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ABC News
8 minutes ago
- ABC News
Work demands a blow for sporting clubs in Queensland's once booming mining towns
It's Saturday afternoon in the small, rural mining town of Tieri in central Queensland and the local footy field at Langerak Park should be packed. The Peak Downs Pirates Rugby League Club is the social fabric of this 700-person town, and fans would normally be hustling to get a prime spot next to the bar, where they could flip open their camp chairs and cheer. But today, there is no game. "I've cried and I'm looking at grown men with tears in their eyes," said long-serving Pirates committee member Samantha Reinke, as she looks over an empty field from the clubhouse and grassed hill. The combination of two mines closing, seven-day rosters and a dwindling population have led to the club folding. "Everybody looked forward to a home game and a lot of people also followed us to the other towns as well, which can be up to two and a half hour's drive," Ms Reinke said. "That's all gone now and there's nothing else to do, so it's very demoralising for the community to lose something like this." The town of Tieri, about 900 kilometres north-west of Brisbane, was established in 1983 as a service centre for the three local coal mines open at the time. Now there's just one. The Glencore-owned Oaky Creek North Coal Mine in Tieri employs about 800 workers and is one of the most productive underground coal operations in the Bowen Basin. But with each new census, Tieri's population declines due to the impacts of fly-in fly-out (FIFO) work. Half of the mine's workforce is FIFO and as the town shrinks, its sporting clubs are rapidly disappearing. Once a hive of sporting activity, touch football, hockey, soccer, gymnastics, indoor cricket, tennis and lawn bowls are all things of the past. The Pirates are the latest casualty. The disappointment and heartbreak are echoed by club president Mitch Reinke and coach Ben Liddell. "We had over 50 people registered to play this season, which was promising, but with injuries and shift work it was very challenging," Mr Reinke said. Before the agonising decision to fold, the Pirates could only field five players for their last match. Mr Liddell was devastated. Pirates diehards hope at some stage in the future the club can be resurrected and return to its glory days. Queensland's Central Highlands are the cattle and coal capital of Australia, and in the neighbouring town of Capella, it is a similar story. The race club and bowls club no longer exist while the tennis club is barely surviving. "Tennis started in about the 1930s here with two ant-bed courts," said Capella Tennis Club's Cathy Murray. "In 1981, we started night fixtures and it was every night of the week and we had 100 people playing but it slowed down during COVID and we couldn't get any tennis players back to play." The introduction of pickleball this year has the kept the gates to the now six courts open. Andrew Jansen is a karate instructor on the Central Highlands and teaches classes in Capella and in nearby Emerald. He said roster cycles and cost-of-living were the main impacts behind a decline in numbers. "The bigger hours people are working, quite often we'll get a phone call to say, 'We can't make it, I'm at work still.'" According to researchers, country clubs and competitions are coming under increased pressure from not only the fluctuating presence of workers and financial strain, but also population drift and impacts on rural life. Dean Miller, a senior lecturer in psychology at CQUniversity, said social sport and sporting clubs were the hub of small, close-knit communities. "The engagement in community and getting more people into sports out there can really help the morale and engagement with social circles … and sport is a really great avenue to do that," Dr Miller said. Participation in sports-related activities offered significant mental and health benefits for FIFO workers, he said. "It can be quite difficult to follow through on those commitments as players or as officials and that will fluctuate depending on their availability and how their workload is at that certain period of time. "We know in terms of mental health and health in general, engaging in physical exercise and activity with social sporting groups or competitive sporting clubs, it's really important." As small communities across the country feel the pain of dwindling numbers and seek solutions to the effects of swing shifts, people such as Samantha Reinke are determined to keep theirs alive. "My goal is to create awareness and perhaps get the NRL [National Rugby League] involved more in helping out the smaller communities," she said. "It would be good to have some sort of incentive for players to come out here and play because it would just boost the town's morale."
ABC News
8 minutes ago
- ABC News
Rugby League 26 video game developer hits back at criticism from players who 'should know better'
The boss of video game developer Big Ant Studios has hit back at criticism of the newly launched Rugby League 26 game, following high-profile players slamming the release. Some players, including Sydney Roosters prop Millie Elliott and State of Origin star Kennedy Cherrington, have criticised their likeness in the game, while issues with the gameplay and the inability to use players in their real-world positions have also caused backlash. Issues ranged from retired players being highly rated, to stadiums being in the wrong cities, while gameplay was also highlighted on social media. Ross Symons, chief executive of Big Ant Studios, hit back at the criticism of likenesses in Rugby League 26. "The ones that are talking should know better because, frankly, they've made statements that really are reasonably outrageous, because we have gone around the world, even to the north of England, just to scan women in game," he told the ABC. "Eighty per cent of our sponsorship money goes to women's sport. We take it extraordinarily seriously. "We actually travelled to capture NRLW players specifically in captures up to Townsville and everywhere. "They were told, 'Please, please be at the shoot because if you're not at the shoot, you won't look like you'. We were very clear. Symons said Big Ant Studios would be attending the NRLW Magic Round to conduct more facial scans to add to the game. "We have offered to capture as many players who would like to sit in the chair. And sitting in the chair takes 45 seconds," he said. Rugby League 26 was highly anticipated, as it came eight years after the last iteration, Rugby League Live 4. Cherrington described the game as "half-finished", while social media was flooded with gamers reporting glitches and errors. Symons said some of the issues stemmed from a compressed rollout timeline, which required the developers to submit the game for disc printing two months before the launch date. He also said that despite calls from the public, delaying was "not an option we were given" and that online multiplayer feature issues were temporary. "Then the product we want people to have is ready with a day one patch, because things change," he said "Even in sport itself, just the nature of sport where things change, where rosters change, injuries occur, ratings change." Big Ant was also criticised for its inability to manage demand on its servers, which locked players out for hours. Symons said the demand for the game was six times higher than expected, and said it had outsold video game franchise members Assassin's Creed: Shadows, Death Stranding 2: On The Beach and Donkey Kong Bananza. "It is number one by a margin and our servers also had that problem." Despite the backlash about Rugby League 26 from users, the fact there is a game for a code played predominantly in just three countries is noteworthy. A large part of that, and the reason for an eight-year hiatus, was the commercial viability of making a game for a relatively small market. Big Ant Studios was the recipient of the Digital Games Tax Offset (DGTO), introduced in 2023 to encourage local game development studio investment in Australia, which allows companies to claim back 30 per cent of qualified Australian expenditure. This funding model is similar to other schemes designed to encourage local filmmaking, and Symons says this program "allows us to take risks that we otherwise couldn't take". "The world would call the AFL, the same with NRL and to some extent cricket, a niche sport. It's our lifeblood and we love it, but no one else wants to make these sports games. "That's where the DGTO really, really does help, it enables to tell Australian stories and in particular, Australian sport because I don't think Australian sport gets a title if it's not for things like the DGTO because it just becomes not commercially viable." Big Ant Studios also made the AFL and cricket video games, as well as a tennis game based around the Australian Open. The Sydney Roosters were approached for comment but did not respond before publication.
News.com.au
8 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Rain set to soak East Coast as flood warnings stretch across NSW
Heavy rain is set to hammer New South Wales this weekend, prompting multiple flood warnings across the east coast. Rainfall totals between Newcastle and Moruya, reached up to 40mm in the past 24 hours and the northwest slopes and plains also received up to 30mm. Sky news meteorologist Helen Reid said the worst of the weather is set to hit Saturday with 24 hour totals up to 90mm possible. 'It has been a cold and wet week across New South Wales, with showers and rain pushing onto the East Coast in particular,' she said. 'The rain and the wind is expected to peak today with the Mid North Coast, the Upper Hunter and parts of the Northern Tablelands likely to get the heaviest falls.' A severe weather warning is in place for parts of the Upper Hunter, Mid North Coast, Northern Tablelands and the North West slopes and plains for heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding and damaging wind gusts in excess of 90 kilometres an hour. Parts of Queensland will also be hit with strong winds extending to all coasts between the Queensland border and the Illawarra on Sunday. 'The strong winds also whipping up larger powerful surf with a hazardous surf warning current for the Macquarie coast,' Ms Reid said. The wild weather is expected to ease on Sunday with showers lingering into the start of the week. 'The complex low pressure system off the northern New South Wales coast is expected to start moving away from the mainland on Sunday, dragging with it the worst of the wind and the rain,' Ms Reid said. A separate cold front is also forecast in Western Australia bringing rain, thunderstorms and hail. A severe weather warning for damaging winds and heavy rainfall is in place for areas around Perth, Bunbury and Albany. Darwin is set to be warm and sunny reaching 31C, while Brisbane is expecting showers and sunny spells, reaching 19C. Canberra will be cool with a top of 13Cwith patchy drizzle. Melbourne and Hobart are expecting to stay overcast with some sun and highs of 15C and 14C respectively. Adelaide should see some sun, reaching a high of 14C.
