Drought concessional loans now available

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Western Australian farmers can now apply for an Australian Government drought concessional loan.

Geraldton MLA Ian Blayney said today he wished to ensure all farmers throughout Geraldton and the Mid West understood that $20 million in drought concessional loans are now available and access to these loans was a priority.

Mr Blayney said drought concessional loans of up to $1 million or up to 50 per cent of eligible debt, whichever is lower, will be available to eligible farm businesses at an initial rate of four per cent for a five year period. 

To be eligible for drought concessional loans, a WA farm business must be experiencing a one in 20 year drought event, or a one in 10 year drought event that has caused significant financial impact.

Mr Blayney said applicants must submit a valid Bureau of Meteorology ‘Rainfall Deficiency Report’ as part of their application.

Drought concessional loans will be available for:

  • Debt restructuring: applicants can use the concessional loan to restructure a proportion of their existing eligible debt at a lower interest rate.
  • Operating expenses: applicants can use the concessional loan to fund operating expenses that are necessary to continue the normal operations of the farm business.
  • Drought recovery and preparedness activities: applicants can use loan funds to contribute to the cost of activities to recover from and prepare for future drought.

These drought concessional loans are in addition to other forms of federal support available to WA farmers such as Farm Finance concessional loans, Farm Household Allowance as well as rural financial counselling services.

Mr Blayney said drought concessional loans will allow eligible farm businesses to restructure their existing debt at a lower interest rate and provide finance to meet their ongoing business running costs and drought recovery and preparedness activities.

Further, he said the loans are for a term of five years over which interest only payments are required. At the end of the loan period, farmers will have the option of refinancing the remaining amount with a commercial lender, or repaying the loan in full.”

Farm businesses are strongly encouraged not to self-assess their eligibility for a loan and to contact the Rural Business Development Corporation to find out more about the scheme and what is required to apply.

More information on the Drought Concessional Loans Scheme in Western Australia is available from https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/drought/drought-concessional-loans-scheme-applications-open or by contacting 1800 198 231 (free call).

For information on Farm Finance, Farm Household Allowance and other Australian Government farmer assistance measures visit agriculture.gov.au/assistance.

The Oil and Gas industry hated this advertisement in the Guardian

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On the 11th of July, Frack Free Geraldton ran this ad (it didn't have the big red x of course) in the Geraldton Guardian. Frack Free Geraldton are associated with the Conservation Council of WA (CCWA). 

10 days later, the Chief Operating Officer of the WA region of the Australian Pertroleum Production and Exploration Association Limited (APPEA) had a letter published in the Guardian. 

He essentially refuted the claims of the ad. 

Then on 29 July 2014, APPEA wrote to the owners of the Geraldton Guardian, West Australian Newspapers Ltd (SevenWest), formally complaining about the ad. 

The CCWA responded, basically declaring the complaint by Michael Bradley and the APPEA vexatious and motivated by a desire to suppress the true nature of the gas fracking industry.

SevenWest ruled in favour of the Oil and Gas industry in many of the points.

Click here to get the PDF of their ruling.

1. The APPEA claims that shale fracking is not the “process of extracting gas”. It says that hydraulic fracking is a technology used to enhance the flow of gas from a well once the drilling is completed and the rig is removed from the scene.

Totally different.

SevenWest actually ruled in favour of the advertisers CCWA in this point, stating that 

"While technically shale fracking is not a “process of extraction” but a method to enhance the extraction of gas, the ordinary reasonable reader will not be led into error by this description. The description is used generally to describe the process in an ordinary or garden variety way."

CCWA said that the APPEA doesn't own the word fracking, nor does it get to decide whether it's a noun, adjective or verb. "Fracking" is an umbrella term just like "mining" is an umbrella term used to describe many different processes that result in the extraction of minerals. 

2. APPEA contends that “toxic chemicals” are not used “to crack deep rocks”. It's the pressure that cracks the rock. 

Totally different.

But SevenWest says that's beside the point. 

Toxic Chemicals are used in the process.

But we only use a little bit of toxic chemicals!

SevenWest says because the ad says "toxic chemicals" are used, along with a drink bottle of water that has mostly turned black, you the reader will be mislead to think that ONLY toxic chemicals are used. But only .05% to .5% of the fluid pumped into the ground is toxic. 

Hope that helps you sleep at night. 

So SevenWest says the statement "toxic chemicals" is an exaggeration. 

CCWA says that as the total volume of water is so large (10-25 million litres per well) even if the toxic chemicals constitute as little as 0.05%, that's 50,000 to 125,000 litres of toxic chemicals being pumped into the earth to kill bacteria, break down minerals and initiate fissures. Per well.

The WA Health Department in their preliminary submission to the WA Inquiry on Unconventional Gas found 195 "chemicals of concern". Some are known as suspected carcinogens, others have been shown to have developmental or reproductive toxicity. Many of the chemicals have NO SAFE LEVEL OF ORAL INTAKE and many have been banned completely overseas. 

But does that image really imply that ONLY toxic chemicals are used?

The image in the ad shows a drink bottle with a syringe. The drinking container is approx 1.5 litres. 

The syringe with the black fluid has a capacity of 30mL.

The point of the image seems to be that it only takes a small amount of poison in your drinking water to render the entire amount non-potable. 

What about this image?

The APPEA has this picture of a lush green field and a big healthy tree at the top of their website, implying that using gas mining or gas usage as an energy source would be associated with such an image. While burning gas might create less CO2 than burning other non-renewable resources, this image implies things that could also be challenged.

The claims of gas being cleaner are being refuted by recent studies. While it may be cleaner to burn, the methane released into the atmosphere during the extraction process is worse the CO2 and many now believe that overall, gas is worse than coal. 

This study from Cornell University shows that when viewed on a 20 year time horizon after emission, the greenhouse gas footprint of shale gas is considerably greater than that for coal or diesel oil, when the full effects of the methane emissions are considered. 

Click here to view study.

3. Frack Free Geraldton says that fracking can “turn our water into a dangerous chemical cocktail”.

The Oil and Gas Industry says using toxic chemicals in shale fracking will not turn our water into a dangerous chemical cocktail.

Frack Free Geraldton and the CCWA didn't say that it will, just that it can. 

And the APPEA didn't say that it can't, just that it won't.

A paragraph in the SevenWest report quoted CSIRO saying the risks of water contamination are low, in most cases.

However, the CSIRO website adds that the risks are low WHEN MANAGED PROPERLY.

This is a self evident statement however, as any contamination that has occurred can obviously be chalked up in hindsight to poor management. 

What the APPEA and the Oil and Gas Industry in general haven't convinced the world of is that "this time" they'll manage it properly. 

In addition to this...

SevenWest state in their report:

"That illustration (the water bottle) would appear to reflect a substantial contamination of the water by the black “toxic chemical” fluid. In the order of 70% of the water appears to be substantially “contaminated” by the black fluid."

But again, they seemed to have missed the entire point of the image. 70% of the water isn't poisoned. ALL OF IT IS. 

And it only took 30mL to do it. 

Moreover, CCWA say that the APPEA's claims of water never being contaminated by fracking are based entirely on a narrow interpretation of the term "fracking". They say there is extensive documented evidence of fracking well failure and subsequent leakage (of gas and fracking chemicals) into ground water. 

SevenWest concluded this point by stating:

CCWA have not produced any evidence that hydraulic fracking fluid has in the course of any hydraulic shale gas fracking process permeated a fresh water aquifer. Its contentions are against the scientific literature. The advertisement is misleading in this regard.

But by SevenWest's own acceptance of the term "fracking" applying to the entire process of gas extraction, the CCWA HAS produced evidence that fresh water has been polluted. 

In fact, they linked to a very thorough study that you can read here:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264817214000609

Here's a taste:

"poor well integrity is a far more likely cause of elevated concentrations of thermogenic methane in shallow groundwater and water supplies than pathways induced solely by hydraulic fracturing. Examples of leaks in shale gas wells have been reported and fines imposed."

In other words, the upward propagation of hydraulic fractures may not be the direct cause of the contaminations of fresh water aquifers, but other parts of the overall gas extraction process have demonstrably contaminated drinking water numerous times in the past.

Why SevenWest chose to semantically interpret "fracking" in this case, but accept that it applies broadly to the entire process in point 1, is unclear. 

4. “Research in the US has found that 6% of fracking wells leak into ground water in the first year”

CCWA has admitted that this statement is not materially correct.

And the APPEA are chalking this one up as a win. 

But, they should have read the response from CCWA. 

“We have reviewed the report and agree with Appea to the extent that Professor Ingraffea’s findings related to well barrier or casing integrity failure which does not necessarily mean that leakage into groundwater has occurred in all cases. On further consideration, a more accurate statement would perhaps be that “6% of fracking wells leak into groundwater, surface water, soil or air in the first year”

So instead the ad should have read:

6% of fracking wells leak into groundwater, surface water, soil or air in the first year. 

It's not likely to make the public fond of fracking, to know that risks apply to groundwater, surface water, the soil and the air we breathe. 

The CCWA states that the claims by the APPEA that fracking has not caused contamination of aquifers are misleading and rely on a narrow definition of fracking designed to exclude well casing failure, surface spills, wastewater re-injection, and other common causes of groundwater contamination due to the fracking processes.

But SevenWest still ruled that the original statement is "misleading and deceptive".

7. Once our water is contaminated, it will be forever

APPEA challenged this, saying someone probably would be able to clean up our drinking water if a fracking company accidentally poisoned it. 

But the CCWA said that there are no regulatory requirements in WA for contaminated groundwater to be returned to its original state. They also assert that remediation measures do not actually exist for all of the chemicals which could pollute our ground water. 

The CCWA also assert that while it may be possible for remediation of contaminated groundwater, it's not possible to bring it back to its original unaltered state, even if it is technically drinkable again. 

The APPEA provided SevenWest with some links to publications of how to clean up contaminated ground water, which record that to a greater or lesser degree, and depending upon the particular circumstances, remedial steps can be taken to resolve or alleviate water contamination.

So to a "greater or lesser" degree, if your drinking water gets poisoned, it's technically possible, depending on the circumstances, maybe, to possibly make it usable again, even though there's no legal requirement to do so, and the companies who do engage in fracking have made no commitment to do so.

Comforting. 

The short TV advertisement from Clean Water Healthy Land about the risk of gas fracking that the Geraldton Guardian ad was based on. 

What do you think of Andrew Forrest's proposal for welfare reform?

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You may have read about it last month. Mining billionaire Andrew Forrest, who works closely with Aboriginal communities in this state's north and has sunk a lot of money into helping local communities, has sent a very controversial proposal to the Abbott government. 

Pic: Wikipedia

Basically, under Mr Forrest’s plan, all welfare recipients, with the exception of aged pensioners and veterans, would be forced into income management with no discretionary spending. Essentially the goal is to make it impossible for welfare recipients to spend the money they are given on drugs or alcohol. 

Mr Forrest spoke with 7.30 WA;

"This is not income management, this is not welfare quarantining, this is full value but in the form of a debit card just like all of us have, just a debit card out of your wallet," he said.

"There's no stigma attached, it's just cashless so you do the drug barons out of a job, not your child out of a job."

"We won't get a different result by doing things the same way." 

Watch the interview and read more about the proposal here. 

New Fine Art Gallery Opened

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Congratulations to Erica Faith Lansley on the opening of the new Lansley Fine Art Gallery and Studio. 

The Gallery is located on the North West Coastal Hwy, across from Shell. 

The opening was attended by members of the local tourism industry as part of the Geraldton Visitors Centre's "Sundowner" on Monday evening. 

Getting your groceries home delivered in Geraldton

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When I moved to Geraldton 8 years ago, I remember going online to try and order my groceries. I was rather frustrated to discover that there was no such service available here. 

Time went on, and eventually Woolworths rolled out home delivery for the city, but I no longer did the grocery shopping; that task was carried out usually by my wife. We had discussed trying home delivery once or twice, but the hassle of figuring out how to do it at the time seemed to outweigh the convenience of our existing shopping routine. 

Then one month life got extremely hectic. A combination of sickness, work demands, exhaustion, multiple young children as well as high school aged children left us with very little time and energy to get the weekly grocery shopping done, so we gave home delivery a go. We jumped on the computer, followed the prompts, ordered our items, and hoped for the best. 

Sure enough, the food rocked up when promised. The cold stuff was cold, the fruit and veg wasn't rotten, and from memory most of the items were correct. 

The home delivery option was still relatively new for the Geraldton Woolworths store, and often there would be mistakes in the goods supplied. But a friendly phone call always had the matter sorted quickly or money refunded as needed. 

We still needed to duck out and get extra milk, organic produce that Woolworths lacked and other bits and pieces here and there, but we continued to order online each week, usually on the iPad in front of a movie on a Thursday evening. 

One day a few months ago, we needed our groceries delivered at a time that Woolworths were unavailable. I forget whether it was a public holiday or something, but the end result was my wife and kids headed to the shops to purchase the week's groceries. 

When they returned, there was nothing but praises for the magical wonder that is home delivered groceries. 

"We had to handle the food 5 times!" my wife exclaimed. "Into the trolley, out of the trolley onto the check out, back into the trolley, into the car, then out of the car into the house."

It seems home delivered groceries is a bit like air conditioning; once you've had it it's hard to live without it.

So I suggest you never get your groceries home delivered as it's hard to go without it once you've tried it. 

 

 

*Footnote: We also seem to spend less when ordering online. Perhaps it's the ability to see the total as you select items, or perhaps it's the reduced temptation for items you don't really need. 

These Gero girls are making money on social media

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A group of entrepreneurial teenage girls in Geraldton are using Instagram to run small business selling pre loved clothing. 

Member of the group Rosina Hubble says "Our Instagram page is run by a few young Geraldton girls, selling our pre-loved clothes all at really cheap prices and all prices are negotiable."

The sizes range from 6 to 13. 

Using an iPod touch, a free Instagram account and an Internet connection, these resourceful young ladies have found a way to generate a bit of cash. 

Check out their instagram account here:  

http://instagram.com/buy_our_clothessss

GFEST eXtravaganza!

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Travel back to the Swinging 60s and the famous Whisky A Go Go Nightclub in the spectacular Spiegeltent! Dress to impress with beehives, minis, mop tops and stove-pipes.

MC Famous Sharron – introduces a stellar lineup:

  • King of Swords
  • Aerial Manx
  • Sideshow Superstar Shep Huntly
  • Coco Poppin
  • Scarlet O'Harlot of Sugar Bue Burlesque
  • And a raucously outrageous drag Show – 60s Divas with and boots that were made for walking!

Tickets $50 or $60 at the door, online www.gfest.com.au or ACDC, 33 Marine Terrace Geraldton.

Elizabeth Pedler to reside in Geraldton as part of artist program

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Artist Elizabeth Pedler will be in residence at Central Greenough from September 22 until October 20, 2014 as part of the City of Greater Geraldton’s Central Greenough Artist in Residence Program.

During her visit, Elizabeth will be creating a new body of work and inviting the community to engage with her and practice in a range of arts.

Based in Perth, Elizabeth’s artwork takes on many forms including new ways to generate participation and interaction in art spaces that use materials such as mirrors, light, sound, styrofoam beans and even conversation.

While in residence Elizabeth will be creating a series of artworks which respond to the sensory environment of the Central Greenough buildings to create subtle but affecting experiences for the audience. 

As she is yet unacquainted with Geraldton, Elizabeth will be inviting members of the local community to join her for a meal and to share stories about life in the area.

Elizabeth will be presenting an artist talk at ACDC Community Gallery as part of the Sunset Salon series, discussing her art practice and the processes of making art. 

There will be workshops open to all members of the public to collaborate on sensory perception and participation. More information on these workshops and the Sunset Salon series can be viewed on http://www.acdcarts.com, or contact ACDC. 

At the completion of the residency period, Elizabeth will be opening up a space at ACDC for an exhibition from October 17 – 19 at 12 - 6pm each day, Elizabeth will also be present during these times to answer questions about her new works.

On October 18 there is a potluck event open to all audiences to join the Elizabeth for a shared meal and celebration.

More details on these events can be seen on the Queens Park Theatre website: http://queensparktheatre.com.au/arts.

For more information about the artist, visit http://www.elizabethpedler.com.

Another dumped vehicle at Greenough

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Picture: Leah Gardiner

This ute has been abandoned since May. 

Another burnt out vehicle has been dumped at Greenough Beach.

Everything Geraldton user Leah sent in the above image and says the ute has been abandoned right in the middle of the sand tracks south of the Greenough River mouth.

In May of this year, two vehicles were also abandoned on the beach and one is still there - 4 months on. 

"We we walking and came across this ute still there after more than 4 months of being tosed around with the winter swells," Leah said. 

"Couldn't believe it was still there must admit it did look worse for wear though."

Early intervention for youth crime hindered by budget cuts

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Budget cuts to local organisations were a conversation point at today’s crime forum held at the QPT. 

The forum, hosted by Federal Member for Durack Melissa Price, went ahead despite Federal Minister for Justice, Michael Keenan, unable to attend due to overnight raids in Sydney.

Ms Price was joined by the City of Greater Geraldton Manager Community Law and Safety Konrad Seidl, Police Superintendent Andrew Greatwood, Senior Sergeant Martin Haime and Commander Murray Smalpage.

Today, Ms Price said the Coalition Government had delivered on its commitment to address crime and anti-social behavior with $440,000 announced for CCTV footage around Geraldton including the Esplanade, HMAS Sydney II Memorial and Car Park 5 on Sanford Street. 

But not everyone was pleased about the approach.  

Jenny Allen from the Geraldton Regional Community Education Centre said more money needed to be put into early intervention programs rather than have the focus on catching criminals.

“CCTV is about catching people but the programs we offer are about early intervention,” she said.

“We really need some focus on that in Geraldton.”

Some youth focused programs delivered by the Geraldton Regional Community Education Centre will not go ahead next year due to Federal Government budget cuts.

“Unfortunately it has been a really tough week for me, because I’ve had to tell a number of our staff that they won't have jobs next year - these are our youth workers,” Mrs Allen said.

“And that’s because of cuts in funding, particularly Federal Government funding into youth programs.”

In earlier talks in the forum, Midnight Basketball had been discussed as one of the City’s most successful programs for youth and crime prevention.

However, with Federal budget cuts many of those who were involved in Midnight Basketball will no longer be part of the program.

“The success of Midnight Basketball is partly due to 4 of our staff who are paid to go and support the program and a number of those staff members will not have a job next year,” Mrs Allen said.

“We will continue as an organization but I am concerned about those particular funding cuts and for example, Midnight Basketball, you’ll have 4 less staff there to support that next year.”

Ms Price said she agreed with Mrs Allen and that she was still fighting that battle.

“In terms of youth connections, I’m really disappointed that that money was cut, and as Jenny knows, I’ve written to the state Government and I’ve also written to my federal colleague to ask for at least to have that extended,” she said.

“And it may be too late for the people Jenny unfortunately had to let go, but I’m still fighting that particular one.

“I’m very concerned about young people in Geraldton, and listening to Conrad talk about the great work that the Council is doing, it’s a real shame to think that those sorts of programs will be affected.

“I haven’t given up, I do acknowledge the work that Jenny and her team do, it is an issue and unfortunately money is too tight to mention at the moment.

“I don’t want to get political, and I won't, but we are doing the best that we can considering the circumstances, but there is no doubt that it is an issue and as I said today on radio today, education, education, education is what we need to give young people, and I know Jenny was providing a great service for those kids who didn’t fit the main stream model and to give them some skills for them to go out and get a job give them something worthwhile to do with their lives.”

Local resident Michael Warner gave his opinion on the issue saying there wasn't enough early intervention with youth and crime. 

“I don’t want to get into Indigenous youth or Caucasian youth but I have to agree – what are we doing to mitigate the crime before it even starts?” he said.

“It seems to me that what we have is faginism, what we have are people that preying on disadvantaged youth and disengaged youth. Why do we have them? Because the federal government has ripped so much money out of programs that we can’t cope anymore.

“The Police are doing the best job and I congratulate the Police on the high profile that they’ve made in the last 6 months, but I really would like an answer to this – what are we doing about engaging the families and getting them to accept the responsibility of their children, because after all, that is one answer.”

Ms Price went onto reply that money wasn't the answer.

“I know that the Prime Minister has a personal commitment to improving the lives of Aboriginal people, and going through the numerous programs, community groups, non-community groups, we all know there are hundreds of them costing all of us, Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, billions of dollars so guess what? Money wasn’t the answer,” she said.

Walkaway farmer vs politicians who don't believe in climate change

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“No-one can tell me that global warming is not happening.”
— Bruce Garratt, Walkaway Farmer

Bruce Garratt owns the property that those majestic wind turbines inhabit that you see when driving past walkaway. 

ABC's 7.30 recently did a report on the proposed changes to Australia's renewable energy target. 

Current legislation mandates that by 2020, 20% of our energy must come from renewable sources like wind and solar. 

But that target is now under review, with some politicians claiming climate change isn't real, and there should be no target at all. 

Click here to watch the seven minute video.

Get ready for the G-FEST Arts Spectacular

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Get ready for the G-FEST Arts Spectacular from the 3rd - 12th of October!

A ten day explosion of art, culture and community.

The Fringeworld De Parel Speigeltent makes it's first ever appearance in Geraldton in Queen's Park for 10 days of art and cultural events.

We have a range of exciting shows for the whole family! Check out our flyer or visit our website for more information. We hope to see you all there!

The 50 Cent Swing will be back!

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The Merry-Go-Round when it was a swing. Picture: Phil Duperouzel

Geraldton's iconic Merry-Go-Round by the Sea, otherwise known as the 50 Cent Swing, has been removed but don't worry - it will be back!

The 50 Cent Swing is not actually a swing anymore after it was made a fixed structure in 2010. 

A statement from the City said the Merry-Go-Round had only been removed for refurbishment.

"It has been cleaned, restored, galvanised and painted and will be returned as a fixed structure providing seating in the new youth space/Geraldton Visitor Centre area," a City spokesperson said.

"It will be fixed on a concrete plinth with interpretive signage about its history and surrounded by timber decking linking the two areas."

The location of the 50 cent swing, next to the old Railway building is currently under renovations.

The Heritage listed building, Geraldton’s first Railway Station located on Marine Terrace, will soon be home to the Geraldton Visitor Centre and the City are refurbishing the whole area.

Credit card parking payment facilities now available at Geraldton Airport

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Parking at Geraldton Airport can now be paid by credit card. The facility was activated on August 13 and the new fees and charges as adopted in the City's 2014-15 Budget on July 1, have now come into effect.

Parking fees remained at the former rates until the credit card facility was activated removing the necessity for people to carry cash, and often, use the airport terminal café to withdraw money with their debit cards to pay for parking.

The new fees and charges for long term parking at the airport are now $15 per day with a minimum of $30 for the first two days, and $10 per day thereafter.

For short term parking the first hour is free and then $2 per hour thereafter to a maximum of $20 for 24 hours.

The City say fees generated from parking, and from aviation operations, are used to fund capital upgrades and ongoing operations and maintenance of the airport, removing the need to fund these activities from Rates.

The new car parking areas more than double the long term and short term car parking spaces, overcoming the problem of inadequate capacity that had been a source of complaint by the community in recent years.

The new car parks were built at a cost of $2.86M with additional works this year to complete landscaping.

To meet growing community needs the Council, at its Ordinary Meeting on Tuesday August 26, awarded a contract for an extension to the Airport Lounge to local contractor, Crothers Construction at a cost of $1.861M with total project costs including customer facilities, amenities and furnishings of $2.1M. 

Midwest Charity gains with grain

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Midwest Charity Begins at Home (MCBAH) in conjunction with Ten Tigers – Grain Marketing Solutions, have announced a new grain donation program, exclusive to grain growers.

MCBAH is now a registered deliverable charity with CBH which means farmers can support the charity by donating all types of grain. The accumulated grain will then be sold to buyers by Ten Tigers, a Geraldton based grain marketing advisory service which has been working for WA grain growers since 2004.

Growers can donate grain directly via their CBH Loadnet account. There will also be an opportunity to join the grain donation program at the Gala Dinner on November 29th. Growers who register with the program have a chance to win a one year Grain Marketing Package, donated by Ten Tigers.

Chris Tonkin, Director of Ten Tigers, said that grain donations are a valuable and simple way for local farmers to support Charity Begins at Home this harvest.

“We are a locally owned and operated business, and are happy to be involved with this unique charity supporting Midwest families,” Chris said.

President of Midwest Charity Begins at Home Inc, Chris Dobson said they were extremely excited to join forces with Ten Tigers on the project. 

“It’s fantastic to be able to provide an easy avenue for our grain growers to contribute to Midwest Charity Begins at Home because as a charity, we are here to support the whole Midwest region, including many of their farming communities," she said.

For more information on how you can be involved contact Ten Tigers on 9964 9905.

Geraldton students and teachers take part in cyberbully workshops

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Allendale Primary School, Melissa Price Federal Member for Durack, Nola Marino Federal Member for Forrest, at Allendale Primary School where 110 students participated in the cyberbullying workshop. 

New research commissioned by the Abbott Government this year showed that one in five Australian children aged eight to 17 experiences cyberbullying each year. 

The findings confirm that cyberbullying is widespread and that there is significant community concern about whether there are adequate response mechanisms available today.

More than 470 students from Allendale Primary School, St Lawrence’s Primary School and Geraldton Senior College participated in five workshops to learn to be safe, smart and responsible when using technology. A further 50 teachers from Geraldton Senior College attended a workshop. 

Melissa Price Federal Member for Durack, hosted Nola Marino, Federal Member for Forrest, presented the workshops.

Working with local and Federal Police and being on the Joint Select Committee for Cyber-Safety, Ms Marino has been able to identify what concerns young people when using the internet. 

Ms Price said she was concerned about young people’s safety when using the internet and that Geraldton was fortunate that Ms Marino was able to conduct the cyberbullying workshops, which have helped many children and parents over the past years.

“The workshop presentation addressed the risks associated with social media like Facebook and Twitter, cyber bullying, your child’s digital footprint, what it means to be groomed online, your mobile phone and its security weaknesses such as location services and of course, scams,” Ms Price said.

“If you are being cyberbullied, you need to block the contact or ignore it, and tell a parent or responsible adult.”

The workshop participants also discussed unwanted contact, online friends, rude messages and online gaming and how to recognise the associated dangers, as well as strategies for managing them.

The Abbott Government announced funding of $10 million in the May Budget for its policy of Enhancing Online Safety for Children, including:

  • $7.5 million to assist schools to access accredited online safety programmes;
  • $2.4 million to establish and operate the Office of the Children’s e-Safety Commissioner (the Commissioner) to take a leadership role in online safety; and
  • $0.1 million to support Australian-based research and information campaigns on online safety. 

Lenci's dream for Geraldton Dog Rescue

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Locals are urging people to get behind Lenci and organisation Geraldton Dog Rescue.

You can vote for the organisation's dream to win a grant to help towards the costs of building a facility for unwanted dogs until they can be re-homed.

Geraldton Dog Rescue has been operating in the Midwest for 12 years. Dogs that have not been collected from the City Pound by their owners are taken into care, have their vet work done, including sterilisation and are placed into foster homes in the community.

GDR have limited carers available and that limits the number of dogs that can be taken into care. Dogs are left behind to be euthanised simply because there is nowhere for them to be housed.

GDR is run solely by volunteers with people contributing not only in time but financially to their work. In 12 years of operation GDR has saved very close to 3000 dogs from euthanasia.

Click here to vote for GDR's Dream


Introducing the new look Everything Geraldton website

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We'd like to take a moment to introduce the new look Everything Geraldton website. 

For the last 3 weeks we've been working around the clock to get this site ready, and we're very pleased with the result. 

All the features you know and love are still here, including News, Job Vacancies, Rental Properties, Business Directory, Geraldton Events Calendar and others. And lots that were buried on the old site are now much easier to find, such as the "I'm new to Geraldton" section. 

Popular services that had to be accessed through the Business Directory are now only one click away, such as Accommodation, Cafés, and 'Food and Dining'.

There a heap of new features, such as the Best of Geraldton section, which will feature community feedback on what places you think are the "best", like best coffee, or best steak. There's the new Things to do Blog, which we're super excited to get rolling. 

New sections include:

  • Buy and Sell
  • Lost Geraldton (now part of this website)
  • Births Deaths Marriages
  • Community Questions (dedicated section)
  • Council Information
  • Employment Wanted (many requests for this one)
  • Facebook Groups
  • Garage Sales
  • Gig guide (free to post on)
  • Letters to the editor
  • Lost and Found
  • Public notices
  • Surf Report (well, it's a link, not a section)
  • Weather (back with bells on)
  • News archives (easy to browse by date, category or author)
  • Things to do Blog

Plus we're working on some more great features we plan on rolling out over the coming months.

To coincide with the revamp, we've refreshed our logo and colour scheme. Updates to the apps are on the way. 

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In addition to all the new content, we've made it easier than ever subscribe to just the content that interests you. Head to the "Subscribe to EG" section to choose from 11 different emails to subscribe to, as well as RSS feeds (if you know what the heck an RSS feed is).

So why the heck did you change it?

It's always frustrating when you know how to use a particular website, then they go and move the buttons... and with 15,000 weekly users of this site we're sure some of you will be frustrated by having to find things again. Sorry. 

These are the reasons we have changed the website:

1. The old platform was a pain in the butt

The platform our previous site was built on was called Wordpress. It's the most popular CMS for websites in the world, and is a powerful and flexible service. But the large number of different services we offer on Everything Geraldton meant constantly configuring and reconfiguring plugins and themes and installing updates, fixing hosting issues, fending of a constant barrage of hackers, finding and fixing bugs etc etc etc. We spent more time and energy in keeping the website alive than generating the news and content that you actually come here for. 

This new website is built on a platform that reduces our workload considerably, so we can spend more time getting you the information you want. 

2.  We want to be much more than just a news service

The home page of the previous website was very news centric. While keeping you informed of the latest news is certainly one of our core aims, Everything Geraldton's goal is to give you easy access to everything to do with Geraldton in one convenient location. 

The way the old site was laid out meant any new features or services we introduced simply got buried in submenus, never to see the light of day. 

Our new layout gives us the flexibility to introduce a lot more features without having them hidden, and its clean look means users don't feel overwhelmed when visiting. 

Everything is laid out in a logical fashion, with a very limited number of menus; there's one menu along the left hand side of the site (top on a phone), and there's a couple of links at the bottom of the site. And that's it. 

Apart from the very top and bottom, the menu is in alphabetical order for ease of use. 

Some more tips for the new site

Comments - At the bottom of each article is the comments section. You can comment anonymously, like a post by clicking on the heart, and if you want you can subscribe by email to the comments. If there's a discussion you want to follow, just click Subscribe by email above the comment box, and follow the prompts. 

Home Page - The home page displays a selection of content from the site. Above each row of images is a couple of small arrows you can click to scroll and see more headlines, without having to leave the home page. See something you like? Click the image or title. 

More - The menu option "More" expands when you hover your mouse over it, or if on a mobile device, just click it to reveal extra items. 

Categories - Beneath each article is the list of categories that apply to it. To see more items in the same category, just click on the category. If you want to browse all news by category, head to the news archives section which is under "More".

Feature requests - We'd love to know what you'd like added to the site. Head to the contact us page and let us know your suggestions. 

We hope this website will be a very useful tool to serve residents, new-comers and visitors to Geraldton. 

Everything Geraldton
Everything to do with Geraldton in one location.