NewsBite

Our Journalists

Janessa EkertSenior journalist

Senior court and crime journalist Janessa Ekert has worked as a journalist for 13 years. After completing a double degree at James Cook University in Townsville – studying journalism and arts, majoring in French, history and English – Janessa cut her teeth as a corporate lifestyle magazine journalist before making the jump to daily news. She has been a newspaper journalist for 10 years. In that time Janessa has covered sport, business, council, politics, entertainment and community news stories. Janesssa now specialises in court and crime reporting, which has been a focus for the past eight years. In 2020, a road safety campaign and a crime feature earned Janessa two finalist nominations in the Clarions, the Queensland State Media Awards. Janessa has worked as a senior journalist for the Daily Mercury and Cairns Post covering regional news for the bulk of her career.

Latest

BreakingMackay

firetruck qfes firies night Picture: Lillian Watkins generic

Fire crews rush to reports car, garage on fire

Emergency crews are rushing to a Gargett home following reports a car and garage are on fire. DETAILS

How do we get the next generation into mining?

How do we get the next generation into mining?

Resource industry leaders say anti-coal sentiment, and stiff competition from construction is driving current and future workers away from mining as a career path, sparking shortages.

CAREERS AT SOUTH32: We attract people with exceptional skills, who share our values and want to make a difference with the work they do. COAL MINING GENERIC

Average wage $150k but still struggling to attract staff

Workers in this industry earn 56 per cent more than the average Australian, but there are growing fears there won’t be enough staff over the next 20 years.

0

Police & Courts

Sebastian Robert Vonthien pleaded guilty in Mackay Magistrates Court to doing an indecent act for having sex in public.

Skirt up, pants down: Man busted having sex outside Irish pub

A Queensland magistrate has questioned what’s going on with today’s youth after a 22-year-old man faced court for having sex with a woman whose name he did not know outside a Brisbane pub.

‘Not a single cent of Labor’s funding going towards our section of highway’

‘Not a single cent of Labor’s funding going towards our section of highway’

An outspoken Queensland MP has blasted the lack of money earmarked for “some of the most dangerous stretches” of the Bruce Highway, while another called funding delays ‘despicable’. DETAILS

0

Police & Courts

Domestic violence generic hands up

Next step in kidnapping, assault case

The police case against a man charged with kidnapping and serious assault against a woman has been pushed back as lawyer negotiates with prosecution.

VIDEOTownsville

Photos posted on social media from the scene of a horror Greyhound bus crash on the Bruce Highway between Bowen and Townsville. Picture: Supplied

Update on conditions of bus crash patients, family’s heartache after Qld woman killed in bus tragedy

The family of a woman who died in Sunday’s horrific triple-fatal bus crash has spoken of their grief, as it was revealed the woman was travelling with her daughter from Brisbane to Townsville.

0

Photographs taken in the immediate aftermath of a horror fatal Greyhound passenger bus crash at Gumlu on the Bruce Highway south of Ayr on Sunday. The bus driver, picture, miraculously survived. The bus carrying 33 passengers was travelling north when it collided head on with a caravan being towed by a four-wheel drive driven by an elderly couple. Three passengers on the bus were killed while two others remained in critical conditions in Townsville University Hospital on Monday morning. Picture: Supplied

Crash survivor relives horror moment bus allegedly veered into traffic

Fatigue is being investigated as the cause of a Greyhound bus crash, with claims the service was running behind schedule when it allegedly drifted into the wrong lane on the Bruce Highway north of Bowen, colliding with a caravan.

UPDATEDMackay

Fires still rage underground as smoke continues to rise from ventilation shafts.

MP warns workers need support as mine reopening ‘unlikely’

The future of one of the major Bowen Basin coal mines is now uncertain as a fire threatens to burn for at least a week. An MP is calling for immediate support for workers and contractors across the industry.

Police & Courts

Justin Luke Chivers (right) was found guilty to sending an explicit message including penis photo to a massage therapist he met once, when he stripped naked and made her uncomfortable.

Sex pest sends pic after stripping naked in front of legally blind massage therapist

A repeat sex pest has offered $500 as a sorry to the “vulnerable” woman he left upset and distressed after texting her a penis photo and explicit message months after booking her services as a massage therapist.

1
2
3
…
200

Original URL: https://www.couriermail.com.au/journalists/janessa-ekert