hours ago
- ABC News
The Business: Australia's most valuable export, iron ore, is getting much less valuable
ABC iview Home Watch all your favourite ABC programs on ABC iview. More from ABC We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work.
