'Challenge' facing Schmidt over selection dilemma
We're sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We're working to restore it. Please try again later.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
11 minutes ago
- ABC News
Wheatbelt farmers retrieve German backpacker Carolina Wilga's van
Farmers in Western Australia's Wheatbelt have retrieved Carolina Wilga's abandoned van, weeks after the backpacker survived 12 days missing in the outback. Friends and family of the 26-year-old raised the alarm after she had not been heard from for some days. She was eventually found safe and well when she waved down a community member who happened to be driving along a rarely used track. She returned home to Germany after receiving initial medical treatment in Perth. But her Mitsubishi van remained bogged in the remote Karroun Hill Nature Reserve, where she abandoned it in a "state of confusion". Local farmer and bushfire brigade captain Andrew Sprigg chose to retrieve the vehicle so the bush was not "full of rubbish". With his farm one of the closest to the reserve, Mr Sprigg used his knowledge of the area to help retrieve the van. "I have ridden [around Karroun Hill reserve] many times, so am familiar with the area," he said. Mr Sprigg said the track was "very overgrown" with some "storm-fallen trees", which made the retrieval mission complex. The loader he used to move the vehicle was damaged by a stick through a tyre. "I ended up having to drive the loader 100 kilometres on the weekend," he said. "Took three days in total, with support from light vehicles and some bikes to find the best route." Given the difficulty, Mr Sprigg said there were moments he questioned why he was choosing to go through all of the effort. The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, which manages the removal of abandoned vehicles from WA reserves, thanked the brigade for its assistance. Ms Wilga's friends in WA are expected to collect the vehicle.
ABC News
41 minutes ago
- ABC News
Volunteer firefighter celebrates 40 years as brigade captain in Darwin's rural area
In the Noonamah bush on Darwin's rural outskirts, a rusty fire station stands on a plot of dry earth, flanked by paddocks and shrouded by bushland. The home of the Elizabeth Valley Volunteer Bushfire Brigade is a far cry from the slick red engines and shiny firefighter poles of popular imagination. Two dusty white utes and an Isuzu truck are parked across from a single-storey tin shed, while a 6,000-litre water tank stands like a monolith in the Top End sun. "The tank was one of the first things we put here," Brigade Captain Dianne "Di" Tynan said. "We had the barbecue first, and this was the next thing we set up." In 1985, a year after helping establish the volunteer brigade, Ms Tynan — a truck driver, wife, and mother of two — stepped up as captain. She celebrates 40 years in the role this month, having witnessed a drastically changed line of work and a radically different Northern Territory over the four decades. Earlier this year, as crowds flocked to Mindil Beach for Territory Day, Di Tynan was on Strauss Airstrip in Noonamah, mitigating the fallout of firecrackers rocketing into gamba grass. She's one of many volunteers who often arrive first on the scene and work closest to the action. "They're Territorians that volunteer their time to keep the rest of the territory safe, they don't get paid," Bushfires NT official Jeff Ryan said. "They elect their own leadership, volunteer their time, and make themselves available to respond to our requests as well as the requests of the community." Ms Tynan said the sense of local community was integral to establishing the brigade, even before they had the means to do much. "A lot of the people that were here originally were involved in some way or other," she said. For volunteers such as the Tynan family, firefighting was a family affair. "Back when we first started off, we'd take our two children, who were seven and eight," she said. "They'd done their homework in the vehicle and went to sleep in the vehicle. "They grew up knowing what fire was about, so when they were 16 [they were] able to enrol in the brigade. "I've given a few of the children around the area an enrolment form on their 16th birthday card." In the Elizabeth Valley fire station shed, volunteers can relax at the Mick Tynan Memorial Bar, named after Ms Tynan's late husband and brigade co-founder. It's not the only example of dedication that can be found around the ground. The station's foundational barbecue is dedicated to its maker, volunteer Gary Finlayson, and a plaque on one of the trailers is inscribed with thanks for a pro bono control burn. In 1993, Ms Tynan co-founded the NT Bushfire Volunteers Association and went on to represent the NT at the Council of Australia Volunteer Fire Associations. "A lot of people down south didn't think the territory knew much about fires, but I put them all straight," she chuckled. However, being from the Top End was far from Ms Tynan's biggest obstacle to feeling included in the firefighting scene. "The first meeting was really interesting when I rocked up — there was a woman!" she said. "The gentlemen who were the presidents of all the other associations were quite astonished. Though a point of frustration, the setback didn't stop her from helping develop national safety standards and increasing support for firefighting volunteers. Nowadays — with the standards raised and the local population bigger than ever — the greatest challenge Ms Tynan faces is recruitment. "You don't seem to be getting so many people involved in the brigade, I guess people have pretty hectic lives these days," she said. "A lot of people are petrified of fire, but there's more things to do than chase a roaring fire." While she's long grown wary of the danger, the risk of firefighting never goes away. Elizabeth Valley brigade's utility truck EV1 requires two different keys for the two front-seat doors, since one needed to be replaced after significant burns. Ms Tynan also noted the changing agricultural landscape, saying the dwindling size of agricultural lots poses a unique challenge for fighting fires. "In comparison to a big station that you can hopefully run a big fire break around, it's actually sometimes harder to control fire because you've only got a small area to move in," she said. She said the most important things to be aware of, however, hadn't changed a bit. "People need to be a bit more aware of the consequences of leaving a campfire smouldering, throwing cigarette butts out windows is another one, and burning piles of rubbish," she said. "There's a lot of people that have moved in around the area that aren't aware of what the consequences are.
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
How much beef does the US want to import to Australia?
56m ago 56 minutes ago Wed 30 Jul 2025 at 8:15pm Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Play Duration: 8 minutes 1 second 8 m
