Humble grandparents from a remote property in Logan Village have finally been given the recognition they deserve after dedicating their lives to fostering children. Last week Wayne and Eileen Hughes were awarded the 2011 Foster and Kinship Excellence Award for Queensland’s south-east region at a special ceremony in Queensland’s Parliament House. Every year carers are […]

Ash Grunwald’s music is a mix of grungy folk dashed with a side of electric blues. His latest tour, “The Road Dog Diaries”, was named simply for the road tripping lifestyle he’s adopted. “It comes from the title of my blog and it is basically what I am – a road dog. Always moving and […]

It seemed like a relatively straightforward task for Newbytes trainee journalist Abanob Saad, but it resulted in extraordinary behaviour from some of Brisbane City Council’s “media advisors”. Saad’s job was to research and write a news story about the BCC’s recent installation of speakers and Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) in Fortitude Valley and the Brisbane […]

Sandwiched between a stairwell and office space in a narrow Brisbane side street are the modest, compact headquarters of community radio station for the print handicapped (4RPH). Catering to the vision impaired, the station was started by philanthropic Greek businessman, the late Spero Dragona. The first broadcast of an hour-long newspaper reading aired in 1982. […]

“Weird” was former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s description of the Liberal National Party bombshell in Queensland. “Either the smartest thing the LNP ever did or the dumbest thing they ever did,” said former Queensland Labor premier Peter Beattie, seemingly with grudging respect at the chutzpah of the deed. For Campbell Newman had suddenly quit as […]

My dear late mother always said when one door closes another opens. How right she was. Confined to my home – can’t drive, can’t walk – after a really stupid domestic accident, I find myself increasingly bereft of my loss of mobility and freedom. Each day is the same. After reading the morning newspaper, being […]

Canberra press gallery mainstay and Channel 9 political editor Laurie Oakes received an honorary doctorate from Brisbane’s Jschool at the college’s graduation ceremony last week. “I’m not much into gongs and awards usually, but this recognition from a journalism college that’s fast making a mark is something I do value,” he said. “I had virtually […]

Some Brisbane City Council staff seem to have missed the point of legislation that gives citizens the right to access information it holds. During the past several months Newbytes journalists, reporting the news to inform the public, have routinely been fobbed off, denied information and subjected to intimidation. Newsbytes acknowledges the BCC media office receives hundreds […]

With a rich and chequered history closely linked to Brisbane’s penal colony origins, Burnett Lane is the first narrow CBD road to undergo transformation as part of Brisbane City Council’s “Vibrant Laneway” program. In former days the lane played host to convict barracks, Stewart’s Ales, a post office, Queensland’s first Methodist Church and numerous businesses. […]

Every winter they put their modern lives on hold to cram tents, armour, swords and axes into trucks and station wagons for the trip to Caboolture, along the Bruce Highway and back in time. These are the Abbey Medieval Tournament’s reenactors, everyday people who don the garb of knights, maidens, scribes and artisans to celebrate […]

There’s an elephant in the room of Queensland governance. It’s the stranglehold unelected government employees have on government information. Information about policy decisions, new government programs, progress on taxpayer-funded research, business development programs, new legislation and all manner of things of public interest. Every day the Queensland Government sends dozens of media releases directly to […]

Like silent sentinels, accident-related roadside memorials have altered the physical landscape of road verges and stand as poignant markers of lives lost suddenly in traumatic events. One such memorial lies alongside the Bruce Highway on a notorious stretch of single lane road near Coles Creek, south of Gympie – a tribute to the memory of […]