The biggest stories from July 2021 to land on the front page of the Townsville Bulletin
Refresh your memories on all of the highs and lows to grace the front page of the Townsville Bulletin during the month of July in our highlights package>>
Townsville
Don't miss out on the headlines from Townsville. Followed categories will be added to My News.
JULY 1
Wait line fever
A YOUNG Townsville business owner was turned away from coronavirus testing clinics despite manning a stall at the market attended by a positive Covid-19 case at the weekend.
Poppy Flood spent two days with no idea if she had coronavirus.
The 18-year-old nursing student and business owner tried to find out but said police turned her away from the 1300 Smiles Stadium test clinic on Tuesday afternoon.
JULY 2
City on edge
THE only way out of the current Covid-19 lockdown is if Townsville and Magnetic Island record no new positive cases on Friday morning.
The region has been bracing for the worst with Townsville Local Disaster Management Group planning for a 14-day lockdown.
The crisis started after a 19-year-old health worker from the Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane tested positive to the Delta Covid-19 variant after a holiday on Magnetic Island.
JULY 3
Break out the quarantini
PUBS, clubs and restaurants across Townsville have raised a glass to the end of lockdown.
It was a subdued end-of-work week drinks on Friday night as locals began venturing out of their homes and workplaces following the snap three-day lockdown.
JULY 5
Crisis of confidence
OUTRAGE over the secret cost of State of Origin Game One on local residents has sparked a push to change commercial in confidence rules.
Division 2 councillor Sue Blom and Mayor Jenny Hill will draft a motion to push for more transparency when spending ratepayers’ funds, with council unable to reveal how much money it spent on the Origin bid with a commercial in confidence clause put in place.
JULY 6
Death of the country show
THE death of country shows is looming, Katter’s Australian Party believes, as operators nationally struggle to secure public liability insurance. Businesses in North Queensland are already teetering on the edge of collapse with no public liability insurance providers willing to take on the risk.
KAP leader Robbie Katter has called on the state and federal governments to step up and take action to ensure country shows, and businesses, are able to secure public liability.
JULY 7
Fast and furious
A TOWNSVILLE businessman is fighting back against a “broken” legal system, putting his money where his beliefs are. Frederick Dart, 58, is taking on the law after he was fined more than $1000 for speeding while pursuing his partner’s daughter’s stolen car in the early hours of the morning last year.
Mr Dart admits he broke the speed limit as he gave chase along Riverway Drive about 3am last year, but maintains he was doing the right thing and that his actions are excusable under the law.
JULY 8
Double header
MOTORSPORT diehards will be in heaven over the next two weekends, with Supercars to stage a double act in Townsville. It has been confirmed there will be back-to-back events in the city, just as there was in 2020 due to Covid-19.
Reid Park is set to come alive this weekend for the NTI Townsville 500 and will be at fever pitch on July 17-18 for the WD-40 Townsville SuperSprint.
The NTI Townsville 500 will feature two 250km races and three-days of track action, while the WD-40 Townsville SuperSprint will feature three races across two days.
JULY 9
Done deal
CITIES Minister Paul Fletcher has used executive powers to approve two Townsville projects securing $55m of the $195m originally set aside to fund the Haughton Pipeline.
The move bypasses state and local governments, which are normally involved in the City Deal decision-making process, after the minister grew tired of project indecision between the federal, state and local governments.
Mr Fletcher has approved $15m for an upgrade of the Royal Flying Doctor Service base and $40m to complete the overhaul of Townsville’s aquarium, Reef HQ.
JULY 10
Psycho killer
A COLD case murder that gripped a regional North Queensland town for almost 40 years has finally been closed.
Mount Isa detectives have officially named Andy Albury, a sadistic killer behind bars in the Northern Territory, as the man they believe murdered Patricia Carlton in 1983.
The 24-year-old woman was found barely alive in a Mount Isa carpark on the morning of October 1 after being beaten with a metal pole.
JULY 12
Smokin’
A PICTURESQUE winter weekend, friendly smiles and heaps of cheers greeted Supercars’ first weekend of the Townsville double-header.
Reid Park came alive over Friday, Saturday and Sunday as Shane van Gisbergen continued his hot run of form in front of tens of thousands of fans.
Mayor Jenny Hill said the best of Townsville was on display for visitors to the region.
“There has been a real buzz in the city and locals and visitors have taken to the streets to soak up the atmosphere,” Ms Hill said.
JULY 13
Clean Machines
THE world’s first heavy vehicle hydrogen trucks could be operating in Townsville late next year after an agreement between a US-based company and the Sun Metals zinc refinery.
Refinery group subsidiary Ark Energy Corporation has signed the Heads of Agreement with Hyzon Motors to acquire five 140-tonne hydrogen trucks.
Ark Energy CEO Daniel Kim said Sun Metals aimed to be the first refinery in the world to produce “green” zinc and to change its existing fleet of 27 diesel trucks to hydrogen.
JULY 14
Show of force
THE might of Australia’s and the United States’ military will be on show in North Queensland from Wednesday, with more than 17,000 army, navy and air force personnel gearing up for war games in exercise Talisman Sabre 21. Over the coming weeks, the biennial exercise Talisman Sabre 21 will feature Australian forces partnering with the US and smaller forces from the UK and Japan.
JULY 15
‘I’m a serial killer’
THE trial of Anthony O’Keefe over the murder of grandmother Elizabeth Kippin began in Townsville Supreme Court. Before he was found naked and covered in blood crouching near a knife and a bloodied fence paling, a court was told O’Keefe stabbed three people amid a drug-fuelled rampage through the sleepy streets of Wulguru.
The next morning 81-year-old Ms Kippin was found motionless on her living room floor. A court heard a small patch of blood stained her nightdress and an autopsy later determined she died from a single stab wound to her chest.
JULY 16
Boom or bust
TOWNSVILLE’S home building industry is enjoying the highest growth in dwelling approvals in the state but facing acute material and labour cost increases.
Master Builders regional manager Emma Peters said it was good news looking at the growth in the number of dwelling approvals as North Queensland was the winner of all the regions.
JULY 17
Sour note
COVID lockdowns across the country have forced the cancellation of this year’s Australian Festival of Chamber Music.
The 10-day festival was due to be held in the city between July 23 and August 1, but event organisers said they were left with little choice after the Covid lockdowns in NSW and Victoria made staging the festival all but impossible.
JULY 19
Bring Maddie home
THE “extremely frustrated” daughter of a Townsville man killed in a crash has implored state governments not to “make it harder than it needs to be” as she is left stranded in Melbourne’s lockdown as she fights to come home.
Maddie Newton’s father Walter was killed in a crash north of Mackay yesterday and her brother is recovering in hospital after the smash.
JULY 20
Silly duffers
THE identities of two men found guilty of one of the largest cattle rustling crimes in recent history have been revealed.
Dezso Istvan Sipos, 58, and Brenton Butler, 36 were sentenced for their involvement in the theft of more than 900 head of cattle from the East Coast Cattle Company in 2014 and 2015.
Police say the complex investigation took more than four years and is a crime rarely seen on this scale.
JULY 21
Hunters target farmer
A NORTH Queensland farmer claims pig hunters trespassing on his property held him hostage and threatened to “knife him” in a violent attack.
Vince Donovan, 69, wants to see urgent action to protect rural landholders after the incident which he said left him drinking from a straw.
“They need to be stopped,” he said.
“These pig hunters they’re just going on anyone’s land when they feel like it, doing what they want.”
JULY 22
Olympic glory
AS Brisbane cracked the champagne and celebrated last night when it was awarded the 2032 Olympic Games with a massive majority vote, local leaders were reminding the Queensland government the Games needed to benefit the whole state.
Townsville Enterprise chief executive Claudia Brumme-Smith said while the Olympics news was positive, the peak tourism body wanted to ensure it benefited the North.
JULY 23
House of horrors
AN ALLEGED child sex ring running out of a quiet Townsville suburb has been shut down in a massive police operation.
Townsville Child Protection and Investigation Unit charged three people on Thursday at the closure of Operation Tango Rosetta.
Following a three-month investigation, police allege Stephen Ross Lane, 62, operated the ring out of his Kelso home, organising the exchange of girls to other people for their own gratification.
Police will allege Lane and his offsiders then extorted people for money, amounting to $50,000 worth of transactions.
JULY 24
Big plans for Palmer St
QUEENSLAND’S largest independently owned pub and liquor group is making big investments into Palmer St, building land holdings to about a hectare in the eat street’s epicentre.
The Star Group, led by Tully-born, Harvard-educated hotels boss Steven Shoobridge, has bought the former Townsville Central Hotel for $9.5m.
JULY 26
Living in luxury
AN architecturally designed “masterpiece” in Idalia has attained what is believed to be a record price for a home in the suburb at auction of $1.203m.
Competition for the luxury four bedroom family home was hot with sales agent and auctioneer Dean Dank, of Explore Property Townsville, saying “they weren’t mucking around”.
JULY 27
Covid sinks ferry plans
THE Covid-19 pandemic has sunk a $78m project to develop a new hotel and ferry terminal on land fronting Ross Creek in Townsville.
It has joined a $40m plan to redevelop Townsville’s airport terminal as major casualties of the pandemic.
The Townsville Marine Tourism Precinct was a joint venture between tourism and public transport provider SeaLink and Townsville developer Honeycombes Property Group.
JULY 28
Death plunge
A PILOT’S final moments before his handmade plane broke up in the skies above Charters Towers and plunged to the ground have been revealed.
Fresh details about the Van’s Aircraft RV-7A fatal crash in April this year have been released by the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau which delved into the pilot’s experience, the torrential weather he encountered and how the plane came down.
The pilot, Raymond Williams, 74, had been on a multi-day tour with three other pilots all operating their own aircraft when they set off from Winton for Bowen.
JULY 29
Kinky thieves
A LOCAL sex shop owner is fed up with cheeky customers brazenly stealing taboo products. Linda Joy, who owns Cupid’s Cabin in Aitkenvale, said her store had been the victim of a raft of stealing offences so she has begun posting videos of the culprits on its Facebook page.
Among the offenders is a man who stole a 9.5 inch dildo, called the “Black Hoodlum Dong” and another male who stole a vibrator.
JULY 30
Shock arrest
A TOWNSVILLE Catholic school principal has been charged for making child exploitation material.
St Joseph’s Catholic School Mundingburra principal Justen Orford, 47, was arrested and charged on Thursday after a two-month police investigation uncovered he had allegedly been photographing girls.
Police will allege he was photographing girls in “quite open” settings and appearing to undertake normal behaviours.
Police have identified at least three “discrete” victims, between the ages of six and nine, but have a vast amount of material to sift through.
JULY 31
Cruel theft
A TOWNSVILLE boy who survived a freak boating accident on Magnetic Island and almost lost his leg has had his wheelchair stolen.
Andy Simson, 7, was struck by a boat propeller in April after falling from a turning boat in Horseshoe Bay, and was flown to Townsville University Hospital before being transferred to Brisbane for treatment for serious injuries to his leg.
Andy is now recovering back in Townsville but his journey took a heartbreaking turn after the wheelchair was stolen from the family car.
More Coverage
Originally published as The biggest stories from July 2021 to land on the front page of the Townsville Bulletin
Locals rally for Pallarenda clean up
The Townsville community can join together today for the Great Barrier Reef Clean Up at Pallarenda.
‘Not where my focus has been’: LNP candidates remain mum on abortion
KAP leader Robbie Katter has accused David Crisafulli of stealing his voters, while the three LNP candidate hopefuls have stated any law changes are ‘not their focus’.