Local News

ROY MARTYN | Editor | CONTACT Rob Denton, a 63-year-old married man, has today claimed that his wife of 40 years, Camilla, did the first mannequin challenge over 20 years ago, and “doesn’t think it’s anything to write home about.” “I’ve seen this ‘Mannequin challenge’ thing all over Facebook,” began Denton, “And it took me straight back to the 1990s - not long after...

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact THOUGH THE BABY-FACED PUBLIC servant is well into his twenties, Constable Damien Longshanks from the Broadbeach LAC has chosen his trendiest threads to pound the pavement tonight as a plain-clothed policeman. Tasked with keeping Queenslanders safe from the scourge of public drunkenness and MDMA, the 29-year-old spent some time this afternoon putting together his look in...

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact His parents finally felt safe to bring a child into this world when they saw the sea of Berliners taking to the wall with sledgehammers and crowbars. However, when communism was dying its slow death, it was also a time when the Australian cricket team was also dying a quicker, less humane death. After years, perhaps...

CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT WEST END, Brisbane (QLD) - Despite arriving in Australia as a post-war migrant in the mid-1960s, a local Greek-Australian grandfather says that he thinks Donald Trump will be a great President for America. Not only that, he says that Trump's tough stance on terrorists, immigrants, hippies and the political class is something both Australia and Greece could learn from. Yanni...

10 November, 2016. 11:34 ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact AN INCH OF SNOW blanketed Betoota for the first time in recorded history today. A severe weather alert has been issued by the Diamantina Shire Council to drivers as the first significant snow of winter fell across a large swathe of the Simpson Desert, Channel Country and much of the interior. High-level routes...

CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT The brief four-week lull between the conclusion of both the AFL and NRL football seasons and the start of Summer cricket has resulted in some bizarre conversations about life and adulthood, a local publican has confirmed. Brad Coughton, a 20-year licensee of the Lord Betoota Hotel, says this time of the year gives the punters a much needed...

  CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT Some men of 'that age' buy a sports car, some buy a drumkit. Some land themselves a new job, or wife. Others get a non-specific tribal tattoo. However, one West Betoota dad has decided to seriously underplay his mid-life crisis, which in turn makes it all the more obvious. A New York Yankees flat brim hat, complete with the...

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact EVEN THOUGH HE JUST RECEIVED a life ban from every licensed establishment in Quilpie, bar Billy's Nyngan-style Chinese Eatery, Matthew Lilac says he has no regrets. His auburn-haired partner in crime, Myles Penile, doesn't have any either. Despite being amongst the most feared private school boarders in the greater Betoota region, the pair both agree that...

26 October 2016. 10:25 CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT Local Greek, Toolio Runamakas has made a wild assumption that the two girls standing at the bar of the South Betoota Hotel are not Greek. But he's gonna check, just in case "Hello ladies, my name is Toolio. I was just wondering... Do you girls have any Greek in you?" The girls, Sarah and Sophie (both 22) who...

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact Eliott Franklin's afternoon routine hasn't changed a whole lot since he graduated top of his class in theatre history and performance media. The arts graduate checks the tyre pressure on his bicycle, then loads up Kid A by Radiohead for the 40-minute ride to work. He's a 25-year-old who works weekends - a magical time...