The Australian Bite
Sailing with a disability, & tough times for Queensland fishing communities
11 March 2011
Listen and download: MP3
This week on the Australian Bite, we hear how some Queensland fishing communities are having tough times in the wake of cylcone Yasi. Mark Durnan tells us why being in a wheelchair hasn’t stopped him from learning to sail, and we find out why so many young women are taking to farming – outnumbering new male students at a Victorian agricultural college.
Cyclone Yasi brings hard times to Queensland fishing communities.
One month on from Cyclone Yasi producers are still struggling to recover from losses to their industry, not just on land but also out at sea. The driving winds of the category-five system caused widespread destruction to Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef – home to a vast number of fish species. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority is currently assessing the extent of the damage. But reef line fishermen along the Queensland coast between the Whitsundays and Cairns say that the fish that provide their livelihood have pretty much vanished. Some are receiving assistance from Centrelink (the Federal Government’s human services and social security payments agency) but as Nicky Redl found out, times are still very tough.
You can listen to a longer version and video of this story at ABC Rural website
Sailability program offers access to sailing for all
Eleven years ago, a workplace accident forced Mark Durnan to abandon his adventurous outdoor lifestyle and adapt to a much quieter life in a wheelchair.
That was until he discovered a hobby that put the wind back in his sails. Mark first came across the Sailability program in Canberra, and is now involved with the Albury Wodonga Yacht Club’s Sailability program. He and the co-ordinator of the Albury Wodonga Yacht Club’s Sailability program, Don Thompson, spoke to Bronwen Wade.
More on this sotry at the ABC Goulburn Murray website
More girls than guys on the farm
For the first time in its 121 year history Longerenong College, near Horsham in Victoria’s Wimmera region has more girls than guys enrolled in first year studies. Longerenong College conducts vocational education and training in agriculture and land management. It operates its own farm of just over a thousand hectares, with cropping, sheep and beef cattle enterprises, and it offers a variety of skills courses including shearing, truck driving, forklift operation, header operation, using farm records and financial packages, first aid and metal fabrication. Basically all the skills needed to run a farm. So what’s behind the changing gender demographic? And how does the new crop of young women farmers deal with the physical demands of the work? Laura Poole went to Longerenon to find out.
Music: (not in podcast)
Melbourne outfit Husky are soon to release their debut album, recorded in lead singer Husky Gawenda’s backyard bungalow and then mixed in Los Angeles.
Artist: Husky
Track: History’s Door
Album: Forever So (April 2011)
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