Latest news with #WollondillyShire
News.com.au
2 days ago
- News.com.au
Thirlmere, NSW: Man charged after ‘mystery explosions' rocked town for months
A man has been charged after a semirural town in Sydney's Macarthur region was rocked for months by a series of 'unknown explosion type noises at night'. The noises, centred around Thirlmere, prompted much public discussion over what the noises could be. Wollondilly Shire Mayor Matt Gould took to social media last week in response to community concerns. 'Over the last couple of months there have been a series of unknown explosion type noises at night that have been heard in Thirlmere and surrounding areas,' he said on July 29. 'This has understandably led to a fair few concerns and questions from residents so I wanted to try and give a quick update on the current state of play as far as these explosions and what we know. 'Unfortunately the short answer is we still don't have any idea what these explosions/noises actually are, although we think we've ruled out what some of what it isn't.' Mr Gould said council inquiries had ruled out activity on the rail lines or nearby coal mine and urged residents to report incidence of the 'bangs' to police. 'We're also not aware of any other kind of industrial or agricultural activity in the areas reporting these explosions that should be making these noises, certainly not at night and with the frequency they now seem to be happening,' he said. 'The scale of the area that seems to be hearing them is also far to big for fireworks or the like as well.' On Saturday, NSW Police said officers had been called to Estonian Rd in Thirlmere following reports of a 'large explosion'. The following day, investigators raided a Estonian Rd property where a 40-year-old man was arrested. He was later charged with one count of possess, supply or make explosive for unlawful purpose. 'A man has been charged following an investigation into reports of numerous alleged explosions being heard in the Thirlmere area,' a police spokesman said. 'Officers attached to Camden Police Area Command were made aware of reports from Wollondilly Council that explosions have been heard in the Thirlmere area over the past few months.' According to police a number of items were seized from the home, including gel blasters, stun devices, knives and a blow dart gun.
Daily Mail
25-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
The REAL truth behind those bizarre high-flying, jetsetting business claims of Mark Latham's porn star ex - and the address of one of her businesses will take your breath away
The two freight firms Mark Latham's ex-partner is credited with running appear impossible to contact and the 'principal place of business' for one of them is listed as the politician's home. ASIC has no publicly available records for Skynet Global Logistics, of which Nathalie Matthews says she is managing director, other than the name having been registered in October last year. NMF Services - the initials stand for Nathalie Matthews Freight - was registered in July last year with the 37-year-old recorded as director, secretary and sole shareholder. The principal place of business for NMF Services is the same address as Latham's five-bedroom home at Mount Hunter, about 80km south-west of Sydney in Wollondilly Shire. Ms Matthews had been living at that house before her spectacular May 27 break-up with Latham, which has resulted in her seeking an apprehended violence order against the NSW upper house independent MP. She claims in her AVO application that Latham inflicted 'a sustained pattern' of psychological, financial and emotional abuse on her over almost three years. Ms Matthews alleges the 64-year-old committed degrading acts including forcing her to have sex with other people and 'defecating on me before sex and refusing to let me wash'. Latham has denied abusing Ms Matthews in any way during what the former federal Labor leader has called a 'situationship' and a 'sexed-up, consensual, open arrangement'. Ms Matthews was previously an OnlyFans porn star who posted hundreds of sexually explicit images of herself on the user-pays site under the name Bondi C** S***. The onetime Liberal candidate for Sutherland Shire Council then quickly reinvented herself as an international entrepreneur with a particular focus on the United Arab Emirates. The Skynet Global Logistics 'head office' is in a shared workspace above the Westfield shopping centre in Oxford Street, Bondi Junction, where a desk can be rented for $825 a month. The phone number at that office is not connected and a secondary Perth office, which is a workspace in Capital Square Tower 3 on Spring Street, does not have a landline. The NMF Services website boasts its headquarters are in the United Arab Emirates and the listed address is another shared workspace, on Dubai's Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Boulevard in Dubai. Daily Mail Australia had no response after sending messages to the email addresses for either Skynet Global Logistics or NMF Services and got no answer ringing the Dubai number. Ms Matthews describes Skynet Logistics on LinkedIn as a freight forwarding company specialising in coordinating and organising the movement of goods across air, sea, rail and road. 'With 15 years of experience in international logistics, we provide comprehensive freight solutions that connect businesses worldwide,' the company website states. 'Our expertise in global trade and commitment to excellence makes us your ideal logistics partner.' NMF Services, according to its website, is 'a leading freight forwarding and logistics company based in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates'. 'We provide Ocean and Air freight services globally and Land Transportation for all your imports and exports,' Ms Matthews states. Ms Matthews declined to comment on Skynet Global Logistics or NMF Services but it is understood she has told friends she is 'stepping back' from both operations while her court case is ongoing. Daily Mail Australia revealed on Thursday that Ms Matthews converted to Islam in November 2022 and adopted the Muslim name Maryam Abdullah. A 'Certificate of Declaring Islam' issued by the United Arab Emirates shows Ms Matthews using her date of birth and maiden name Darrough to formally embrace the religion. A demure picture of Ms Matthews wearing a hijab appears at the top of the certificate which lists her previous religion as Christian. The document welcomes Ms Matthews into the Islamic fold with the induction: 'We praise Allah who guided her to Islam so she should adhere to the rulings of Allah and abstain from the forbidden.' Among acts forbidden by Islam are fornication - consensual sex between two people who are not married - while gambling and drinking alcohol are frowned upon. A Certificate of Islam is not required for a person to become a Muslim but some organisations provide an official document for legal or travel purposes. To gain such a certificate in the Muslim-majority UAE a convert must provide a valid passport, other identification, and one personal photo in which a woman should be wearing a hijab. Ms Matthews declined to comment on Wednesday night why she converted to Islam or whether she still considered herself to be Muslim. To become a Muslim, Ms Matthews would have recited the Shahada: 'I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.' Her LinkedIn profile says she has advised for Compass Logistics International, managing and developing trade between Australia and the Gulf Cooperational Council, for the past 19 months. LinkedIn also shows Ms Matthews has been a freelance host of Import Export TV - '[the] world's first and only channel dedicated to international trade and global supply chains' - since 2023. Ms Matthews states 'over the past few years' she has been working across the UAE and Australia 'helping to build companies, launch ventures, and unlock opportunities'. With a background in the freight industry, Ms Matthews gained a Bachelor of Business from Southern Cross University in 2009 and an MBA from the Australian Institute of Business in 2015. As Nathalie May Darrough she married British-born Ross David Matthews about seven years ago but the pair reportedly parted ways in 2022. Police are now seeking an apprehended violence order to protect Ms Matthews from her ex-husband, who has pleaded not guilty to using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend. Daily Mail Australia revealed on Wednesday that Ms Matthews had previously been in a relationship with a man she met through the transport and logistics industry who was about 20 years older than her. After they broke up, police sought an AVO against Ms Matthews - as Nathalie Darrough - to protect the man but in June 2015 the application was withdrawn. In February 2018, Ms Matthews - still known as Darrough - pleaded guilty to shoplifting from the Camilla fashion boutique at Westfield Miranda in Sydney's south. She was placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond without conviction and ordered to pay $449 to the store. Daily Mail Australia is also not suggesting any wrongdoing by Latham, only that Ms Matthews has made allegations against him as part of applying for an AVO. That application is listed for mention at Downing Centre Local Court on July 30.
ABC News
28-05-2025
- Climate
- ABC News
Shallow magnitude 3.5 earthquake recorded near Appin, south-west of Sydney
A shallow magnitude 3.5 earthquake has been recorded near Appin, south-west of Sydney. The earthquake was felt at 2:53pm this afternoon, striking at a depth of two kilometres. Geoscience Australia senior seismologist Dr Jonathan Bathgate said an earthquake of this size was relatively small but was strong enough to be felt throughout the region. "It would have been quite short in terms of its duration of shaking but certainly people have felt it around the region," Dr Bathgate said. "Often people hear it more than they feel it with these sorts of magnitudes. Generally there's a short, sharp jolt at magnitude 3." Geoscience Australia's website shows hundreds of "felt reports" with the earthquake appearing to originate from an area near Appin in the Wollondilly Shire. "We have certainly got a lot of reports to the National Earthquake Alert Centre in Canberra from the southern suburbs of Sydney, not so much in the north," Dr Bathgate said. Callers to Sydney radio have told of their experience, including Savana from Camden who said she was working from home when she felt her whole house shake. Others on social media reported feeling the tremor at Spring Farm and Coledale. Geoscience Australia said the earthquake was not a mine blast. "It is difficult to say whether it is mining related or not at these sorts of magnitudes," he said. "At this stage it looks like normal seismic activity we have been recording there for a number of years." The NSW State Emergency Service said there have been no reports of damage.
ABC News
22-05-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Douglas Park residents fight as developer reduces capacity of cemetery
Plans to bury tens of thousands of dead in a rural community outside of Sydney to address the city's cemetery shortage have been scaled back by the developer by almost half. HT Building Pty Ltd has lodged a revised concept plan with the NSW Department of Planning Housing and Infrastructure (DPHI) for a new multi-denominational cemetery and crematorium at Douglas Park, about a 40-minute drive north-west of Wollongong. Douglas Park Memorial Park is currently being assessed as a State Significant Development (SSD), however the proponent told the ABC it had now adjusted the number of burial plots outlined in its 2024 application from 69,759 to 37,000. The Gilead-based company said a number of site studies including environmental heritage, waste management and infrastructure highlighted the need to reduce the cemetery's capacity. "[This] has been informed by the completion of these technical studies and consultation with the government's State Design Review Panel," the company said. "The crematorium remains part of the proposal for a later stage [of the development], and there will be dedicated consultation for this and all later stages of the project." The revised concept plan, yet to be made public, is the third time the developer has changed the cemetery's size despite calls from Wollondilly Shire Council and the community to relocate or scrap the project. "The amendments make no difference," said Tracey McConchie, who lives metres from the site. Building Douglas Park Memorial Park, on a nearly 17,000 square-metre irregular block owned by Benima Pty Ltd, was first earmarked seven years ago. But dozens of residents like Ms McConchie said it was the wrong site for the multi-million-dollar development. "[The site] is basically a sandstone rock shelf. [The developer] would have to use a rock whipping process to basically manufacture soil to a depth to bury bodies," Ms McConchie said. Five years ago, despite strong opposition from the community and council, Wollondilly's Local Planning Panel approved the first blueprint for Douglas Park Memorial Park at 27,784 burial plots. That capacity was almost tripled by the developer last year, alongside plans to offer funeral services daily using a crematorium and chapel. In its 2024 scoping report the developer said increasing the number of burial plots "responds to the need for cemeteries in NSW" as evidenced in the 11th Hour report which found public cemeteries in Sydney would close to new burials in a decade. "But we are on the outskirts of the [Sydney] region … and Wollondilly Shire itself is well supplied into the future, even with increases in the population," Ms McConchie said. She also said a crematorium close to people's homes was "inappropriate" and raised health concerns. To access the cemetery, cars would have to use either the Hume Highway or a windy, one-way route over the Nepean River known as The Gorge which Deputy Mayor Matthew Deeth said "doesn't make sense". "We're not seeing the local infrastructure plans for the road networks being ready in time to not only take this type of development, but also the surrounding development of Wilton and Appin," Cr Deeth said. He said if the DPHI approved the cemetery the road network would reach a "failure point". When Paul Grierson learnt the Douglas Park cemetery would be assessed as an SSD he sold his "dream home" and moved to nearby Picton. "I just didn't have another two years of fighting in me," Mr Grierson said. "I don't want to live with a cemetery, and it's going to happen at some level." He is one of about four households who no longer live near Douglas Park Drive, partly because of the proposal. Ms McConchie said "it's a very unfair [and] sad outcome" for the community. Wollondilly Shire Council is currently reviewing whether developments like cemeteries should be built on rural land in the future. If any amendments are made to the Local Environmental Plan (LEP), like prohibiting cemeteries in rural zones, the council told the ABC it would only affect development applications lodged after the change is made. HT Building Pty Ltd said the amended concept plan would be available for public comment in the coming months.
