Townsville Bulletin
SCHOOL’S OUT FOR SENIORS
Attacks and antisocial behaviour directed at Townsville taxi drivers have become so intense that some drivers have elected to abandon servicing some areas of the city. A letter directed to a neighbourhood in Kelso, and circulated by Townsville taxi...
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Jail for West End arsonist
Barry James Fitch, 45, has pleaded guilty to arson over a fire that tore through six West End public housing units, causing more than $1 million in damage, trapping a woman inside and killing five pets. He was sentenced to five years in prison, to be...
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RISK TOO HIGH
Dwarfism makes prison too dangerous for a local man sentenced for child sex exploitation offences, his defence counsel successfully argued in court. Matthew John Lundie, 22, who targeted a 13-year-old girl he met through a sporting club, pleaded...
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FUNNY MONEY IN DUNNY
A man who agreed to carry $90,000 in tainted cash from the Townsville Airport for a relative has been handed a fully suspended sentence after the money was hidden in a suitcase during a quick airport handover. Matthew Alan Adams, 41, pleaded guilty in...
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WILD AT HEART
Queensland’s police union says frontline officers are drowning in domestic and family violence matters, arguing they are stretched too thin to attend to all call outs. Union president Shan Prior, giving evidence to a parliamentary committee this month...
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LOOSE SCREWS
Seventeen prison guards have been stood down in a disciplinary purge at Townsville Correctional Centre, with allegations some were busted drug-driving right outside the prison gates. The revelations lift the lid on a staggering rap sheet of alleged...
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NURSE COURSE FACING AXE
Townsville students could end up missing out on opportunities to become nurses as a leading university considers plans to end its Diploma of Nursing. A source with knowledge of discussions being carried out within Cquniversity’s walls said the...
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PHIL’S REEF BEEF
Herbert MP Phillip Thompson has used his parliamentary platform to challenge the federal government to come clean on several unanswered questions regarding the controversial $180m Great Barrier Reef Aquarium rebuild.
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DREAM COMES TRUE FOR LOCAL LADS
The NRL season may be over, but Townsville will still host plenty of rugby league action this weekend, with teams from across Australia set to compete in the First Nations Dreamtime Knockout at the Townsville Sports Precinct. Co-founders...
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CREEPY COP OUT
Ex-police officer Philip Brett Allen, 67, who accessed depraved dark web videos depicting children as young as five being raped, has avoided prison time after a judge deemed his case a “borderline” exception. The court heard between 2024 and 2025 he...
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DRY SPELL, FAST BURN
Dangerous complications with central intravenous lines used in cancer treatments, dialysis and intensive care units are to be investigated in a new Queensland clinical trial in the hope of creating new guidelines for doctors and nurses. Led by The...
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JCU cans vet lab axe
James Cook University has done yet another backflip, confirming its veterinary pathology lab will stay open after massive student backlash, though the union warns unnecessary job cuts are still going ahead. Despite the Veterinary Diagnostic Pathology...
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LOCAL ROAD TO GOLD
Homegrown athletes will be able to chase 2032 Olympic glory without leaving Townsville after the state government green-lit an elite new training base for the city. In a massive coup for the north, a Queensland Academy of Sport (QAS) regional hub will...
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SEX ASSAULT KITS CRISIS
Sexual assault victims in remote Queensland are being denied rapid access to crucial forensic kits, forcing some to travel hundreds of kilometres or risk losing vital evidence in the first hours after an attack. The postcode divide has sparked...
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CENTRE OF ATTENTION
A North Queensland company looks set to meet the surging demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure by building a renewable energy-powered data centre south of Charters Towers. Valued between $600m and $2.2bn (depending on its scale), the...
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SPECS SCARE
A Townsville resident has launched an e-petition calling on council to ban camera-enabled glasses from public facilities, arguing the devices pose serious safety and privacy risks in places such as pools, gyms and change rooms. The petition, created...
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WAITING GAMES
The state opposition has demanded the LNP fast-track upgrades to Townsville University Hospital after a man was left waiting in an ambulance for more than three hours after experiencing a heart condition. The “frightening” ordeal has shone fresh light...
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MACHETE RAGE MERCY
A prominent Townsville churchgoer who attacked a delivery driver with a machete in a shocking road rage attack has avoided jail, despite a magistrate warning the violence could have ended in death. Tupou Palu, 60, pleaded guilty in Townsville...
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BACKPACKER CUTS TO BITE
Townsville businesses are warning that the federal government’s planned changes to Working Holiday Maker visas could leave regional employers short-staffed and struggling to keep their doors open. Herbert MP Phillip Thompson and Townsville Yacht Club...
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LEGENDS PART OF GAMES EMBLEM PUZZLE COPPER THEFT CRISIS
Copper thieves have cost Townsville ratepayers over a million dollars this year, as opportunistic offenders rip up wires faster than Council workers can lay them down. Irrigation at Council parks and street lights have been hardest hit, but...
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SHAKY GROUND
The long-awaited redevelopment of Townsville’s Great Barrier Reef Aquarium has hit a major roadblock, with structural issues at the site stalling lease negotiations and threatening to derail its 2029 reopening. Following months of relocation rumours,...
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SURFACE TENSION
Stadiums Queensland has hit back at criticism of Queensland Country Bank Stadium’s shredded playing surface after Friday night’s Socceroos clash with Brazil, with the spotlight now firmly on its sister venue, Suncorp Stadium, for tonight’s...
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GIVE US A CHANCE
The Great Australian Dream of home ownership is in tatters, with half of all aspiring buyers giving up, stark new research has found. Millions more are resigned to renting for life, as our housing class divide widens to the real estate haves and...
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SLIPPERY FISH
demanded the state government fight harder against the Commonwealth to extend the ban for three years and wait for further research. Both have written to Primary Industries Minister Tony Perrett and Tourism Minister Andrew Powell urging them to appeal...
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$121M border blunder
A judge has expressed astonishment after hearing $121m of cocaine ended up in the community because a yacht flagged by Australian Border Force was left moored in Townsville for two months with no surveillance. The revelation came during the sentence of...
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SILENT SCOURGE
Doctors at Townsville University Hospital have raised the alarm over a surging public health crisis as North Queensland records its STORY, PAGE 3 highest number of syphilis cases in nearly a decade. The highly contagious sexually transmitted...
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BURNING OUESTIONS
Eleven days after fire tore through the Great Northern Hotel, owner Adrian Gabrielli has broken his silence to confirm that the building was uninsured and planning was under way to restore it prior to the blaze. The Townsville-based construction...
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VIOLENTXMAS NIGHT
An “obnoxious” Mount Isa business owner who viciously assaulted another man after a drunken Christmas party has narrowly escaped jail due to his parental responsibilities for two children. Mendel Elroy Trott, 40, was convicted by a jury of one count...
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GONE TO THE DOGS Ingham council counts $90k cost of brutal bulldog attack
Two American Bulldogs that mauled an Ingham Show volunteer so badly he needed emergency surgery have cost Hinchinbrook ratepayers almost $90,000 to destroy. The dogs’ owner Robert Jason Charles Clough, 53, (pictured) unsuccessfully fought council...
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CLINK FOR CRYPTO BRO
Well-known crypto trader Michael James Sloggett, who laundered over $2.6m in funds, will spend at least five months in jail after he was sentenced over money laundering and drug charges dating back five years to his arrest in April, 2021.
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TEEN KICKS OFF CREEP
A woman’s sexual assault of a drunken teen in the heart of Townsville’s city centre only ended when he kicked her down a river embankment. Ada Gwendolyn Rose Johnson, 34, appeared in Townsville District Court this week and pleaded guilty to sexual...
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LOCKDOWNS WAY UP
The number of daily lockdowns inside Cleveland Youth Detention Centre in Townsville have soared to the detriment of reducing juvenile crime, according to a youth-justice advocate. A document released under the Right to Information Act showed in...
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Child abuse suspect bailed
A Townsville man has been granted bail after child sexual abuse material was allegedly discovered on his phone during a routine search at Cairns airport. Daniel Wayne Binnie, 45, was intercepted by Australian Border Force officers on Thursday...
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BITTER DEFEAT
The Cowboys have been left to rue their own mistakes after a crushing loss in Saturday’s elimination final.
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GREAT LOSS
Great Northern Hotel owners say they are devastated by the fire that has almost certainly destroyed the heritage-listed property. Homeless people were a huge issue for the abandoned hotel in the Townsville CBD according to nearby workers, with one...
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STRAND PERVERT
Townsville man Andrew Allan Oba was sentenced to nine months in prison following a public incident at The Strand where he exposed himself to children, ran naked along the beach and made exaggerated indecent gestures.
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LEFT HIGH AND DRY
Townsville leaders are warning that hundreds of jobs and $200 million a year are at stake if the Federal Government relocates the city’s army watercraft to a competing North Queensland base. The government is understood to be considering moving...
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FIREBUG FEARS
There are fears a serial arsonist has made an unwelcome return as North Queensland heads towards a potentially severe, if not catastrophic, bushfire season. Fires on Tuesday were burning at Oonoonba, Mount Stuart and areas to the immediate south of...
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‘DADDY CAN’T COME HOME’
Grieving relatives wept in court as heartless triple murderer Darryl Young was handed a record-breaking 40-year non-parole period. Young refused to look at the victims’ loved ones as he was jailed for the “cowardly” Bogie slaughter.
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CHUGGING FOR COVER
A meth-fuelled driver armed with three knives tried to skol an iced coffee to fool cops but walked free from court despite a vile campaign of domestic abuse. Nicholas Donald Nowlan pleaded guilty in the Ingham Magistrates Court to eight charges,...
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JUSTICE. AT LAST.
Darryl Young has been found guilty of murdering his three neighbours in a shooting at the front gate of his Bogie property. The jury also found Young guilty of the attempted murder of Ross Tighe. Family of the victims cheered as the verdict was read....
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RED ALERT
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has put Townsville MPS on notice, launching a fierce regional offensive with claims her party could capture up to 40 per cent of the local vote at the next state election. Speaking in the garrison city yesterday,...
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CREEK CAPTURED
Annette Langan sent through this shot she titled ‘A Peaceful Afternoon in Mundingburra’.
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SAIL AWAY, SAIL AWAY
This striking photo was taken by Hunter Zhang on Monday as a race got under way at the Magnetic Island Race Week.
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MIRROR IMAGE
Mount Stuart is reflected in the glassy waters of the Ross River in this photo from Oonoonba resident Mary Bee.
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MAYOR’S BLAME GAME
Townsville mayor Nick Dametto says it’s the media who owes the community an apology in a fiery press conference on Friday morning, after being issued an infringement notice for public nuisance for a high-profile pub fiasco on Magnetic Island.
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MAYOR PAYS PRICE
Townsville Mayor Nick Dametto has been fined for public nuisance following a highprofile altercation during a Magnetic Island pub crawl earlier this year. Queensland Police Service confirmed late on Thursday afternoon that the former Hinchinbrook MP...
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RENOVATION RESCUE
A decades-long wait for works on Townsville’s most notorious CBD eyesore may be over, with works seemingly under way at the former Dimmeys Arcade. The once-bustling Flinders Street property has earnt the ire of the Townsville community after being...
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LANDLORD CRASHES OUT
An Ingham landlord has been sentenced to nine months’ jail, suspended for a year, after she drove her SUV through the gate of her rental property, injuring a tenant who owed her money. Rebecca Elise Oddy’s (pictured) not guilty plea led to a lengthy...
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TOO SCARED TO SPEAK
Terrified Townsville residents are too scared of retaliation to report criminals, according to damning new Crime Stoppers research. Townsville recorded a record high number of reported crimes in 2025 and remains on track for a similar total in 2026...
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HOOK, LINE & SINKER
A devastating $160 million ban that wiped out North Queensland’s gillnet fishing industry was allegedly built on a report bankrolled by the World Wildlife Fund and facing criticism for university involvement.
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TRAGIC TOLL ON COMMUNITY
A tragic 24 hours on North Queensland roads has left a motorcyclist dead and several others fighting for their lives following a relentless spate of crashes across the Townsville region. Queensland Ambulance Service confirmed that a man in his 70s had...
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Council changes rules
Townsville community groups seeking local government funding will have to prove their economic worth, with new council guidelines tying up to $50,000 in partnership grants directly to tourism, job creation and industry growth. Under the Townsville...
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UNINSURED AND EXPOSED
A shocking four in 10 Townsville homes are going without contents insurance, leaving thousands of local households exposed to potential financial ruin in the event of a natural disaster.
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SHOCK CONFESSION
A detective has unearthed an explosive confession, allegedly made by a former police officer, that dramatically implicates him in the 1993 murder of WWII veteran Les Ball. This stunning breakthrough, years after the case ran cold, is now casting a...
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DRONE DANGER IN OUR SKIES
Unidentified drones have breached restricted airspace over RAAF Base Townsville, exposing a massive national security concern right in our own backyard. Just 72 hours after the Federal Government was warned that northern bases were completely...
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STUNNING SHORES
Adell Ellis sent in this Top Shot of a perfectly foamy shorefront.
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SQUATTER HOLIDAY HORROR
Eleven people were found squatting inside a Townsville home while its 75-year-old owner was overseas, a court heard. A stolen car and a cache of firearms, including a shotgun, were also uncovered. During sentencing, the court heard the squatters were...
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Witness tells of ‘horror’
An accused triple murderer allegedly insisted his four neighbours meet him at his property line before three were shot dead, a court has heard. Giving evidence in the Townsville Supreme Court, witness Kaitlin Jordan told a jury she heard Darryl Young...
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CANDIDATES’ MARKET SPAT
Andrew Mckaysmith A council candidate says she will abandon her market stalls after a run-in with a fellow candidate left her feeling “scared”. Division 1 contender Michelle Hobson made the claims after a confrontation with rival candidate Steven Clare.
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Pivotal evidence in cold case
A single, forged train ticket has emerged as a pivotal piece of evidence in the decades-long cold case surrounding the disappearance of WWII veteran Les Ball. This crucial detail, is casting a stark new light on what happened to the 71-year-old before...
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TROPICAL TIP-OFF ALL SET
An all-in WNBL tournament in North Queensland will kick off with a series of community clinics later this month. Former Opal and WNBL Strategy and Basketball Partnerships chief Lauren Jackson says the first steps towards the September Townsville Tip...
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FIGHT FOR JUSTICE
A three decade search for answers into the disappearance of Townsville man Leslie Ball may finally be over. A new podcast claims to hold the answers to what happened.
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Buckle up for the legendary Mt Isa rodeo
Thousands of fans and hundreds of competitors from across Australia and overseas are packing into the mining city for the legendary Mount Isa Mines Rodeo. Newly crowned rodeo queens and a group of riders visited local schools in Mount Isa on Wednesday...
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SISTER ON MURDER CHARGE
A 70-year-old disability support worker has faced court charged with the domestic violence murder of her vulnerable half-brother. Police allege 56-year-old Isaac Oar, who had Down syndrome and was non-verbal, was severely malnourished and weighed a...
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CLERIC’S DENIALS
A former priest at the centre of a North Queensland child sexual abuse trial has denied any memory of his accuser. Neville Creen, 86, told the jury he did not know the complainant or make him perform sexual acts upon him.
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WATER YOU LOOKING AT?
Julie Lyne captured this waterbird stretching its wings beside the lilies during a recent walk through Anderson Park.
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SHOW US THE MONEY
One of the nation’s biggest tertiary education unions has slammed JCU’S leadership over proposed workplace cuts and enterprise agreement negotiations, despite the university notching up a $37 million financial surplus. The criticism comes as JCU faces...
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HACK TO SCHOOL
A Townsville school has confirmed that hackers were able to gain access to potentially “sensitive information” on its computer system. Townsville Christian College has warned parents to change their passwords and remain alert for unusual calls.
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GLOWING SUNSET
Glowing Sunset on beautiful Cockle Bay, Maggie Island, courtesy of Kev Rowan.
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LAST’S LINE OF DEFENCE
Hayden Johnson North Queensland MP Dale Last has been drawn into damaging admissions over the appointment of former LNP minister Andrew Cripps to a cushy, $392,711 a year job. Confronted by the Labor opposition over the appointment in estimates, Mr...
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