CAPE YORK & TORRES STRAIT

High February falls

AURUKUN Shire Council has revealed that February has maintained its record as the wettest month in Aurukun with 395mm of rain falling in 12 days. Although the shire had 15 days of rain in March, the volume of water was less with 317.9mm.

Herbicide use cut

COOK Shire Council will be reducing the use of herbicides around towns with the addition of a new steam weeder to the parks and gardens arsenal. The new unit, which uses steam to kill weeds, will also increase the team’s operational abilities, according to Cook Shire Council parks and waste operations manager Jim Doidge. “It enables us to tackle weeds around town in a much wider range of weather conditions, including the famous Cooktown wind,” he said.

Anti-smoking plan

A SERIES of short videos will be developed for Apunipima Cape York Health Council’s Tackling Indigenous Smoking team for phase two of the ‘What’s Your Story, Cape York?’ social marketing campaign. Partnering with Hudson films, filming recently took place in Hopevale and Wujal Wujal. Community members embraced the opportunity to share on camera their stories of why they started to smoke, their quitting journey and the impact of smoking on their community. The videos will be distributed next month on World No Tobacco Day.

Men’s shed advance

A MEN’S Shed in Coen is one step closer this week with the election of a committee who will be responsible for its development and operation. Coen locals and Apunipima SEWB staff, Joesph Oui and Randall Fyfe and Shaka Bero and Ben Lloyd from Queensland Police Service, and staff from Cape York Employment are working on the project.