Latest news with #PortRiver
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Yahoo
Fresh search launched for teen missing for decades
Police divers are scouring a river bed in the hopes of uncovering the remains of a 15-year-old girl believed to have been murdered more than two decades ago. Melissa Trussell and her mother Rosemary Brown, 33, were last seen leaving their South Australian home at Blair Athol about 2.30am on May 13, 2000. Rosemary's body was located in the Garden Island mangroves weeks later but Melissa's body was never found. Police launched a fresh search on Friday in the Port River estuary at Garden Island in the hopes of uncovering Melissa's remains to provide her family with closure. Divers are scouring a previously unsearched area of water and mangroves on the island's northern side. "This search really does show to everyone that we never give up trying to find answers to those investigations," Detective Superintendent Darren Fielke told reporters. "We are hopeful that we will find Melissa's remains today, but we are not sure that we will." Det Fielke did not know why the particular area near Garden Island had never been searched 25 years ago but a cold case review identified it as a place for further investigations. A number of exhibits obtained in the initial investigation have been resubmitted for forensic testing to see if modern technology might result in new leads. Police believe Melissa and her mother were murdered in 2000, but no one has ever been charged, nor has any motive been revealed. Det Fielke was still hopeful someone would come forward and explain what really happened to the pair. "Twenty-five years is a long time, a lot of water goes under the bridge, people's allegiances change over time, people forget about it, some people don't forget about it," he said. "We are always in there prodding and poking away trying to get a breakthrough." Melissa's father Barry Trussell earlier this month issued a plea for information to help provide closure on the 25th anniversary of Rosemary's body being found. "A parent shouldn't outlive their child … and for a long time (Melissa's disappearance) has messed me up," he said. "I'm hoping some fresh information will finally come to light to help police solve the case." A reward of $1 million is available to anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest of a suspect in Melissa's murder or the recovery of her remains. Up to $200,000 is available to anyone with information that leads to the arrest or conviction of those responsible for Rosemary's murder.
ABC News
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
New 'soul of Port Adelaide' Aboriginal culture centre opens
"I'll play it, then I'll come back and show you how I did it." The deep, hypnotic sound of one of the oldest instruments in the world fills the room as Otis Carter teaches a group of young boys and teenagers how to circular breathe when playing what's commonly known as the didgeridoo. "See my cheek with that bubble there, it's pushing a bit of air through," Mr Carter explained. The lesson is being held as part of a NAIDOC family day at the newly-opened Yitpi Yartapuultiku Aboriginal Cultural Centre on the banks of Adelaide's Port River. It's a wet and wintry day outside, but inside the place is teeming with hundreds of excited children, dashing between drawing and painting, weaving, play areas and workshops. A place for Kaurna people to gather and share culture and stories in Adelaide is a dream come true for elders like 95-year-old Lewis O'Brien. "It started really probably 30 years ago when the old people got together and they said we should have a centre," Uncle Lewis explained. "Yitpi Yartapuultiku means soul of Port Adelaide and it's turned out to be exactly that … everyone comes here now. "It's a community centre that everyone feels happy about, a place of wellbeing and reflection, and you can walk the dog and the kids can play on the playgrounds … you've got the sea at the back, you got a dance ground outside, you got places inside." Yitpi Yartapuultiku Aboriginal Cultural Centre opened on June 1 with a showcase of Kaurna dance, music and culture, alongside a self-guided trail, exhibitions and art and craft stalls. It is estimated more than 11,000 people flocked to the event, something the centre's CEO Lee-Ann Buckskin said she won't forget. "I was in-between the two buildings, the breezeway, and I turned around and I just saw this tsunami of people walking towards me, and I just, at that moment, went, 'goodness me the people have spoken'," she explained. The Port Adelaide Enfield council built the $35.2 million state-of-the-art centre, with the federal government contributing $2.3 million toward a living shoreline at the river bank. The work includes regenerating the entire area with native plants, including replanting mangroves and reeds endemic to the area. The are also plans for a bush food garden. The council's Aboriginal Advisory group and Kaurna elders and community were the driving force behind the centre's design and development. "This place was really chatting for a few years, like five years, I think," Uncle Lewis said. "We met with the colleges, we met with architects, we met with the council members. "You don't waste your time by yarning, you make a very productive design when you do a lot of people, discussing with a lot of different people, and bringing those thoughts together and you become unified and develop place like this." The co-design approach also involved hands-on workshops. "The architects got kinetic sand and the elders sat around a table and had a sense of this place as flat, but with the kinetic sand built the landscape to how they wanted it to be used," Ms Buckskin added. "So, what we see are undulating spaces throughout and that is almost wrapped up with beautiful native plants." Ongoing plans include training in hospitality and tourism, from running conferences at the centre to regular guided tours, along with attracting visitors from the cruise ships that dock in the Port. "Our hope is that our kids get the opportunity to be able to get some employment through the kitchen, out into the conference space and café," Ms Buckskin said. "We're really wanting to have a learning environment for people. "So we'll be looking at offering language classes … a range of different things in terms of artefact making and activities which people are looking for … people booking in classes to learn about native foods." Ms Buckskin explains Yitpi, as it is affectionately known, is a place for everyone to enjoy while reflecting and supporting Kaurna people and community. "It's really a place not only for the broader community to be curious and learn around Kaurna culture and broader Aboriginal culture, but it's a place for cultural maintenance," she said. "And that's really important to our future generations, as in terms of their identity and their cultural practices into the future." For organisers of the NAIDOC family day, events like these make that vision a reality. As the winter winds and heavy rain beat against windows that offer a scape to the cultural dance ground, walking paths and the river bank, a young teenager brings the didgeridoo to life — sparking a smile from his teacher. "I'm just looking around and seeing these kids connected to everything that's happening," organiser Kahlia Miller-Koncz said. "It makes them stronger in their identity; it makes them feel proud." For Uncle Lewis, it is a sign of the times. "We've thought about that for a long time, that we should exchange knowledge," he explained. "We think people are ready to for change, to think in a different way. "How did we last 65,000 years? We didn't do it by aimless wandering. "We did it by beautiful thinking and learning with each other and not be envious of anyone else, just love your own country. "And I think that's the way we should live in the rest of the world."
ABC News
08-07-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Fishing sector to have fees waived amid algal bloom 'uncertainty', which has now spread to Port River
South Australian commercial fishers can apply to have licence and other government fees waived if their catches have been impacted by the state's toxic algal bloom, which has now spread to the Port River. Fishers have been calling on the state government for financial relief amid the ongoing Karenia mikimotoi outbreak, which Environment Minister Susan Close estimates has led to "tens of thousands, if not more, individual animals" washing up dead on the state's beaches. Following talks with the commercial fishing industry, the state government today said affected fishers could apply for certain licence and audit fees to be waived from April to June as part of an initial $500,000 relief package. That announcement coincided with the revelation that the most recent monitoring had detected the algae in the Port River. "The latest results of that monitoring are that indeed, as expected, Karenia mikimotoi has appeared in the Port River and is at reasonably high concentrations around Garden Island and Outer Harbor," Ms Close said. She said while the concentration there was "nothing near like" what was detected at the beginning of the bloom "when we had a massive form of algae that was around the size of Kangaroo Island", it was important that the algae's spread remained under observation. "The testing that is occurring from Port Noarlunga all the way up to Outer Harbor is going to be really useful for us to track not only where it is but its concentration," she said. In a statement, the National Parks and Wildlife Service SA said dolphins in the sanctuary were "not believed to be at immediate risk" and the department would continue to monitor water quality. The government said the bloom was having a "devastating" impact on parts of the commercial fishing sector, and acknowledged catches had declined in Gulf St Vincent, and around Kangaroo Island and Yorke Peninsula. It said commercial fishers could be eligible to have fees — including PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture annual licence fees, and Biosecurity SA Food Safety Scheme and audit fees — waived. "The fishing sector is really reeling because of the uncertainty," Primary Industries Minister Clare Scriven said. "We can provide up to $500,000 in fee relief for affected commercial fishers — so this means that those who haven't been able to fish or who have been out fishing incurring costs but not catching anything will be able to have their fees waived. "That will happen in retrospect for the last quarter, so they can either take that as a credit going forward or they can take that as a refund which may well help with cashflow, which is so important to a lot of small businesses." Ms Scriven urged licence holders to work with their industry associations to apply for the fee relief. "What we'll need to see is that there's been a drop in their fishing. We have catch figures from previous years and then their catch records from this year, so that will be one of the items that will feed into that," she said. "Fees are a significant part of their operating costs — there are of course more, some of which are within government but most of which are not. We'll continue to work with them to look at what is the most appropriate type of assistance." Ms Scriven said that both she and Ms Close were "keen that this [algal bloom] has national recognition". Yesterday, the Greens called on the federal government to declare the algal outbreak a national disaster. Ms Close today said she had this morning spoken to federal Environment Minister Murray Watt about that very issue, and about securing support. "What I've been talking to the Minister about at the Commonwealth level is that we will ask for some assistance with the recovery stage," Ms Close said. "There's a question about the extent to which it's possible to declare it a national disaster on the basis of the definitions that they use. "We're in conversation with them at the bureaucratic level just about whether that needs to be adjusted, recognising that an algal bloom has not previously had such an impact before, whether it's time to update that list." The South Australian Professional Fishers Association welcomed the waiving of fees, but also indicated that the need for support was likely to grow with the passage of time. "We haven't seen the worst of this disaster yet," chairperson Ben Barnes said. "[For] the fishers in this time of need, it'll be much appreciated and we hope to move forward and keep this rolling, because the devastation to the commercial sector is absolutely unreal.
