Good morning here’s your headlines from around regional Australia and beyond. Scroll down and refresh for weather, road reports and more.
COLLIE: In mid- September 1894, three year-old Thomas Lisle Crampton went for a walk with his sister in bush land near their Allanson property.
Thomas’ sister, six year-old Daisy Crampton, had decided to turn back to head home but young Thomas didn’t follow. That was the last time anyone saw young Thomas Crampton.
Perth-based genealogy blogger and researcher Jessica Barratt, has thoroughly researched the disappearance of Thomas Lisle Crampton, scouring old journals and police records to shine a light on what happened that fateful day in 1894. Read more.
WA: A safety investigation has been launched into the novelty items ‘fidget spinners’ following reports of injuries and concerns about some models which contain button batteries. Read more.
MANDURAH: Health minister Greg Hunt and Canning MP Andrew Hastie have announced the federal government will spend $3 million on a new headspace facility for Mandurah.
Mr Hunt said the facility, which would be located at the new Peel Youth Medical Centre (PYMS) Youth Health Hub, would be a “point of light” for youth struggling with their mental health. Read more.
BUSSELTON: The Central Queensland University is set to make a mark in Busselton if councillors approve their application to take on the lease at the old visitor’s centre on Peel Terrace.
CQU study hub coordinator Angela Bancilhon has worked with community members and the city since July to establish a study hub in Busselton which would support regional students completing courses online. Read more.
MARGARET RIVER: A Margaret River region fundraising effort to support the national Love Your Sister #BigHeartProject campaign has raised over $400 to be donated to cancer research.
Led by local resident Sophie Marinoni, the drive focused on the collection of five cent pieces, thought to be on the chopping block after the head of the Royal Australian Mint admitted the coin’s days were numbered. Read more.
ESPERANCE: Local lads Phillip McDonald and Jack Oorschot, both 17, got an insight last week into what happens to their college’s wool clips after it goes out the gate.
Year 12 students at WA College of Agriculture Cunderdin, they were part of a student group which on Wednesday (May 10) toured the Westcoast Wools Pty Ltd wool stores, the Australian Wool Testing Authority (AWTA) and the Western Wool Centre (WWC), all in Bibra Lake, Perth. Read more.
NORTHAM: A war of words has broken out between local State MPs on the future of the Avonlink train services that runs daily between Northam and Perth.
This week the Advocate published a story about the uncertain future of the service and since then it has been revealed there is no money allocated to the service for the 2017-18 financial year.
With funding ending on June 30, Labor MP for the Agricultural Region Darren West said he would be meeting with Treasurer Ben Wyatt, Transport Minister Rita Saffioti and Regional Development Minister next week to discuss the train’s future. Read more.
State of the nation
Need a national news snapshot first thing – well, we have you covered.
► MAITLAND, NSW: The grieving families of two teenage girls killed in a crash on a horror stretch of the New England Highway in 2015 came to court on Thursday in search of justice. Justice for Tori Earl, 18, and Kendall Burke, 19. The words were emblazoned on their shirts and in the forefront of their minds. But the two families say they left “disappointed” after the driver responsible for causing the horrific crash that killed the teenagers avoided a jail term.
► PEECHELBA, VIC: A farm worker has been sentenced to nine years in jail after a failed plan to inflict a deadly Romeo and Juliet-style ending to a relationship. Thai national Charan Hannarong, 40, was sentenced on Thursday for the attempted murder of his girlfriend, and will serve at least six years before he is eligible for parole and deported back to his home country.
► QUEENSLAND: The federal government has approved the use of Commonwealth funds for an industry led research and development levy. Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce said the government was committed to supporting the thoroughbred breeding industry.
► ARMIDALE, NSW: A man has been extradited from Queensland and sentenced to two years jail for two alcohol-fuelled attacks two years ago. Brendan Cutmore will spend at least 12 months behind bars after bashing a pregnant woman and a man in separate incidents in April and June 2015. The 27-year-old limped into the dock of Armidale Local Court on Wednesday in shorts after he was extradited by police from the Armidale Target Action Group on Tuesday.
► STAWELL, VIC: On August 4 last year, the lives of Stawell sisters Liz Harrington and Kelly Curran were “normal”, but that quickly changed when their mother was diagnosed with bowel cancer the next day. “It was just like walking over a dark, dark line,” Ms Harrington said. “We thought our mother was fine and it was in really trying circumstances that we found out her diagnosis.”
► ORANGE, NSW: Fly-in, fly-out medical specialists should be subject to the same safeguards as locally-based doctors, a review into the under-dosing of chemotherapy to patients in Orange has found. The NSW Upper House committee into the under-dosing of cancer patients treated by Dr John Grygiel in the Western NSW Local Health District, St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney and at Macquarie University Hospital, delivered its findings on Thursday.
► BENDIGO, VIC: The City of Greater Bendigo has spent close to $100,000 of ratepayer money removing graffiti around the city over the past three years. And the financial impost of this vandalism has nearly doubled for the city over the past year – up from $22,000 in 2015/16 to $39,000 in the current financial year.
► ILLOWA, VIC: Illowa Poll Hereford breeder Clinton Baulch has had good luck come in threes with a rare birth of triplet calves at his property. Mr Baulch, who established Jaclinton Poll Herefords in 2008, said all of the triplet calves were bulls, which he understood was about a one in 400,000 chance.
National news
► Differences in body clocks that determine whether people perform better in the morning or evening can affect how well they work together in a team. Research from the University of Sydney shows that emergency workers and surgical teams perform best when individual members peak at the same time of the day. Surgical teams, emergency service workers, orchestras and executives in long board meetings would benefit from having people with similar biological clocks.
► One of the largest tax fraud syndicates in the country's history unravelled in spectacular fashion above the clothing boutiques and trendy cafes of Double Bay on Wednesday. With his morning coffee in hand, property developer Boris Markovsky opened the door to his eastern suburbs office to more than a dozen Australian Federal Police wearing plain clothes and leather gloves.
► Australians are working less, even as more of us get jobs. The latest labour force figures show an extra 97,400 Australians found work in March and April – 60,000 in March and 37,400 in April. Over the two months taken together, the majority of the new jobs were full time – 62,400 versus 35,000 part time. Yet the number of hours worked per month fell by 1.1 million. The change appears to have been caused by both full-time and part-time workers putting in fewer hours rather than a substitution of full-time for part-time jobs.
► It used to be much simpler – couples would buy a house and then start a family. But now, we are starting families and then looking for somewhere to rent. In a generation, the number of Victorian families renting has more than doubled. More than 200,000 Victorian families are renting now, according to an analysis of bonds and census data between 1996 and 2016 by the Tenants Union of Victoria.
National weather radar
International news
► Australian nurse and surrogacy broker Tammy Davis-Charles shook her head in dismay on Thursday when a court postponed a verdict at her trial in the Cambodian capital. Ms Davis-Charles was sent back to one of the country's harshest overcrowded prisons. Police alleged the 49-year-old mother of six from Melbourne, falsified documents, including birth certificates, to smooth passage of surrogacy paperwork through Cambodia's murky legal system and the Australian embassy in Cambodia.
► Many in Washington are running too fast, too hard to get to Watergate. But as the White House hunkers, seemingly in the hope that the worst week of the Trump presidency will simply blow over, Republicans in Congress have reached a crossroads. Even before former FBI director Robert Mueller was named special counsel to head the probe into any links between Trump and Russia, the feeling in Washington had seemingly changed.
► The former governor of Bali's Kerobokan jail has said Schapelle Corby has served her three years of parole in Bali well and deserves her freedom. Corby, 39, who was convicted in 2005 for attempting to smuggle 4.2 kilograms of marijuana into Bali in a boogie board bag, is just days away from being deported back to Australia on May 27. Former prison governor Gusti Ngurah Wiratna told Fairfax Media that Corby should use the lessons she had learned in Bali to live the rest of her life.
On this day
May 19, 1536: Days after their marriage was annulled, King Henry VIII has his second wife Anne Boleyn beheaded for adultury, treason and incest. Henry had had Anne investigated for high treason in April 1536. Despite the heavy charges against her, modern historians view them as unconvincing. Henry needed a way to end his marriage with Anne to be able to marry Jane Seymour - the woman he believed would finally produce him a son.
Faces of Australia: Enis Wallis
A RESIDENT at the Meercroft Aged Care facility in Devonport was all smiles as she celebrated her 100th birthday with friends and family on Wednesday.
Enis Wallis was up for the celebration, still with a spring in her step, after 100 years of life.
When it came to the question of how she managed to live as long as she had, Ms Wallis was unsure how to respond.
“Why I have lived this long I have no idea,” she said.
Ms Wallis led a healthy and active life, in her younger years she enjoyed playing hockey and tennis. Read more.