Latest news with #southeastAustralia
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Petrol price warning after sudden 60 cents a litre price hike: 'Unjustified'
Australian drivers are being warned to fill up their cars now as unleaded petrol prices soar by almost 60 cents per litre at stations in some parts of the country. Servos have been put on notice over fuel price spikes and warned not to take advantage of drivers as the Israel-Iran conflict causes volatility. Fuel companies in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast are currently increasing unleaded prices from a low of 160 cents per litre to a high of 219.9 cents per litre, according to RACQ. It's the highest prices have been in the southeast of the state for nearly 12 months. RACQ head of public policy Dr Michael Kane said taking into account all market factors, the group would expect prices to spike at an absolute maximum of 207 or 209 cents per litre. RELATED Price hike warning for Aussies travelling to Europe as US-Iran tensions escalate ATO $1,519 cash boost heading for Aussies in weeks Centrelink payment alert for 58,000 Aussies in caravans 'We're currently in the price hike phase of the fuel cycle and while we usually see prices jump, an almost 60 cent hike is unjustified and unfair,' Kane said. 'We're seeing a lot of blame for these higher prices fall on international factors, like the conflict in the Middle East and volatile global oil prices, but these haven't led to a significant increase in wholesale fuel prices, so the massive spike at the bowser doesn't add up. 'Fuel companies in the southeast have a lot to answer for, with some retail margins as high as 52 cents a litre.'Retail fuel prices in Australia are largely determined by global factors influencing international crude oil and refined fuel prices, along with the value of the Australian-US dollar exchange rate, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). Local factors such as the level of competition can also affect retail prices. Cities follow different petrol price cycles, with the consumer watchdog noting that prices in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth were decreasing or facing the bottom of the cycle. In comparison, prices in Brisbane are increasing. Treasurer Jim Chalmers wrote to the consumer watchdog on Tuesday requesting it to be on the lookout for petrol stations using the tensions in the Middle East as an excuse to 'opportunistically' hike petrol prices by more than necessary. Chalmers noted that global oil prices had been pushed up by more than 25 per cent since the start of June from around $62 per barrel to around $79 at the start of the week, before moderating following the ceasefire announcement. "We don't want to see service stations do the wrong thing by Australian motorists,' Chalmers said. "We want to make sure that the market is operating effectively when it comes to the petrol price and what's happening with this volatility in the global oil price, but we call on the service stations to do the right thing by their customers.' Oil prices dropped following the Israel-Iran ceasefire, with Brent crude futures down 5 per cent to $US67.90 a barrel. NRMA spokesperson Peter Khoury has warned fuel prices were likely to increase, but not by as much as some fear. On average, he said drivers were likely to pay about 8 cents more a litre at the bowser. RACQ said cheaper fuel was still available at around 50 per cent of service stations in Brisbane and 60 per cent on the Gold Coast. The group has urged motorists in the region to fill up their tanks now and aim to pay 170 cents per litre or less for regular unleaded. 'Do not go into the weekend with an empty tank, fill up now, and support the service stations that haven't hiked their prices yet,' Kane in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
18-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Bogong moths appear to use stars to navigate 600-mile journey, a first for insects
Each spring, billions of bogong moths fill southeast Australia's skies. Fleeing the lowlands and trying to beat the heat, they fly roughly 600 miles to caves embedded in the Australian Alps. The moths emerge from their larval stage with the tools to make this journey, but no one knows how the 1-inch-long moths navigate their way to the caves. Scientists previously found that the moths could sense Earth's magnetic field with an internal compass. And now, they say they've cracked the rest of the mystery. In a study published in the scientific journal Nature on Wednesday, researchers found the bogong moths use the starry sky as a guide to the caves. 'The big thing that we've discovered here is a very, very tiny animal like a moth, with a very small nervous system, a very small brain, very small eyes is able to interpret the starry night sky and work out a direction to fly in,' said Eric Warrant, a professor of zoology at Lund University in Sweden, who is an author of the new research. Several bird species, in addition to humans, have demonstrated they can use the stars to navigate great distances. And while dung beetles use the light of stars to travel a few dozen feet, no insect had been documented using stellar navigation to travel. 'The bogong moth, as far as we know, is the first one that has been described to navigate using the stars,' said Andrea Adden, a postdoctoral researcher who studies at The Francis Crick Institute in London and contributed to the research. The researchers discovered the moths' stellar navigation ability by capturing wild bogong moths and then suspending the animals on a thin tungsten rod inside in a small, barrel-shaped 'flight simulator.' With their backs glued to the rod, the animals could flap their wings inside the simulator and turn as if they were flying naturally. 'It can rotate freely,' said David Dreyer, a Lund University researcher who is another author of the study. 'It can choose any direction it wants to fly to.' The researchers created a magnetic vacuum to disable the creatures' internal magnetic compass and focus on its other senses. At the top of the flight simulator, researchers projected an image of the night sky, which could be adjusted as they pleased. During testing, the researchers adjusted the rotation of the sky and found that the moths shifted their flying patterns to compensate and set a new heading. But when the researchers projected a randomized, broken-up sky pattern into the flight simulator, the animals got lost. 'The animals were totally disoriented,' Dreyer said. 'That was, for us, like the final proof, more or less, that they actually indeed use the stars for navigation.' In separate experiments, the researchers cut a tiny window into the moths' brains, inserted a glass tube inside a neuron and measured electrical impulses as the star projection was displayed. The researchers found that electrical impulses spiked when specific angles of the sky were shown. The animals did not react strongly when the researchers projected a randomized sky pattern. Warrant said bogong moth eyes have small pupils and they are likely only capable of seeing a handful of the brightest stars in the sky. The researchers suspect the animals might use the Milky Way to navigate. 'They probably see the Milky Way much more distinctly and brightly than we do,' Warrant said. Warrant said the moths likely use their sense of smell on their final approach to the alpine caves. 'They detect a compound most likely that's coming out of the cave — an odor compound which acts as a kind of an olfactory beacon that guides them into the cave,' he said, adding that the smell is similar to that of rotting meat. The moths, which live for about a year, spend a dormant summer in the caves and then return home to where they emerged. Ken Lohmann, a professor in the biology department at the University of North Carolina who was not involved in the research, said it was convincing work and that the experiments were thoughtful and well controlled. 'One of the things that is really remarkable about it is just the way the moths appear to be able to maintain this heading over a long period of time and over tremendous distances using a relatively small brain,' said Lohmann, who studies animal navigation. 'It just highlights the ingenuity of natural selection.' Bogong moths are endangered and were added to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's 'red list' in 2021. The authors said the new findings could help stem the decline of the species. 'The moth population has been decreasing dramatically in numbers over recent years, especially with the drought and the bushfires that Australia had in 2020,' Adden said. 'Knowing that they use vision as one part of the sensory arsenal that they use to guide their navigation may inform protection approaches with respect to light pollution, for example, when the moths get trapped in cities, for example.' This article was originally published on
LBCI
23-05-2025
- Climate
- LBCI
Death toll in Australia floods rises to four, tens of thousands stranded
The body of a man was found in a car trapped in floodwaters in Australia's southeast on Friday, raising the death toll to four, after three days of incessant rain cut off entire towns, swept away livestock and destroyed homes. Police said the man was found near Coffs Harbour, around 550 km (342 miles) north of Sydney. The search continued for a person missing since the deluge began early this week. Around 50,000 people are still isolated, emergency services personnel said, while residents returning to their flooded homes were warned to watch out for dangers. "Floodwaters have contaminants, there can be vermin, snakes ... so you need to assess those risks. Electricity can also pose a danger as well," state Emergency Services Deputy Commissioner Damien Johnston said during a media briefing. Reuters
