2019 May 9 Rur.Pol

COMMUNITY NEWS riod of time and have been anxiously waiting to be collected by their owners.

Drink driver, Innisfail: Police intercepted a 36-year-old Hudson woman around 3am on Thursday morning for a roadside breath test.

As a result of the test, the woman was transported to Innisfail Police Station for further testing.

It will be alleged the woman returned a reading of 0.118 per cent BAC. Her licence was suspended and she is scheduled to appear at the Innisfail Magistrates Court on May 27.

Traffic offence, Boogan: Officers from the Innisfail Road Policing Unit intercepted a 21-year-old Tully man around 4pm Wednesday afternoon on South Johnstone Road.

It will be alleged he was travelling at 100km/h in an 80km/h zone, whilst he was using a mobile phone.

He was issued with three infringement notices totalling $904 and nine demerit points for failing to signal intention to change direction, exceed speed and driver use hand held mobile phone.

Drink driver, Tully: Tully police intercepted a 36-yearold Birkalla woman on Bryant Street around 11pm on Tuesday night.

It will be alleged she returned a reading of 0.155 per cent BAC. As a result, the woman was issued with a Notice to Appear for driving unlicensed and drink driving.

She is scheduled to appear at the Tully Magistrates Court on May 9.

Lost property, Innisfail: The pictured items have been left at a Rankin Street supermarket over a pe-

Unfortunately no one has claimed their lost items from the supermarket and they have now been safely placed in the Innisfail Police property room.

If you recognise any of these items or know someone who has stated they have lost items, please contact the Innisfail Police property section on 4061 5777 between the hours of 8am and 4pm, Monday to Friday, and quote reference number QP1900855086.

Please note that proof of ownership may be required Speeding, Vasa Views: A 27-year-old South Johnstone woman was issued with a $435 infringement notice and four demerit points on Thursday afternoon.

It will be alleged the woman was intercepted at 5pm on the Bruce highway allegedly travelling at 121km/h in a 100km/h zone.

Driver detected using a hand held mobile phone, Mourilyan: A 29-year-old Kurrimine Beach, man was allegedly detected driving along the Bruce highway whilst using a hand held mobile phone.

He was issued with three demerit points and a $391 infringement notice.

Traffic offence, Innisfail: A 23-yearold local man was issued with a $417 traffic infringement notice on May 2.

It will be alleged the man has deliberately spun the tyres on the car he was driving in order to make unnecessary noise and smoke from the vehi-

Child restraints JANE MORAN | SENIOR CONSTABLE | CASSOWARY COAST CRIME PREVENTION | CHILD restraints When driving with children up to 7 years of age, you must ensure they are restrained in a properly fastened and adjusted Australian Standard (AS) approved child restraint.

Driving includes when the vehicle is moving or stationary (for example, when stopped at traffic lights), but not when parked.

It is recommend you use a child restraint that is less than 10 years old. The restraint will have a sticker showing approval and a date stamp for when the restraint was manufactured.

Don’t use a child restraint that has been in a crash. If you use a second hand child restraint, get a copy of the manufacturer’s instructions, so you understand how to use it safely.

Penalties In addition to the safety risks, if a child is not in an approved child restraint that is properly fastened and adjusted, you can be fined $378 and incur 3 demerit points for each child that is not properly restrained. Double demerit points will apply for second or subsequent child restraint or seatbelt offences committed within 1 year after an earlier offence.

Where children should sit Babies and children up to 4 years old must not sit in the front seat Children aged 4 and up to 7 years can only sit in the front seat if all other seats are occupied by children under 7 years of age Children 7 years and over can sit in the front seat.

Page 8 Cassowary Coast Independent News, Thursday, May 9, 2019

cle whilst he was turning onto Ernest Street around 6pm on April 15.

Charges, Carmoo: A 45-year-old Carmoo man was charged with wilful damage, unlawful possession of a weapon, possession or use of a weapon under the influence of liquor or drug, fail to take reasonable care or precautions in respect of a syringe, drive U.I.L. Around 6pm Sunday, he has been involved in an argument with another man at a Tully Mission Beach road address.

It will be alleged he has driving off in a vehicle, and has returned and smashed the man’s phone, assaulted him, and taken a firearm.

Upon police arrival, he handed the firearm to police and was taken into custody.

He is scheduled to appear at the Innisfail Magistrates Court today.

Vehicle stealing charge, Innisfail: A 20-year-old Mighell man was charged with unlawful use of a motor vehicle.

It will be alleged he has gained entry to the vehicle that was parked on Schue Street, which was unlocked with the keys in the ignition around 4am Sunday morning.

The vehicle was located on Coronation Drive, the man was located later in the day and taken into custody.

He is scheduled to appear at the Innisfail Magistrates Court later today.

High end speeding, Kennedy: Two motorists were detected on Sunday, allegedly travelling in excess of 40km/h on the Bruce Highway, Kennedy.

A 19-year-old Manunda man was intercepted around 11.50am where it will be alleged he was travelling at 160km/h in a 100km/h zone.

The second man, a 19-year-old Edge Hill man was intercepted around 12.15pm where it was reported he was travelling at 127km/h in an 80km/h zone.

Both men were issued with $1,218 infringement notices and advised of a high speed suspension.

Drink Driver, Mission Beach: A 46-year-old Carmoo woman was intercepted on Tully Mission Beach Road around 8pm for a Roadside Breath Test.

As a result of the test, the woman was transported to Mission Beach Police Station where it will be alleged she returned a reading of 0.122 per cent BAC. Her licence was suspended and she is scheduled to appear at the Tully Magistrates Court on May 30.

High end speeding, Maria Creek: Mission Beach Police intercepted a 28-year-old Feluga man around 9pm Tuesday evening.

It will be alleged he was travelling along the Bruce Highway at 141km/h in a 100km/h zone.

He was issued with a $1,218 traffic infringement notice.

If you have information for police, contact Policelink on 131 444 or provide information using the online form 24hrs per day.

You can report information about crime anonymously to Crime Stoppers, a registered charity and community volunteer organisation, by calling 1800 333 000 or via crimestoppersqld. com.au 24hrs per day.

Tribunal Finds Against Mayor and Two CCRC Councillors

CCRC Correspondent

DOMINIC MOBBS Mayor Kremastos, plus Councillors Baines and Taylor recently received adverse findings from the Councillor Conduct Tribunal following complaints lodged against them.

They will all be required to make public admissions that they engaged in misconduct and make small monetary penalty payments to Council.

Mayor Kremastos and Cr. Taylor were found to have failed to ensure their register of interests was accurate in relation to their recording of their membership of the Cassowary Coast Unity Association.

Mayor Kremastos and Cr. Taylor will need to make payments for this discretion of $100 each.

They were also found to have to have failed to inform a November 8, 2018 Council Asset Sustainability Committee meeting of a personal interest when a contract was awarded to a company whose principal donated $200 to the Unity 2016 electoral campaign.

In this case, Cr. Taylor is required to make an additional $100 monetary sanction.

The Tribunal ruled no payment was necessary for Mayor Kremastos given there were mitigating circumstances.

He took appropriate steps to have the matter dealt with by the acting CEO after identifying within 24 hours the failure to declare the conflict of interest.

Cr Baines also failed to declare a conflict of interest regarding the same tender at the same meeting.

He also will need to make a public admission of his misconduct at an ordinary meeting of Council and make a $100 payment.

The views and comments made by correspondents and submitted to CCIN are not necessarily the views and opinions of this paper. The Cassowary Coast Independent News reserves the right to cut content deemed as inappropriate. Please send your articles to: editor@ccin.com.au or management@ccin.com.au

RURAL REPORT

Green Shirts Movement in Murray Upper SARI HYYTINEN The Queensland Green shirts Movement is gaining numbers rapidly, despite still being in the process of finalizing their incorporation process as an organisation. In the last few weeks they have been able to register memberships with the group, and hundreds of supporters have registered. Over the last year that they have been forming, thirty thousand supporters have been following them on social media.

Despite the last-minute notice, 41 farmers gathered at Murray Upper on Peter Jackson’s shed to listen to Marty Bella talk about the Green Shirts Movement.

“We decided that we needed an organisation to give rural and regional Queensland a voice,” said Marty Bella, the Green Shirts National Coordinator.

After observing concerns for different parts of the farming community, “We’ve looked at and we have been pretty hard on government about medical closures, closures of maternity wards and closures of Ag colleges.

Also, what we are trying to do is not compete with other existing bodies,” said Marty.

The Green Shirts have had voices on the ground to help walk alongside our rural communities that have been struggling with different concerns based on their industry.

They had members present when hundreds of vegan activists stormed farms in rural Queensland.

“We had people with profiles who are on the vegan sites prior to the invasions that occurred down south. We gathered information, we had people that met at the meet point and gave information to the police to assist with the prosecution of those individuals. We are very much on the ground. We are not standing there pointing the finger we are getting in there and doing the hard work,” said Marty.

In the current political environment with the election being called, the Green Shirts have chosen to not be apolitical when it comes to this year’s candidates for the election. “At this present point we are asking people on the Conservative side of politics to put Labor and Greens last at both the federal and state level,” said Marty.

Cane Flowering

THIS time of year, with some cooler morning following wet conditions, it is likely we will see some cane flowering.

Sugar Cane doesn’t always flower. In fact, from a commercial point of view we don’t want it to flower too early because it means the crop has gone from a growing phase to reproductive phase. In other words, it stops growing. Plants in general are stimulated to flower by many factors, such as the amount of sunlight, or stress from lack of moisture or low temperatures.

Many fruit trees like stone fruit for instance need a period of cold weather to initiate flowering, a process called vernalization. In the case of stone fruit, most need around 600-800 hours of really cold weather to start flowering, which is why they thrive in cold climates. (In the tropics we can get tropical stone fruit which need a lot less cold weather, around 250300 hours to flower.)

Cane is a grass though, not a fruit tree, so to make it flower we need shorter days with less sunlight and temperatures around 20-25 degrees Celsius. During the month of April, Tully had just 2 days without some rain event, so basically there was plenty of overcast days and now we are approaching winter, the days are getting shorter with cooler nights.

The sugar cane flower is known as an inflorescence or arrow, hence the common name for cane flowering is ‘arrow-

ing”. Inside the arrow there are thousands of tiny flowers, each capable of producing a seed. These seeds are tiny, so small that it takes about 250 to weigh a gram.

Cane plant breeders use these tiny seeds to form crosses between varieties.

This is done at the SRA plant briefing station at Meringa just south of Cairns.

Several of our varieties will flower more than others and it is safe bet if you see flowing or arrowing over the next few weeks in some cane fields now the shorter days have arrived.

On another note, last week the annual Australian Society of Sugarcane Technologists (ASSCT) conference was held, this time in Toowoomba. A small component from Tully attended and delivered papers at the conference, including local SRA researcher Dr Danielle Skocaj who was a joint recipient of the prestigious President’s medal for her contribution to research in the Sugar industry. This award is totally deserved and it was great to see one of our colleagues being recognized in such a way.

Danielle’s research isn’t on flowering though,(plenty of work has been done on that already), her work centres on Nutrient use and soil health research, vital work for our industries future sustainability and we are fortunate to have such dedicated researcher based right here in the wet tropics.

Tully based SRA researcher Dr Danielle Skocaj , the joint recipient of the 2019 ASSCT Presidents medal

Marty Bella the Green Shirts National Coordinator out in front of Peter Jacksons shed in Murray Upper where the farmers are gathering for a discussion.

Local dealer wins Council tractor contract

Pictured at the tractor delivery at Spearman Diesel Fitting are, from left, CCRC tractor operator Peter Curry, Fleet Manager Adrian Stitt, Cr Rick Taylor, tractor operator Graham Kohn, Spearman Diesel staff Luke Smith, Phillip Wells, Liam Bosel and Shane Brunello, Steve and Haulana Spearman with daughters Alicia and Caitlin, and tractor operator Ray Hardy.

CASSOWARY Coast Regional Council has taken de- paddocks, and got on-the-ground feedback about effilivery of two Deutz-Fahr tractors from locally owned ciency and reliability,” Mr Stitt said.

Spearman Diesel Fitting at Tully to replace ageing maHe said in our verdant region the tractors slashed just chines primarily used for keeping the region’s roadside about year round and fuel economy was a big consideragrass under control. tion in choosing which tractor to purchase.

The bright green, German-engineered 6130 pow“The computerised technology in these machines er-shift tractors will soon be a regular feature mowing mean the operators can see as they are working just the roadsides around the Mission Beach and Feluga area, how much fuel economy they are getting and can adjust and from Tully to Euramo. settings and techniques to suit the situation, rather than Cr Rick Taylor said buying locally and supporting waiting to refuel to calculate how much fuel they had local business was an important part of CCRC’s Com- used,” he said. munity First program.

“Feedback from the operators is that there are good “The Council is committed to supporting local busi- safety features too, including an all-wheel braking sysness because it supports local employment and ensures tem.” continuity of jobs,” Cr Taylor said.

Council tractor operators Peter Curry, Ray Hardy and Business owners and operators Steve and Haulana Graham Kohn were impressed with the extra touches Mr Spearman employ two fitters and an apprentice in the Spearman had incorporated. These included converting workshop, and a parts interpreter. the spare seat in the cab to a tray so a lunch box could Mr Spearman said he had expanded his diesel me- be securely accommodated with the seatbelt, and fitting chanic business into a dealership three years ago and an aluminium tool box and water tank beside the driver’s winning a Council contract at this stage was “mind blow- door step. He had redirected the air conditioner water ing” and marvellous. runoff to collect in the tank so it would continually fill, “Seeing those bright green tractors constantly out and providing water for the operators to use for washing after about is the best advertising my business could possibly handling chemicals and sprays. have,” Mr Spearman said.

Mr Spearman said the toolbox, water tank and othCCRC Fleet Manager Adrian Stitt, who recently er aluminium fabrication work had been carried out by joined Council after many years’ service with Toyota neighbouring business, Blair’s Mufflers & Aluminium. in Far North Queensland and Papua New Guinea, said “He did a great job,” Mr Spearman said, “as did our Spearman Diesel won the tender based on a number of team in getting the tractors ready for delivery.” elements, including most favourable ongoing running While the operators were impressed with the new costs. green machines and their capabilities, they were a little A major consideration was research before making sad about parting company with their blue New Holland the investment, including first-hand recommendations tractors after nine years in the operators’ seats. regarding performance. “Our team talked to local farm“I spend more time with my tractor than I do with my ers, including those who already use this tractor in their wife,” quipped operator Peter Curry.

Cassowary Coast Independent News, Thursday, May 9, 2019 Page 15