Geraldton News. Everything to do with Geraldton in one location. For the latest news and events happening in Geraldton, Western Australia, be sure to follow Everything Geraldton.
Geraldton's Ocean West, a local short term accommodation provider, is the home of Geraldton's first TESLA and electric car recharge point.
Minnie Reynolds from Geraldton's Ocean West provided the following info regarding the install.
"Apparently they have approached a lot of businesses, council etc in the past.
"We were more than happy to have the first install here – TESLA paid for the recharge point equipment being the first in Geraldton, and Ocean West get to support the electric car movement. Win Win!
"We have the Tesla charger plugged into a 3 phase socket, which is good, since Electric Vehicles other than Tesla’s will be able to plug into the socket direct."
Elayna Carausu, born and bred in Gero, teamed up with Riley Whitelum from SA a few years ago. They started documenting their adventures sailing around the world on YouTube, and grew a large following.
They've been funded by fans through a platform called Patreon, and now they've landed a sponsorship deal that will see them get a new catamaran in Feb. Have a look at the video above, or the long version below, and subscribe to their YouTube channel if you'd like to follow along.
Researchers from the University of Western Australia have conducted a study on the effects of concentration and fatigue on drivers who were instructed to stay at the speed limit.
In a nutshell, drivers were in simulators and told they would be fined if they went 1 km/hr over the speed limit.
The effect on their concentration levels was akin to being on a mobile phone.
When drivers were told they would be fined if they went 6 or 11km/hr over the limit, their ability to concentrate improved.
It appears the added pressure of constantly monitoring your speedometer actually makes you a more dangerous driver.
The research throws into question the strategy used by WA Police and the State Government in rolling out more and more hidden and permanent speed cameras around WA, and whether these efforts are actually making the roads more dangerous, because drivers are spending more effort monitoring their speed than detecting road hazards.
Watch the road on NWCH near CSBP get torn up just from this truck driving on it. This occurred yesterday, and is near the area where the road started melting recently. Thanks Brenton for the footage.
"Last week City Health Geraldton was vandalised, on Monday 10/10 @5.30 in the afternoon. And then early TUES 11/10 @5am a staff members bike was stolen." Do you recognise the offenders in this footage? Please contact police (9923 4555) if you have any information or call the practice on 99214433.
Historically, insomnia has been thought of as secondary to other disorders such as depression. The idea was that you became depressed – and that your sleep got messed up as a consequence. This might involve difficulty falling asleep, excessive time awake at night or waking up earlier than hoped.
This may make sense to those who have experienced depression and found that thoughts of distressing events such as of a deceased loved one, or previous failures, keep them awake at night. The possibility that depression leads to insomnia is also consistent with research in which I have been involved – where we found that adults with insomnia were more likely than others to have experienced anxiety and depression earlier in life.
But could things really be the other way around? Could poor sleep be making you depressed? Over the past decade or so it has become increasingly clear that disturbed sleep often comes before an episode of depression, not afterwards, helping to do away with the notion that sleep problems are secondary to other disorders.
So why does poor sleep lead to depression? Lots of different mechanisms have been proposed. To give just a few examples, let’s start by thinking about our behaviour. I, for one, am more likely to cancel an evening out with friends or an exercise class after a poor night’s sleep. This could be part of the problem, as such events are exactly those that may help to keep depressive symptoms at bay.
If we think about what happens to the brain when we miss sleep, there are clues as to why sleep and depression are linked. One study on this topic focused on an area of the brain called the amygdala. This is an almond-shaped structure located deep in the brain that is believed to play an important role in our emotions and anxiety levels.
It was found that participants who had been sleep deprived for approximately 35 hours showed a greater amygdala response when presented with emotionally negative pictures when compared to those who had not been sleep deprived. Interestingly, links with parts of the brain that regulate the amygdala seemed weaker, too – meaning that the participants were perhaps less able to control their emotions. Such findings could help to explain how poor sleep may actually cause difficulties such as depression.
Inherited insomnia
Over the years, my own work has taken a behavioural genetic perspective in an attempt to understand the links between poor sleep and depression. From my twin research and work led by others it seems that poor sleep and insomnia symptoms could be, to some extent, part of the same genetic cluster – meaning that if we inherit genes which make us susceptible to insomnia, we may also be vulnerable to depression.
So what can we do about it? It has been proposed for some time now that by improving sleep we can perhaps prevent or treat depression. Recently, data have started to emerge from studies suggesting that this may indeed be the case. For example, researchers at the University of Oxford in collaboration with the psychological therapy provider Self Help Manchester evaluated whether an online treatment for insomnia reduces symptoms of anxiety and depression. They advised people with these difficulties to take steps such as keeping a consistent wake time, getting out of bed when they can’t sleep, and challenging beliefs that a bad night’s sleep is incapacitating.
They found that both anxiety and depression symptoms were reduced after insomnia treatment. Other groups are currently looking at whether by improving our sleep we can reduce other types of psychiatric difficulties, too. But even before this work is complete, the take-home message from research to date is clear: we need to begin to prioritise our sleep.
We recently had American film maker and travel writer , Gareth Leonard, visit our School, Pia Wadjarri Remote Community School in the Mid West Education District. We are only a bit over three hours from Geraldton, our main shopping centre, and near the Murchison Settlement.
He was interested in seeing a positive story about Aboriginal communities after hearing lots of negative stories
The government’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has found that Cannabidiol (CBD) has a “restoring, correcting or modifying” effect on “physiological functions” when administered to humans, in a potential milestone in the campaign.
"... male throwing rocks at cars on Abraham street just past back of Cemetery 😡"
A few hours ago:
"Heads up guys. Bunch of teenagers throwing Large rocks at cars/trucks on gtn/mt magnet road, near limestone wall.
They hit the car infront of me, just missed my car. I also had my 8 yr old brother with me! 😑
2nd time in 2 weeks I've witnessed this!
Those kids will be bloody sorry when it actually kills someone! Or a child!
Such a shame it will have to come to that before they realise and before anything will be done about it! 😠"
Earlier today rocks thrown at SES vehicle:
"Ok people if you are turning off the Northwest Coastal Highway into Utakarra Rd be careful there is little brats throwing Rocks again,we were in our STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE VEHICLE and had rocks thrown at us"
This was from a week or so ago:
"I've waited a few days before I wrote this otherwise it would be full of abuse and anger, but on Saturday as I was driving on the highway near Utakarra my car was hit by 3 rocks that were thrown out of the bushes.
Now I can go on about the cost of repairs but the fact is if one of the rocks hit 10cm higher it would have smashed through the window into my babies head and THIS is what I can't put a price on.
I'm hoping that maybe these people might read this and realise the real danger and the potential cost in this game they play."
In an age of minimalism, budget constrains, and boring architecture, the St Francis Xavier Cathedral in Geraldton is an asset that few cities in Australia can match. Here are a collection of images recently sent in of the Cathedral we think you'd enjoy.
Due to the way the lighting has been set up, the building is actually quite challenging to photograph while lit up. Hopefully this is something the propenents of the recent renovations can rectify in the future.
