Our Journalists

Kate Banville is a news reporter at the Townsville Bulletin, covering Defence, Education and Health. She draws on her personal experience as a 7-year Army veteran to report on matters relevant to the defence community. Kate was awarded the 2018 Ossie Awards for Investigative Journalism by an undergraduate for her ABC 7.30 report and ongoing coverage of a group of combat veterans’ fight against the Home Affairs Department to have their Afghan interpreters relocated to Australia on humanitarian grounds. The case has since been overturned by a Federal Court decision. She has previously worked at WIN News in Townsville and ABC Gold Coast where she started as an intern. Kate is a wife and mother of two young boys.

@katebanville

Kate Banville

Latest

Townsville

Students Josie, 6, Anna, 8 and Grace Taylor, 10 with Isabella Dolan, 11 are learning from home during term 2. PICTURE: MATT TAYLOR.

‘Homeschooling is just too much pressure’

A Townsville mother would rather write off the next five weeks as holidays than put her kids through the stress of trying to school via online amid a statewide systems crash.

Townsville

Scientists have hailed a world-first breakthrough in wiping out up to 90 per cent of deadly disease-carrying mosquitoes in a trial in north Queensland. A female Aedes aegypti mosquito at the JCU lab. PICTURE: MARC MCCORMACK

New cases of virus confirmed in Townsville

Townsville has recorded nine new cases of a mosquito borne virus in the past week.

Townsville

Maiya, 5 and Max, 4 with parents Tanyssa and Josh McGuire announce they're expecting.

McGuire family announce exciting news

Holding up an ultrasound, Josh McGuire and wife Tanyssa’s children announced they’re going to be a big brother and sister.

Townsville

12 North QLD medical miracles of 2019

There are some harrowing stories of what has gone wrong to many young North Queenslanders this year. But thanks to their families and the care they received from Townsville University Hospital and other organisations in the region, they battled and survived.

Townsville

Tennille Palmer and her son Tavita Esekia 18 months who was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer at 5 months and is hoping to spend Christmas at home with his family . PICTURE: ANNA ROGERS

One year on, Tavita home for Christmas

When Tavita Esekia’s mum noticed a growing lump on his stomach in November last year, the baby boy was raced from Mareeba to Cairns and then flown to Townsville in just three days.

Townsville

Nathan’s nightmare workplace accident

It was May 5 this year when Mareeba local Kim Johnson received the call that her 15-year-old son Nathan had been involved in a serious workplace accident.

Townsville

Braylen Macnamara spent 16 days in the paediatric intensive care unit.

Braylen’s all smiles once more

Braylen Macnamara was zooming around the house in his walker like a typical eight-month-old when a terrible accident saw the curious tot pull a burning hot pot on to himself.

Townsville

Neville caught a minor respiratory illness that was exacerbated by his non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis.

Brave Neville gives thumbs up to his medical team

Living almost 800km from a tertiary hospital with a youngster with a complex lung condition would be a concern for most parents, but not Dr Leonie Fromberg.

Townsville

Samantha Hayden went into early labour at just 27 weeks with twins Zachary and Sebastian.

Early arrivals in tough start to 2019

NO AMOUNT of time can prepare a new mum for the journey ahead. However, for Townsville’s Samantha Hayden, time was cut drastically short when she went into early labour at just 27 weeks with twins Zachary and Sebastian.

Townsville

Small cut to hand leads to brain surgery requiring

Camping outdoors and getting scratches and cuts is almost a rite of passage for children worldwide.

Original URL: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/journalists/kate-banville/page/26