Latest news with #Burdekin
ABC News
09-07-2025
- Science
- ABC News
Treating sewage with algae a win for Burdekin farmers and community
An innovative project using algae and sunlight to purify wastewater is set to save a north Queensland council millions. In the cane fields of Ayr, about 90 kilometres south-east of Townsville, the wastewater treatment plant swaps chemicals for macroalgae and the sun's rays. Officially opened in June, the plant has already helped Burdekin Shire Council make significant savings, costing $8 million compared to the $30 million required to build a conventional treatment facility. The council is the first local government to implement the technology, with the help of biotech company Pacific Bio. Mayor Pierina Dalle Cort said she was pleased to see the project in action. Pacific Bio chief executive Sam Bastounas said the technology used nature to do the heavy lifting. "This is the first time anyone anywhere has done anything on this scale using algae," he said. The algae work as a filter, absorbing the nitrogen and phosphorus in the wastewater to deliver clean water back to the community. The nutrient-dense algae is then harvested at the facility and turned into a biostimulant used to fertilise agricultural crops. Pacific Bio chief scientist Nicolas Neveux said the goal was to return all nutrients in macroalgae back to the land. Dr Neveux said the product reduced the need for synthetic fertiliser, which had a flow-on effect in reducing nitrogen runoff into the Great Barrier Reef. Burdekin sugar cane farmer Frank Mugica has been trialling the bio stimulant since 2022 on his rotational bean crops. He said he had noticed an improvement in soil health, which brought him peace of mind about the longevity of his farm. Mr Bastounas said there was interest in the technology from other local governments near the reef, including the Hinchinbrook, Townsville and Palm Island councils. "The Burdekin realised change is coming and they've been a pioneering council," he said.
ABC News
30-05-2025
- General
- ABC News
Ayr residents purchase headstone for murder victim Jean Morris's grave
More than 90 years after her death, Jean Morris rests in a grave decorated with fresh flowers and a headstone. She was buried in an unmarked grave just days shy of her 21st birthday, following a gruesome murder that rocked north Queensland's Burdekin region in 1932. This week, the Ayr community gathered to remember Ms Morris's life, after raising funds for a headstone. Ms Morris was a sex worker in a region dominated by sugarcane work, when she was stabbed to death in a brutal attack. Newspapers speculated about perpetrators at the time, and whether members of the infamous Black Hand Gang — an organised-crime syndicate that terrorised and extorted Italian migrants — were involved. Post-mortem records showed Ms Morris's attacker was likely a man known to her, and that she may have been in conversation with him before she died. Her real name is thought to be Anna Philomena Morgan, but media coverage dubbed her "Stiletto Jean", for a dagger she supposedly kept above her bed. There was music, clothing and even a car from the 1930s at a ceremony remembering Ms Morris at Ayr Cemetery this week, during which Reverend Malia Ma'u blessed the gravestone. Henry Petersen has been at the helm of a campaign to remember Jean Morris, whose death he first discovered more than 50 years ago. This week, he stood over the new headstone. "It's hard to describe," Mr Petersen said. He said it was a "satisfying" end to a journey nearly two years in the making. Resident Paula Dowson helped raise more than $8,000 for a headstone. "She lay here in some land that was covered in nut grass," Ms Dowson said. "We've given her the dignity she is deserving of and we've given her, her name." Mr Petersen said the Black Hand documentary with Anthony LaPaglia was what spurred him into action. "They were the words that got me and Paula motivated to do something about it." Mr Petersen hopes people will now visit Ms Morris's grave. "I think people will come out here and just sit here and talk to her," he said. "I'll be doing that myself." For Ms Dowson the headstone is also a reminder of the women being lost to violence today. In 2024, 69 Australian women were allegedly murdered by male attackers. "There's hardly a day goes by that you don't turn on your television and you don't hear of someone being stabbed by their partner or by someone known to them," Ms Dowson said. Historian Bianka Vidonja Balanzategui said it was Ms Morris's career as a sex worker that led to sensationalist media copy at the time of her unsolved death. "We should not remember Anna for how she died, or how she earned her living," she said. "Nor as a helpless victim of the Mano Nera (Black Hand), as history so far would have us think of her. "Rather we should remember her as the sprightly, beautiful, charming, well-dressed young woman she was." Dr Vidonja Balanzategui said her murder had been violent in nature. "And all the everyday Australian women, each extraordinary in their own ways, whose lives and sometimes even the lives of their children are taken from them violently, a scourge that is ongoing."
