Cairns Connect
Cairns Connect - Your Online Guide To Cairns Cairns Connect - Your Online Guide To Cairns
 
Cairns News The Cairns Region Cairns Visitor Guide About Cairns Cairns Connect Home
The Region
Cairns News Archive

Local News Review
A weekly re-cap of the events that have made news in Cairns over the past week.

Monday July 26, 2004 136th Edition

Cairns boom tops state
Housing construction in the Cairns area has jumped by over half to $414 million in value last financial year – the most significant leap in the state. According to the Building Services Authority, 2389 residential projects were undertaken, 694 more than the previous year. “It’s the busiest period we have ever experienced and I have been here for 25 years,” Cairns builder Adrian Nunn said. The Cairns region grew in the value of residential construction by 55.6 per cent, ahead of Townsville (54.6 per cent), Mackay (46.8), Toowoomba (42.5), Sunshine Coast (17.6), Brisbane (15.5) and Gold Coast (14.5).

Umbrellas bring national publicity to small town
Around 800 people congregated near the Golden Gumboot in Tully over the weekend, bringing out the umbrellas in unison for the sake of national publicity. A photo of the event was sent as an entry in Channel 10’s comedy show Rove Live, for their quirky calendar campaign. Tully pharmacist Raymond Evans came up with the idea and said the town turned out in full support. “It was just something fun to promote the town,” Mr Evans said. The photo was accompanied by an invitation for cast member Corinne Grant to visit the town for the annual Golden Gumboot Festival on September 4 as part of the show’s “Tell us where to go” segment.

Cairns technology aids commercial fishermen
A new computer program developed in Cairns is helping commercial fishermen to accurately document their catches and cut down on time consuming paperwork. The CatchLog program logs daily seafood hauls and has been trialled on trawlers in the Gulf of Carpentaria and the east coast over the past two years. Cairns prawn boat skipper Matthew Smith said the program would benefit the industry by creating a database of facts and figures as well as cutting back on paperwork. “The technology will show fishing authorities that commercial operators are serious about sustaining their industry,” he said.

New use for irukandji sting found
The toxins in a rare species of the deadly irukandji jellyfish may hold a solution for impotent men, according to researchers at James Cook University. Researchers have found that the sting from a rare species of irukandji not only cause the regular symptoms but also an additional symptom of prolonged erections in male victims. Isolating the cause of the erections from the toxins carried by the jellyfish could lead to a remedy for male impotency, JCU irukandji researcher Lisa-Ann Gershwin said.

© 1996 - 2005 Cairns Connect Pty Ltd - All rights reserved - Email Us