Oakajee Deepwater Port and Rail Infrastructure about to be formally given the go ahead

If you've lived in Geraldton for more than 20 years, a headline like this probably won't make you blink. "I'll believe it when I see it" is often heard when the "O" word comes up in conversation around town. But it appears a private wealthy Australian has come to the party as a silent investor and along with Padbury Mining, will be helping make the long talked about project a reality.

Padbury Mining acquired intellectual property from Yilgarn Construction back in 2011, who had, and then lost, the rights to build Oakajee when Alannah MacTiernan and the labor party decided to tear up the agreement they had with Yilgarn and make them bid for it again against another company, Murchison Metals.

Murchison Metals won the bid, formed another company called OPR (Oakajee Port and Rail) with Japanese giant Mitsubishi, and kept everyone holding their breathe for years before finally admitting they couldn't get the money to build it.

It was reported earlier this month that Padbury had signed in excess of forty non disclosure agreements with potential suppliers that wish to be involved, many of which have invested their time and energy to develop a clear pathway for the project to proceed. (proactiveinvestors.com.au)

Today shares in Padbury were put in a trading halt, pending "a material announcement regarding the execution of a project financing agreement for the development of the Oakajee Port and Rail Infrastructure Project in the Mid-West region of Western Australia".

Geraldton organisations named ‘Champions’ for water efficiency

Local organisations Durack Institute of Technology and NazarethCare Geraldton have both been named Water Corporation champions at the Water Efficiency Management Plan (WEMP) awards. Geraldton MLA Ian Blayney has congratulated two local organisations after receiving the accolade, with both having won platinum or gold awards for two consecutive years .

Mr Blayney said they were to be commended for their water efficiency and conservation measures resulting in both being awarded Champion status this year.

He said to receive such an achievement two years running is outstanding and is a demonstration of the kind of water efficiencies that make a real difference.

The WEMP program assists businesses which use more than 20 million litres of drinking water per year to reduce water use.

Overall businesses participating in the Water Corporation’s Water Efficiency Management Plan program saved 13 billion litres of water in 2012-13.

In 2012-13, 339 WA businesses collectively saved 13 billion litres of precious drinking water, which is the equivalent of almost 6,000 Olympic sized swimming pools.

Mr Blayney said the savings illustrate the business community’s commitment to Western Australia’s water future.

The Water Corporation’s WEMP program, which has been supported by Department of Water since its inception, has saved 31.5 billion litres of water since it began in 2007. Through the program businesses make permanent changes to their operations, which continue to deliver savings in the long-term.

Thirty two companies received a Champion Awards, Platinum Awards (for more than 50 per cent improvement in water efficiency) were presented to 12 businesses and Gold Awards (for 35-50 per cent improvement) were awarded to 29 businesses.

A total of 37 businesses received Silver Awards (25-35 per cent improvement) and 64 will receive Bronze Awards (10-25 per cent improvement).

Community Question: Would the youth of Geraldton attend DJ shows put on specifically for them?

Community Question:With BIG DJ shows happening in Geraldton at the moment, I would like to know if the youth of Geraldton would be interested in attending a show specifically for them. The youth of Geraldton do miss out on these events because of there age, but if an alcohol free, security patrolled event was held showcasing these artists say the night before the 18+ event was held, it might be possible. We would love to get an opinion from both Youth and Parents about organising such an event. -Jason

Stolen bones returned to school

A local woman was completely shocked when she came across human leg bones on Monday.

Liz Buscumb was walking back from her lunch break when she spotted the bones in the garden next to the Queens Park Theatre.

“I saw them laying on the ground and I didn’t know what it was so I got closer to inspect and I thought, my god, these are human bones," she said.

But there was speculation as to whether the bones were actually real or if they were fake.

The bones were been wired together and Liz thought they may have been stolen from a nearby school, which was exactly the case!

Geraldton Senior College have since come forward and claimed the real human bones after they had recently been broken into.

The bones are in fact real and have been at the school since 1938.

The school were extremely pleased to have them returned to their science department.

Tackleworld's big Easter sale!

You might be able to catch a big fish with your products from Tackleworld Country but this Easter you can head in there and catch some massive bargains!

Their Easter catalogue is out now and the local store is packed to the gunnels with stock! Great shirts, great rods, great reels, great everything!

Click here to see the catalogue or head in and see the friendly team at Tackleworld Country Geraldton on 20 Anzac Terrace!

Tackleworld Country & Recfishwest are also holding school holiday clinics for the kids.

They have come together for three days of fishing clinics from April 15 -17 at the New Marina, Service Jetty from 9am to 11am daily.

All spots have been filled but Tackleworld hope to hold more clinics in the future!

For more information call Tackleworld Country on  99216 822.

Large quantity of stolen property seized

Police are continuing inquiries regarding Operation Nighthawk and the investigation of burglary and related offences.

At approximately 2pm on Wednesday 9 April 2014, staff from Geraldton Volume Crime Team attended an address in Clematis Crescent, Utakarra in the search of a targeted offender.

A male offender was arrested at the address and police will allege a subsequent search of the premise resulted in the recovery of a large quantity of stolen property, including tools directly related to burglaries, bicycles, electronic equipment and drug paraphernalia.

A 31 year old male from Utakarra was charged with;

2 x Burglary and commit place 1 x Burglary with Intent place 1 x Steal motor vehicle 3 x Stealing 3 x Unlawful possession

His bail was refused and he will appear at Geraldton Magistrates Court today 10 April 2014.

A second male at the address was also arrested and a the 41 year old male from Utakarra was charged with;

1 x Possess prohibited drug (Cannabis) 2 x Possess drug paraphernalia 1 x Possess stolen or unlawfully obtained property 1 x Receiving

He will appear on at Geraldton Magistrates Court on 1 May 2014.

Melbourne International Comedy Festival returns to Geraldton

The cast of intrepid travelling comedians can’t be confined to Melbourne’s comedy rooms any longer, they’re back on the road to entertain crowds worldwide in 2014.

Be a part of the fun when they roll into Geraldton with a huge show featuring some of the best from one of the world’s biggest comedy festivals.

After 15 years of traversing the many highways of this wide, brown land, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow is back with another jam-packed tour. Think Almost Famous, but swap out the musicians for some incredibly funny comedians, replace USA for Australia’s smaller cities and rural towns, add in epic amounts of humour and multiply the amount of group sing-alongs.

Now in it’s 16th year, the Roadshow transports fresh faced and well-known comedians from the fancy theatres of Comedy Festival HQ to Hobart, Hong Kong and every venue in-between in the ultimate comedy odyssey.

In 2013, Roadshow enjoyed enormous success performing more than 109 shows in over 60 regional towns and cities across Australia, before concluding the tour with a sell-out international leg conquering Singapore, Hong Kong, and India.

With a mix of local heroes and international stars as well as the hottest new discoveries of the Festival, all your comedy bases will be covered. The roll call for 2014 includes, Harley Breen, Anne Edmonds, Cal Wilson, Tom Ballard, Dave Callan, David Quirk, Brendon Walsh (USA), Brian Nankervis, Pat Burtscher (CAN), Beau Heartbreaker, Greg Behrendt (USA), Tommy Dean and Nazeem Hussain.

The Festival will roll into Geraldton at the Queens Park Theatre on Monday 26^th and Tuesday 28^th May 2014 at 7.30pm.

Visit the QPT Website for more info!

WARNING! Change your online passwords everywhere

If you haven’t heard about the Heartbleed bug yet, or don’t particularly want to read a lot of technical internet jargon, here’s what you need to know. Recently a major security hole was found to exist in many thousands of websites and internet services.

Hackers have had the ability to wander in and obtain valuable information like usernames and passwords, and at this stage any damage done is unknown.

It is being widely advised that everybody change their passwords for all their online services, especially important accounts like banking, email, social networks (Facebook, Twitter etc), and file sharing (Dropbox etc).

Remember to never use the same password on multiple accounts.

For more information simply google the term “heartbleed"

Short video of this year's Nukara Music Festival

If you didn't make it to Nukara Music Festival this year, you might like to check out this short video, produced by Cineport Media.

Thanks James Thompson for sharing.

[tentblogger-vimeo 91476810]

New Wandina Primary School officially opened last week

Premier Colin Barnett officially opened the new state-of-the-art $8million Wandina Primary School in Geraldton last Friday.

The technology rich school first opened its doors at the beginning of term with 175 students from kindergarten to year 3.

Speaking at the school opening, Mr Barnett said Wandina would cater for the growing population in Geraldton’s southern suburbs, which included many young families.

Geraldton MLA Ian Blayney said it was a proud day to witness the official opening which fulfilled a commitment he made to the electorate as the Liberal candidate for Geraldton in 2008.

“I’m very happy to see it open. There was never any doubt in my mind that our expanding southern suburbs needed it,” Mr Blayney said.

“And I’m very happy to see that the school already has such strong community support - a new school in an area becomes a great place for people to get to know each other.

“While offering an advanced learning environment Wandina has a major focus on sustainability with students learning about the environment in the class and in practical ways by cultivating their own vegetable patch which they’ll harvest later in the year and learn to cook healthy food.”

Mr Barnett congratulated Geraldton MLA Ian Blayney for his dedication to ensuring Wandina Primary was built.

“This school sees the fulfilment of a long-held commitment to the area and was an election promise in 2008 so I am particularly pleased to now see this school open and working so well,” he said.

In order to improve the school’s energy efficiency, skylights have been installed in classrooms to eliminate the need for lights to be switched on all day. Specially fitted sensors switch them off when there is sufficient light.

The school’s brand new facilities also include a music room and classrooms are equipped with the latest technology.

Wandina’s school motto is ‘Inspiring Excellence Together’, and foundation Principal Di Miller has instilled a feeling of vibrancy that aims to create a setting for positive learning among students happy in their new environment.

The school will gradually expand with year 4 students being accepted from 2015 and by 2017, kindergarten to year 6 will be catered for.

The Premier said the State Government was investing $538million on major education capital works projects in 2014 to meet the demand from the State’s strong population growth.

Home Burglaries tripled in January compared to November - Geraldton Crime

Home Burglaries tripled in January compared to November

Compared to November 2013, burglaries of dwellings in the Mid West Gascoyne district of Western Australia were 3.7 times higher in January 2014. The figure is also double that of January 2013.

Official statistics made available by the Western Australian Police reveal that burglaries of dwellings in the Midwest-Gascoyne district spiked heavily in the months of December and January, with 94 and 191 home burglaries respectively.

This is up heavily on the November figures where there were 51 home burglaries. It is also the highest number of home burglaries in a January since 2002 (198).

General theft incidents and motor vehicle theft were also higher during this time compared to earlier months.

The statistics don’t seem to line up with statements made by CGG Mayor Ian Carpenter who in February stated that reports that crime was out of control were untrue.

In an ABC article titled “Geraldton crime rate claims are 'simply incorrect’ “ the Mayor of Greater Geraldton said "The statistics I've seen demonstrate to me that our community is probably no different than any other community in Western Australia. So if you're going to say these things on social media, then people need to be aware that sometimes what is being said is simply incorrect."

During the months of December and January, Everything Geraldton was inundated with reports from the community about break ins and thefts. While many members of the public expressed gratitude at being kept up to date with the information, others blamed social media for making it appear crime had increased when it hadn’t.

Some good news

Geraldton Police were not oblivious to the sharp rise in burglaries in January, and quickly implemented Operation Nighthawk to target specific persons of interest. A recent update from Operation Nighthawk revealed 33 individuals were charged with 169 offences.

Supervisor of the Geraldton Police Volume Crime Team Sergeant Jayd Morawski, said the Police had been working overtime to see these results.

“The guys in the station are working as hard as they possibly can,” he said.

“They have been literally chasing offenders to see these outcomes come to fruition.

“We’ve responded to what the community have said and we are doing our utmost to get offenders off the street.” Read more about Operation Nighthawk and its impact on Geraldton crime here: http://everythinggeraldton.com.au/2014/03/28/operation-nighthawk-shows-results/

More Police Needed

The ability to attract Police to regional areas is still an ongoing challenge from the state Liberal government.

In August last year the state Governement promised to increase incentive payments to encourage police to stay longer in regional areas like Geraldton.

At the time, WA Police Union’s director for the Central Region, Sergeant Michael Gill, said it went ‘some way’ towards rectifying an overdue discrepancy in pay for country police. Regional complexities and the cost of living deters police officers from moving to Regional WA (RWA), the financial incentives will go some way toward addressing this issue.

However, he warned that the new scheme did not eliminate the issue of locality allowances the union had been seeking.

“This is basically an edited version of what we sought, which for example would see Geraldton classed as a station of Moderate Regional Complexity,” said Sgt Gill.

“That would add a location allowance of $4500 per annum, plus $2250 for the first dependant and $1125 for the second dependant.

“Our industrial agreement expires in June next year and I have no doubt the WA Police Union will be pushing for the upgraded locality allowance then."

Historical figures for Burglaries (Dwellings) in the Mid West Gascoyne District

2001/02 November 103 December 122 January 198

2002/03 November 153 December 97 January 137

2003/04 November 111 December 109 January 99

2004/05 November 103 December 85 January 121

2005/06 November 113 December 102 January 107

2006/07 November 75 December 81 January 89

2007/08 November 75 December 75 January 105

2008/09 November 80 December 54 January 62

2009/10 November 76 December 101 January 108

2010/11 November 71 December 57 January 107

2011/12 November 58 December 77 January 96

2012/13 November 78 December 57 January 83

2013/14 November 51 December 94 January 191

Speed camera near Walkaway Bridge roadworks

Speed camera near Walkaway Bridge roadworks

Stun gun and drugs seized after search warrant executed

Yesterday afternoon officers from the Geraldton Police Station Volume Crime Team executed a search warrant at a Utakarra address as a result of inquiries related to Operation Nighthawk.

Amongst items seized was a stun gun, a quantity of cannabis and drug paraphernalia. Further inquiries are being made in relation to a stolen motorcycle that was seized from the address on a previous occasion.

As a result the following charges have been laid:

-A 36 year old Utakarra woman was charged with possessing a prohibited weapon and will face the Geraldton Magistrate’s Court in due course.

-A 36 year old Utakarra man was charged with two counts of possessing drug paraphernalia and will appear later today at the Geraldton Magistrate’s Court.

-A further 36 year old Utakarra man was charged with one count of criminal damage and was bailed to appear before the Geraldton Magistrate’s Court on 1 May 2014.

Take a ride on the Batavia Longboat

The community are invited to go and have sail on Geraldton's beautiful  Batavia Coast Replica Longboat.

The Longboat sails most Sundays throughout the year from the front of the Museum in Geraldton’s Batavia Marina, and is regularly seen beating out to the point Moore lighthouse or tacking up into the harbour.

Vince Nock runs the tours and you can sit on the beautiful wooden replica and take in the sights of Geraldton from the ocean or you can learn how to sail the boat.

The sailing is free however donations are extremely helpful to keep the activity going.

Children are most welcome but must be over the age of six years and accompanied by an adult.

For more information or to see whether the boat is sailing on a Sunday call Chairman Vince Nock on 0417 961 387.

Male arrested after damage in Marine Terrace

A 30-year-old has been charged with criminal damage and disorderly behaviour after he kicked in a plate glass window on Marine Terrace.

At about 6pm on Monday 7 April 2014, police alleged a male offender was walking down Marine Terrace when he kicked in the window to a business, causing damage.

The male was apprehended by police, during which time he became aggressive, shouting abuse at police and using obscene language. He was secured in a police vehicle and conveyed to Geraldton Police Station where the charges were laid.

He faced court yesterday and has been remanded in custody until tomorrow.

Speed camera Flores Rd, Utakarra end

Speed camera Flores Rd, Utakarra end

Divergent - Trailer

Trailer for "Divergent" rated M [tentblogger-youtube 336qJITnDi0]

Muppets - Trailer

Trailer for "Muppets" rated G [tentblogger-youtube FV5x6QMuYjg]

Geraldton Dog Rescue Dog of the Week

This week's Geraldton Dog Rescue Dog of the Week is Henry!

Henry is one beautiful little soul. He is a small mixed breed and is approximately 9 months of age. Henry is dog social, very sweet and loving. He would make a great friend to any family. He has been vet checked, C3 vaccinated, micro chipped, wormed and flea treated. He will be sterilized before being rehomed and will cost $350.

If you would like to meet Henry, please call GDR on 0400 219 719.

Speed camera NWCH near overpass

Speed camera NWCH near overpass