Latest news with #Mallee
Fox Sports
07-07-2025
- Sport
- Fox Sports
Cubs 3rd-base coach John Mallee ejected from game against the Cardinals
Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago Cubs third-base coach John Mallee was ejected from a game against the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday night. In the bottom of the third inning, Cubs left fielder Ian Happ hit a grounder to first with the bases loaded and no outs. As Willson Contreras attempted to apply the tag, Happ dove out of the way, but was ruled out for leaving the basepath. A heated conversation ensued between Cubs manager Craig Counsell and first base umpire Adam Hamari, and Mallee was ejected in the aftermath. The play was ruled a groundout as Chicago took a 6-0 lead over the Cardinals. The 56-year-old Mallee has been the Cubs' assistant hitting coach since 2024. He also was a member of Chicago's coaching staff from 2015 to 2017 and was a part of the 2016 World Series championship team. ___ AP MLB: recommended
News.com.au
06-07-2025
- News.com.au
‘My son took his own life – this is what I want every parent to know'
Warning: This article discusses suicide and might be upsetting for some readers I glanced out the window and saw a police car coming down our farm driveway. It was January 2018, the middle of a dry Mallee summer. My husband, Mick, had already done his usual morning rounds – checking sheep and water before calling it a day early, and we'd just finished dinner when the dogs started barking. At first, I figured it was one of those routine firearm checks we'd heard were happening on local farms. That's what I told myself, anyway. But something about it didn't feel right. I stayed inside while Mick went out to meet the officer. He was out there longer than expected. Eventually, I stepped outside to see what was going on. Mick looked pale, like all the colour had drained from his face. The policeman still hadn't gotten out of the car. When he finally did, he didn't head for the shed like I'd assumed. He walked straight toward me. 'Suzi?' he asked. 'Yes.' 'Your son is Murray James Chesser?' 'Yes.' I swallowed hard. He paused. 'Have you been contacted by someone else?' 'No.' Then, the words I'll never forget: 'There's been an incident. Murray has passed away. It appears he took his own life.' In that moment, time froze. My feet turned to concrete. I was numb. Everything around me blurred – it was exactly like they say in the movies: everything in slow motion, like I was outside my body, watching it all unfold. I don't remember much after that. Just fragments: Mick pouring us a scotch. Us drinking most of the bottle. I sat at the kitchen table in silence while Mick made the heartbreaking calls to our family and friends. For most of us, grief is something distant – until it isn't. These scenarios happen to someone else, until they land on your front door and rip your world apart. That night marked the beginning of the most painful experience of my life. To me, grief doesn't end. People say time heals, but I don't know – sometimes I feel like the longer it goes on, the worse it gets. You just learn to function alongside the pain. When I wrote my book Grief, I wrote the book I felt I needed when he died. In Grief, I share some of the tools that helped me keep going, tools that I want every family, every Australian, to know. Asking a confronting question could save a life One of the hardest things about suicide is how often it blindsides families. We assume someone would say something – but often, they don't, or they feel they can't. If you notice signs or have a gut feeling someone's struggling, trust it. It's better to ask and hear 'no' than to stay silent. At the very least, they'll know they can come to you – and that talking about suicide is okay. You can ask directly: 'Are you thinking about suicide?' It's confronting, but research shows it won't plant the idea. For some, it might be the first time they feel safe enough to speak. And if they say yes, it opens the door to connection, support, and next steps. Listen with compassion, not solutions. You don't need to fix it – just be present. Encourage them to seek professional help. You're not expected to have all the answers, but your support could help save a life. Grief never goes away – you just learn to function alongside it Grief is not something you fix. It's not something you solve. Everyone grieves differently. People mean well and want to help but often they don't understand that grief is such a lonely journey. You can't fast-forward through it. You can't erase it – you can't go back and change things. You just have to function alongside it, put one foot in front of the other, and take each day as it comes – easier said than done, a lot of the time. Being strong isn't always the answer Being strong isn't always the answer. Sometimes, I get tired of being strong – I just want to fall apart. Grief forces you to sit with the pain and start to understand how the brain works: it searches for familiar pathways that no longer exist. That's why grief is so confusing – the brain has to slowly build new ones, and that process takes time. Your brain keeps searching for them – that's why grief hurts so deeply My beautiful Muzz was gone, but my brain kept reaching for him – expecting a text, a phone call, a moment of connection. I thought about him every minute of every day. Every part of me knew he wasn't coming back, but my mind hadn't caught up. That's the thing about loss – your heart breaks all at once, but your brain takes its time. You will feel emotionally naked After Muzz died, I didn't know who I was anymore. I questioned everything. I didn't want to 'move on' because that felt like I was letting go of him. I still struggle with this today. I was angry, broken, and the only way I could describe it is that I felt emotionally naked. The question 'Why Muzz? Why me?' played constantly in my mind. A friend suggested I study Positive Psychology and Wellbeing to help me understand my grief. Who would have guessed that suggestion would help me find myself? I learned what happens to the brain when we are stressed or grieving, I learned how to lean into my emotions, how that plasticity means we can change. I started to put what I had learned into practice, and I noticed the changes in my own thought patterns and behaviours. I began to understand my triggers and the power of my self-talk and how I can manage my behaviour to my emotions more effectively. I'm still a work in progress, but I'm starting to feel the benefits of what I practice. What tools are on your workbench? My son was a carpenter and his favourite place was the workbench. He was always building something, fixing, creating, thinking. It was where he seemed to be most at peace. Just like Muzz had his workbench full of tools, we all need a mental version – a place to lay everything out, make sense of it, and decide what to keep. This notion stayed with me. So, I created Workbench for the Mind, a practical, self-paced accredited program with Suicide Prevention Australia. We should all do this more often – we need to identify the tools we already have and the ones we still need. What tools do you have to support you with life's daily challenges and stress levels? What habits are you practising to reduce stress? How are you breaking unhelpful patterns and what habits do you need to cultivate to support your wellbeing? Choose life for yourself. A nutritionist once told me, 'Suzi, Muzz is gone, but you are still here. You need to look after yourself.' Those words hit something deep inside. In Beautiful Boy, David Sheff wrote, 'Our children live or die with or without us … We cannot choose for our children whether they live or die … I finally chose life for myself.' I've chosen life. And if you're grieving, if you're lost, if you're asking, 'what now?' I hope you choose life too. You are still here. Choose yourself, choose to tell your story, tell your loved one's story to make others not feel so alone and to give some kind of purpose to the tragedy.
The Guardian
06-07-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Multicolour menace: these hardy daisies love Australian conditions – and are taking over roadsides
Scattered across Victoria's northwest Mallee region is a sea of yellow, orange and green. To the untrained eye, these plants could be mistaken for wildflowers. But ecologist Fiona Murdoch isn't fooled. 'My daughter is 19 now, but I remember dropping her at the kindergarten bus stop, and a little path of gazania was there, so I went to get rid of it,' she says. 'It spread all the way up the road and to her kinder, and I realised how invasive it was.' Since then, Murdoch, who founded Mallee Conservation and is the secretary of stewardship organisation Land Covenanters Victoria, has made a point of controlling the spread of gazania near her property. 'It's been 15 years of constant vigilance,' she says. Gazanias are brightly coloured daisies native to South Africa and have long been recognised as an environmental weed in Australia. But new research has found they are emerging as a highly invasive plant in grain production systems and grasslands, suffocating crops and costing farmers. Sign up to receive Guardian Australia's fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter Fast-growing, hardy and aggressive, Murdoch says the plants are similar to gorse and bridal veil creeper. She says they have 'enough resources to continue growing, flowering and to set seeds even if they have their roots in the air'. 'If you pull it out, it keeps going; it doesn't take up herbicide, so it's hard to kill by spraying, and it's allelopathic, so it stops other plants from germinating.' Gazanias are listed as an environmental weed in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, and the sale of them is banned in SA. But the daisy can still be bought online in that state, and nurseries outside SA continue to stock the plant. The Invasive Species Council is campaigning to have the plants removed from nursery shelves. But advocacy manager Imogen Ebsworth says it isn't just a 'rogue nursery problem'. It's a regulatory failure. 'The best solution is to follow South Australia's lead and ban the sale and trade of all gazanias,' Ebworth says. According to the Invasive Species Council, about 75% of Australia's invasive weeds started as garden plants. Ebsworth says until there were stronger national safeguards in place, the circulation of plants that were known weeds would continue. 'We are relying on everyday Australians to either have a botany degree or realise they need to research legally sold plants to find out if they are a weed,' she says 'That's a system designed to fail. 'That's why we need a national strategy – one that includes proper weed risk assessments and a clear, safe list of plants that shouldn't be on sale.' Bunnings, Australia's largest hardware and garden centre chain, told Guardian Australia that it did not sell plants declared as weeds, but added that the list of invasive plants was different in each state and territory. It said it would continue to closely monitor lists for any regulatory changes and update its plant offerings accordingly. Bunnings' director of merchandise, Cam Rist, says it sells a wide range of locally sourced plants across different stores and works hard to create an assortment that caters to customer preferences and demand. 'As always, we closely follow all relevant local biosecurity regulations and the advice of regulators about the plants we sell,' Rist says. Murdoch says garden lovers could consider buying alternatives to gazanias, such as native daisies, which attract and support local wildlife. She says the weed has now spread 'beyond the point of eradication', but that did not lessen the need to inform people about the risk of new plantings. 'It's about controlling high-priority areas,' Murdoch says. 'Adopt a bit of bush and say to yourself, no bit of gazania gets in here. You'll gain so many environmental credits.'
ABC News
03-06-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Drought-affected SA farmers call for no or low-interest loans rather than 'a handout'
Drought-affected farmers under increasing financial stress are calling for access to low or no-interest loans to help keep their businesses afloat. Emily Morgan, a farmer from Jabuk in SA's Mallee region, said while the government could not make it rain, it could provide low-interest rate loans to help in the short term. "We're not asking for a handout … or free money," she said. "[Even with a] two to three per cent low interest loan we'd be able to borrow some money in the short term to help us get through this really difficult period." Ms Morgan said these funds could be used to buy fodder or fertiliser, or keep staff employed. And it would go a long way in easing the mental load. It follows an announcement that the federal government will funnel an extra $2 million into the Rural Financial Counselling Service and host a national drought forum in South Australia later this year. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited a farm north of Adelaide on Monday to announce the funding which follows an $800,000 commitment last week for financial counselling service providers in SA and Victoria. "This extra funding will allow the financial counselling service to employ more financial counsellors [and] deliver more support to people on the ground," the prime minister said. South-east farmer George Kidman welcomed funding for financial counsellors but said farmers needed immediate support from lenders. "I think it would be remiss of us to not say 'thank you' and anything we can get to help fellow farming families is very welcome," Mr Kidman said. "But I'd love to feel like our governments are putting pressure on the financial lenders on what can they actually do for us now in terms of interests rates and providing real relief now and going into the future." Like many producers across drought-affected areas, Mr Kidman has been spending vast amounts on purchasing feed for his livestock while waiting for rain. "The extra cost has been massive. Over the past two years our supplementary bill has been bigger than it's ever been," he said. "That's where all our finances are going — into the livestock." Southern Mallee cropper and grazier of more than 40 years Richard Howard said he was disappointed to only see more money for financial counselling. "I think the money needs to be put into the grass roots, with interest rate subsidies and things like that, because that's where people are really struggling," he said. "All people talk about is that the bills roll in, there's not much income, and you've got to keep paying them. "Most people have been to the banks and sought the go-ahead for the season, but it doesn't make it any easier. Drought-affected farmers are able to access low-interest loans from the Australian government's specialist farm business lender, the Regional Investment Corporation (RIC). New RIC loan applications from SA farmers have more than doubled in 2025 compared to the same time last year. National Farmers Federation president David Johinke said adequate funding for the RIC was critical, and that the current interest rates and terms needed a reset. "Its funding is uncertain after the end of financial year, next year, and then also the criteria of getting that funding on the ground is something we want reviewed urgently," Mr Johinke said. Federal Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said the government was considering feedback it had received from farmers around challenges accessing the Farm Household Allowance and RIC loans. "I don't want to rule anything in or out at this point," she said. "This is about actually listening carefully to the impacts of the support that is available and what additional support may be needed, and what we might need to do in terms of the existing supports."
ABC News
26-05-2025
- Climate
- ABC News
Mildura 'battens down the hatches' as dust storm takes over
Mildura residents are navigating an orange haze as a dust storm sweeps over the regional Victorian city. Police are directing traffic across town, as it gets harder for motorists to see. Real estate agent Katrina Wootton said while it was not that unusual for Mildura, it was the first dust storm in a while. "The Mallee dust is just rearing its ugly head today," Ms Wootton said. "We're quite used to it, you know, close all the windows and batten down the hatches. Emergency Services are warning people in the area to stay indoors, close their windows and shut their doors. If indoors, they advise people to set air conditioners to recirculate air and to cover your nose and mouth with a mask or damp cloth. "I've been wearing my sunglasses all day even though it's quite dull to keep the dust out of the eyes," Ms Wootton said. "I thought it was going to miss us … but it's getting progressively worse and worse." ABC Statewide Drive listeners texted in to the program and said in Colignan, visibility was reduced to 400 metres. While in Red Cliffs, Sue Eason told the ABC the sky had turned from red to black. "If we look out we can see vineyards … [but] we can only see the first row," Ms Eason said. "My car is blue but it's brown. "Outside we'll have to blow a lot of things down tomorrow." Parts of South Australia have also experienced dust storms as wild weather hits the state.
