YOU SAID IT! Bird flu concerns after sick and dead birds wash up on Shire shores
letters and comments
Christopher Saint
Hi, your local microbiologist here. I’ve not seen any reports of the virus in Qld yet. I’m assuming the terns are migratory birds, so would be useful to know where they mostly come from.
Melissa Coyle
Im an ecologist on the Sunshine Coast and there has been two, one on Moreton Island and one at Castaways Beach at Noosa.
Ben Cropp
On Sunday same bird tern species was sitting on my roof, not a usual place for a seabird to roost. A ladder required to see if still there dead or flew away if Council interested.
Joshua Simon
Please... this last lot of weather patterns has been relentless. If you were a bird that small getting smashed by 30+ knot winds for 4+ days consecutively you'd be knackered too.
Jade Phoenix
It's pretty devastating in South Australia right now, I hope it doesn't get as bad in Qld until people have a chance to realise this has been spreading throughout the world for a while. Just research it in academic journals, it's not hoax.
Bryce Fraser
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.
Cooya Takeaway
Imagine if you will, an island continent isolated from the rest of the world and free of bird flu for ever until one day an infected bird is found on a remote beach on the western side of the island, a week later another found of the east, a week after another on the north side, then the south side. The symptoms of this bird virus are everything but also could be nothing, and who the hell is walking around remote parts of Australia testing dead birds? And what methods are being used to test... Then mysteriously this bird flu starts infecting mammals... fascinating. Some pharmaceutical company needs a cash injection is the probable cause is my guess.
Tracey Clarke
Not understanding how dead wildlife is found, tested or how influenza crosses species isn’t evidence of a conspiracy. It’s simply a list of things you don’t understand followed by a guess.
How do you see moves to restrict or ban smart glasses?
Justin Mackay
I dont agree, it’s no different to a phone. I am visually impaired and these glasses have been a huge help to me. One-sided article, all about privacy, nothing written about how it helps people. Are we going to ban phones, CCTV, drones, beach cams, street survailance cameras, Ipads, tablets, dash cams and laptop cameras?
Anthony Renwick
How many people know they are being filmed in almost every store in Australia? Covert cameras are everywhere for whatever reason. Agree or not these cameras are out there, and are incredibly useful, particularly to vision/hearing impaired people, but not only that as they get tied further into AI translation travellers in/from foreign countries will have a better experience. I agree that it’s not polite in some circumstances but a law banning them is absolutely idiotic. Having said that a simple flashing LED when recording would make reasonable sense, but I’m sure at some point the footage from eyewear will become evidence around a crime and then no one will be sad about that... well maybe the criminals.
Lisa Lopez
How will we monitor tourists coming into the country with them? They're pretty cheap in Japan.
Ned Bunyip
Ban ban ban, bloody nanny state numpties' answer to everything they don't like.
Visa pauses to impact Shire’s main industry
Ashleigh Pavett
We rely heavily on our backpackers to fill positions in the hospitality front through our season in our town.
Andrew Smith
I employed backpackers in Port Douglas for 30 years from the mid ‘90s til 2014. Most of the backpackers were from Europe and spent heaps of money doing tourist things when not working. Then the govt opened the door for South American backpackers to do their 88 days and they flooded Port Douglas taking 2 and 3 jobs per day. They had 6 to 8 people living in a 2 bedroom unit and ate mainly 3 minute noodles or similar. The majority didn’t eat at restaurants or go to the reef they just pocketed all their money. Because of this they forced the Europeans out of Port Douglas and our economy went downhill from backpackers now all South Americans.
Kane Dean
The Douglas Shire has 12,000 to 13,000 people, I wonder how many of those fit and willing to work in hospitality.
Will Stephens
Jobs and accommodation would be easier to find. The money would stay in Australia and not disappear.
Alan Richard Tucker
Give the locals a job and pay them a decent wage.
Susan Davenport
Employ locals and local kids after school and weekends and speak English.
Gregg Buchanan
I love our backpackers! I don't know if many locals would be interested in the jobs that they do.
Ann Ireland
Are there enough locals to fill the jobs available during the high season and happy to work just a few hours a week during the shoulder and low seasons? No sick pay, no holiday pay, no pension contribution.
