For today’s news updates in Brisbane and beyond as they happen, follow us here.
For today’s news updates in Brisbane and beyond as they happen, follow us here.
New cameras will be set up to catch drivers parking illegally in 16 streets across the city where residents and road users have complained.
After a trial along McLachlan, Wickham and Symes streets in Fortitude Valley and Glen Road in Toowong, enforcement cameras will be added to:
- Amy Street, Albion
- Charlotte Street, Brisbane City
- O’Connell Terrace, Bowen Hills
- Oxford Street, Bulimba
- Millennium Boulevard, Carindale
- Robertson Street, Fortitude Valley
- Hercules Street, Hamilton
- Rotherham Street, Kangaroo Point
- Park Road, Milton
- Mayer Street, McDowall
- Metro Street, McDowall
- Festival Place, Newstead
- Moray Street, New Farm
- Buckland Road, Nundah
- Petrie Terrace, Petrie Terrace
- Russell Street, South Brisbane
The cameras will catch motorists illegally stopping in clearways, no stopping zones, bus zones, loading zones and on yellow lines.
Last year, more than 52,000 complaints about illegal parking were made to Brisbane City Council.
“We want motorists to think twice before parking illegally, because even a short stop in the wrong place can have a big impact on traffic flow and safety,” City Standards chair Sarah Hutton said.
Two potential witnesses to Crystal Beale’s last night alive have been captured by CCTV walking along Ryan Street in West End.
Police have released the footage as they continue their investigations into the suspected murder, a month and a half since the Sunshine Coast mother’s body was found in the Brisbane River at Yeronga.
They said they were yet to identify the pair, but they were not believed to be involved in Beale’s death.
Police also said they were looking for people riding scooters and bicycles or driving vehicles along Hill End Terrace, West End, towards Forbes Street, and others who were fishing at the jetty near Orleigh Park.
Of those people fishing, Detective Acting Inspector Rod Watts said: “They are in no way in trouble. We believe they may have vital information that could assist us in seeking answers for Crystal’s family.”
Read the full story here.
Around 900 hectares of Southern Thornlands has been declared a Priority Development Area, allowing the Queensland government to fast-track a major redevelopment of the semi-rural area.
After the former Labor government put the area into the urban planning footprint, the Crisafulli government today formally declared Southern Thornlands a PDA, meaning planning and development assessments will bypass Redland City Council.
The future of the Southern Thornlands has been a hot topic locally for several years, with speculation up to 8000 homes could be built there, along with community infrastructure and commercial premises.
Premier David Crisafulli yesterday announced the next community cabinet meeting, on April 14, would be held in the “vibrant Redlands”.
“I am looking forward to engaging with that local community and sharing with them how this government is working tirelessly to driver on priorities and opportunities for Queenslanders wherever they live in this great state,” he told parliament.
At first, the levee bank held firm as the floodwater came.
Locals had tirelessly constructed the dirt wall, building on areas where the last major flood had approached the south-west Queensland community.
“We had a flood in 2010. They were building around where it came through back then,” Thargomindah local Jackie Dare said. “Everything looked good and it was holding up.”
Then the levee broke. “It didn’t roll over the top. The water came through gaps. All of a sudden it just gave,” Dare said.
“We had just worked tirelessly making new levee banks, dumping dirt. But you can’t fight Mother Nature when she is on a roll like that.”
Few places in Thargomindah were spared, with more than 90 per cent of homes affected by the flooding. Every business has been inundated, including a local grocery store that was rebuilt above the 1974 flood record level.
Now, the rain has stopped but locals have no idea when the water will recede and they can safely return to their homes.
It’s a big weekend for blockbuster films with their music played live by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.
Tonight, Skyfall in Concert brings one of the best Bonds back to the big screen, while on Saturday the Hogwarts saga comes to a conclusion with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. Both are the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Over at Suncorp Stadium tonight, the Brisbane Roar take on Macarthur FC in the A-league, while tomorrow it’s the Broncos versus the Tigers in round five.
Cyndi Lauper is celebrating 40 years since the release of the hit-laden She’s So Unusual album. Girls and boys of a certain vintage will all want to have fun at Boondall on Saturday night.
Museum of Brisbane’s impressive Precious exhibition has opened, bringing together weird and wonderful objects loaned by collectors of Brisbane. Admission is free.
Love seafood? Krabby’s Crab Boil has just opened in the Barracks, inviting diners to pop on a bib and get messy eating crustaceans boiled in bags.
Elections, floods, tariffs… You probably need a stiff drink. Brisbane Gin Festival is on at the Showgrounds from today through to Sunday with 50 distillers showcasing their work, and all gin samples included in the entry price. Enjoy responsibly.
Drug kingpin Tony Mokbel will walk from custody a free man for the first time in 18 years after three Court of Appeal justices granted him bail.
The underworld figure made a bid for bail earlier this week after being locked up overseas and in Barwon Prison for nearly 18 years for drug trafficking, a prosecution that his legal team argues has been hopelessly corrupted by the Lawyer X scandal.
Mokbel will have to abide by a raft of strict conditions including that he can’t use a smart phone or encrypted apps or contact anyone living overseas.
After the decision Mokbel was led from the Court of Appeal where his surety paperwork will be processed and the ankle bracelet fitted before he can officially walk free. A group of about 10 supporters smiled and hugged in the court lobby.
The prosecution told the court that Mokbel’s flight risk was not low, given the last time the mastermind of drug trafficking operation The Company was free, he fled Australia hidden inside a 17-metre yacht.
Mokbel, 59, will also be fitted with a GPS ankle monitoring device as part of his release, as well as being subject to a 8pm to 6am curfew and must report daily to police.
Private bail company Allied Universal, based in New Zealand, will monitor Mokbel’s movements via the ankle bracelet around the clock, charging more than $25,000 a year for the service, which Mokbel is funding.
Read the full story here.
Families of four Australian Defence Force members killed in a helicopter crash have been briefed on the findings of a safety investigation report.
Captain Danniel Lyon, Lieutenant Maxwell Nugent, Warrant Officer Class 2 Joseph “Phillip” Laycock and Corporal Alexander Naggs died when a MRH-90 Taipan helicopter crashed into the water off the Whitsunday Islands in July 2023.
The crew were flying in a night-time training exercise.
The Defence Flight Safety Bureau has finished “one of the most complex” aviation safety investigation reports into the incident, making a number of recommendations.
Family members of the crew, army aviation personnel and crews involved in the mission were briefed on the findings on Thursday but the report won’t be publicly released until May, after “essential debriefings” with defence organisations and personnel.
Queensland Rail has celebrated a record number of passengers, logging 238,000 travellers in the south-east on a single day.
The record was reached on March 18, but the state-owned rail transport agency said patronage for that whole week – March 17 to 23 – was up 23.6 per cent compared with the same time last year.
The total number of trips that week exceeded 1 million, with most occurring on weekdays.
Queensland Rail head of south-east Queensland Neil Backer said the surge was a good indication that 50c fares were attracting more commuters.
“We look forward to watching these patronage numbers continue to grow this year,” he said.
Minister for Education Jason Clare has said that if Peter Dutton was negotiating with the United States on tariffs he “likely would write a book called ‘The Art of the Kneel’,” suggesting the Coalition would supplicate to US President Donald Trump.
Dutton claimed this morning that he and the Coalition would have achieved a better result in the allocation of tariffs, an idea Clare said was “ridiculous”, citing the tariffs allocated to uninhabited islands.
“We’ve all got mates who are gibberers, saying I could’ve done a better job, I could’ve done something different. But they’re not running to be the prime minister of Australia,” Clare said on Sunrise.
Clare went on to say that Labor were “not going to bend the knee to the United States” and would “stand up for Australia every single time”.
The minister also said that the government had already used critical minerals as a negotiation tactic in fending off tariffs, a key proposal Dutton was suggesting in future Coalition negotiations with the Trump administration.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has said that scrapping 10 per cent tariffs with the US was “achievable” and that “there is a deal to be done here”, citing the Coalition’s dealings with the former Trump administration.
“We do have, I think, the opportunity, through critical minerals, through the relationship we have in the defence sphere to pull together something that’s in our mutual best interest,” said Dutton on Seven’s Sunrise.
When asked about Australia receiving the equal lowest tariff rate imposed on foreign nations, Dutton downplayed the result, saying that tariffs would hurt small businesses.
The opposition leader went on to attack the prime minister, saying Albanese was unable “to get even a phone call, let alone a meeting with the president. The ambassador can’t get into the West Wing.”
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