Severe thunderstorms and heavy rain are forecast to sweep across most Australian states this weekend, adding to flooding in Queensland. The Bureau of Meteorology has issued warnings for South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania. Senior meteorologist David Crock said storms are expected across central and eastern Queensland on Saturday. Earlier this week, flash flooding in south-east Queensland prompted hundreds of SES callouts and the closure of several schools. Caboolture and the Sunshine Coast hinterlands recorded seven-day rainfall totals of 300 to 400 millimetres.
A seasonal worker from Vanuatu will spend eight months in jail after a crash in Bundaberg killed a fellow worker. Reginold Toa, 35, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death. The court heard he drove through a stop sign without slowing, colliding with another vehicle at an intersection in November 2024. Augustin Kalkandi died at the scene. Toa received a three-year jail term, suspended after eight months, and his licence was suspended for two years. He will be deported to the Solomon Islands after his custody.
Bundaberg police have fined dozens of drivers after a four-day operation targeting defective vehicles. Highway Patrol officers worked with Transport and Main Roads compliance officers to stop 164 vehicles between 15 and 18 October. Officers issued 76 defect notices, 56 of them for major defects, along with 53 penalty infringement notices. Police also carried out more than 120 roadside breath tests and eight random drug tests, with one drug test allegedly returning a positive result. Sergeant Gordon Hard said the work will continue on roads and beaches across the division.
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A man in his 40s was airlifted to hospital after a two-truck crash on the Bruce Highway, north of Calliope, on Sunday morning. Firefighters freed a driver trapped in one of the trucks. The man suffered face and leg injuries and is in a potentially life-threatening condition. The Bundaberg-based LifeFlight helicopter landed at West Stowe and flew him to Rockhampton Airport. He was then taken by road to Rockhampton Hospital.
Construction has begun on a 97-room, three-storey hotel near Bundaberg Airport, the first major short-term accommodation development in the city in 20 years. Mayor Helen Blackburn said a hotel demand study found the region was 800 beds short each night. MyState Limited is funding the project, which is expected to create about 50 ongoing jobs. Construction is due to finish by mid-2027, with the first guests expected later next year.
Rodney Hay, a Chinchilla-based trainer, has a strong chance in Saturday's Roy and Glenys Radunz Wondai Cup at the South Burnett Race Club. His horse Villaden, ridden by Hannah Richardson, carries 61kg from a wide gate. Richardson has experience on the Wondai track. Kym Afford's Aces Up, last year's winner, is also in the field. The program includes the Hobbs and Associates Country Stampede Qualifier, which offers a place in a $105,000 final at Doomben on December 5. Hay has three chances in that race.
Tourism businesses in the Bundaberg region of regional Queensland say fewer people are travelling, which they link to rising fuel and other costs. Carly Clark, who runs Splitters Farm, says her tourist numbers have fallen by 30 per cent. Bundaberg Tourism says visitors are booking later and spending more carefully. Whale tour operator Ben Duffy says bookings in Hervey Bay are down 30 per cent on last year, and he wants a cut to the fuel excise.
Zachary Robert Kolm, 26, has been sentenced to nine years in jail after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the Supreme Court in Bundaberg. Kolm was driving an unregistered, modified car with alcohol and MDMA in his system when it crashed, killing his friend Nicholas 'Joel' Wright, 23. GPS data showed the car travelling at 188km/h on Burnett Heads Road before it rolled and hit a power pole. Justice Graeme Crow called Kolm's conduct at the scene disgraceful but noted his remorse. Kolm will be eligible for parole in April 2029.
A country music campout at Wooroolin Hall, Queensland, was packed out again last month. It was the second campout held at the hall this year. The three-day event features walk-up artists who perform on stage with professional musicians. A Saturday afternoon Variety Concert featured 43 items. Terry and Noraine Mason, from Bundaberg, have taken over running the event from its founders, Geoff Grevell and Sue Bradley, who started it in 2021.
Doctor Winnie Yum and her partner, electrician Nelson Athanasiou, are spending a year at the Davis research station in Antarctica. Yum met Athanasiou in Mount Isa, where she completed her medical internship. Both applied separately for roles at the station and were placed at the same site. Yum says life there is simple, with food, rent and utilities covered. She describes working alone as a doctor and says sharing the experience with her partner has made it easier. The couple expect to return to Hobart in late November or early December.
Lady Elliot Island, at the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef, was stripped of plants and seabirds after guano miners arrived in the 1860s. It stayed barren for more than a century. Aviator Don Adams and his wife Moya began replanting it in the 1960s and 70s, growing trees in a backyard nursery and hand-planting them. Their work continues under the Gash family, who run an eco-resort powered largely by solar energy. More than 20,000 trees have been planted, and about 100,000 black noddies now nest on the island each year.
Australia’s first Indigenous-owned water testing laboratory in Bundaberg, Queensland, has received global accreditation. The Gidarjil Development Corporation’s Nyamgim Gung Laboratory earned full accreditation from the National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) and international ISO/IEC quality standards. The facility, run by an all-female ranger program, is the first Aboriginal-owned and operated water testing lab in the country. Chief executive Margaret Blackman said the accreditation allows the community to test its own water to a globally recognised standard.
A red Brahman bull sold for $200,000 at the Rockhampton Brahman Week sale, equalling the record for red Brahmans. The 25-month-old bull, named My Ee C Gilgai, was sold by Chantel Martin and her parents, Barb and Greg Lines, from South Kolan, Bundaberg. The top-priced grey bull set a separate record at $210,000. The sale concluded with a 98 per cent clearance rate and a gross of $9,714,468, marking a significant improvement from the previous year.
Three Bundaberg athletes will represent Queensland in table tennis at the Special Olympics Australia in Melbourne. The event marks the sport's national debut and the 50th anniversary of the Special Olympics in Australia. Around 850 athletes will compete across 13 sports, with 60 advancing to the World Games in Chile. Coach Kim Hammermeister highlights the social and physical benefits of participation for athletes with intellectual disabilities.
