Rock’n rollers step on to stage for the annual Summertime Riverfest charity event in West End

PA Foundation boss Damian Topp hopes to better last year’s haul of $280,000 to fund cancer research grants thanks largely to a small army of rubber ducks.

About 40,000 of the little critters will race along a 100m course in what is purportedly the nation’s biggest such contest.

YOU might say they’re turning it up to 11 for next Saturday’s enormous fundraiser for the Princess Alexandra Hospital Research Foundation in Brisbane.

Four rock’n rollers from some of Australia’s best loved bands will step out on the river stage for the annual Summertime Riverfest charity event in West End.

Look for Powderfinger’s Darren Middleton, You Am I’s Davey Lane, Jet’s Mark Wilson and Spiderbait’s Kram to kick out the jams under the band name banner of ARC before a crowd of up to 10,000.

Once he leaves the moshpit, PA Foundation chief Damian Topp hopes to better last year’s haul of $280,000 to fund cancer research grants thanks largely to a small army of rubber ducks.

Yes, 40,000 of the little critters will be tipped in to the river to race along a 100m course in what is purportedly the nation’s biggest such contest.

Those betting on the winners stand to take home a $45,000 car, a boat, a $15,000 travel voucher and other sweet prizes.

A few corporate types are also expected to have their own duck race, including bizoids Neil Miller, Mitch Lenaghan, Peter Keyte, Ed Harwood, Aaron Lee, Glen Scott, Rohan Buckley, Craig Dalzell and Matt Gallagher.

Topp hosted a knees up at the Regatta Hotel this week to ramp up interest in the event, now in its 11th year and known for its gigantic inflatable duck “Quackers’’ floating down the river.

In a slightly discordant note, some wag intentionally cut the power cord keeping the 10m x 10m bird inflated last month just days after its launch.

You’ll be relieved to know it’s all been sorted now.

BANK GLITCH

THE new RACQ Bank suffered an embarrassing glitch this week.

Clients fumed on Wednesday as they found they couldn’t access their money or transfer funds.

Phone and internet banking ground to a halt for most of the day, with call centres unable to help. Temporary limits on cash withdrawals also hit ATMs.

“I had a business meeting to cater for and I was unable to pay for it at midday,’’ one irate customer complained.

“Now I am going away for two days and have needed to buy food and bones for dogs to eat and I can’t.’’

The $3.9 billion merger of RACQ and QT Mutual Bank went live just a few weeks ago after more than a year of planning.

“Obviously we are disappointed that our members were impacted and we are working to ensure this issue never happens again,’’ a bank spin doctor told City Beat yesterday about the teething problems.

“A Sydney IT vendor for a number of smaller banks around the country had an outage on Wednesday which impacted RACQ internet banking and banking app.’’

“This is the only unscheduled outage we have had since the merger. Unfortunately (as NAB and Westpac have seen this week) technology is always a challenge.’’

NEW BOSS

THERE’S change afoot at the top of Queensland’s second biggest employer, which surprisingly is not a listed company.

It emerged yesterday that Craig Barke will take the helm of non-profit giant UnitingCare Queensland later this year.

He will replace Anne Cross, a former Telstra Business Woman of the Year winner who is stepping down as CEO after 14 years.

Barke, who has run the Scenic Rim Regional Council for the past nine years, started serving on UnitingCare’s board in 2011 and took over the chairman’s job in 2014.

Since its launch more than 60 years ago, UnitingCare has grown to employ nearly 17,500 staff and gets help from 9200 volunteers to dispense health and community services, including Blue Care.