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Stay Alert For Scammers

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Stay Alert For Scammers

Darling Downs residents have been targeted by scammers and it’s a timely reminder to be vigilant about a quick fix to financial pressures. If it is too good to be true then it probably is.

How do these scammers work?

​​The Internet provides a medium whereby unscrupulous operators can target consumers, with the marketing of illegal schemes and scams. Some of the more common scams include:

  • Get rich quick schemes
  • Miracle health products
  • Competitions & lotteries
  • Pyramid/referring selling/multi-level marketing
  • Nigerian loan/investment scams
  • Work at home schemes

With the advancement of technology, email has become a fast and efficient method of forwarding unsolicited scam information to bulk recipients. Your address could have been obtained from various sources, including a virus affected address book that automatically sends or forwards mail without the knowledge of the user, or from online databases.

Be sceptical of individuals representing themselves as Nigerian or foreign government officials asking for your help in placing large sums of money in overseas bank accounts. Do not believe the promise of large sums of money for your cooperation.

The dollar signs $$$ may look appealing but don’t let it inhibit your ability to think logically. Scammers are convincing but before you hand over any money do a little more research. A simple tip to remember, if you did not initiate it then think about it.

There is ample information available on the internet in relation to scams currently marketed worldwide and the precautions to follow. Some of the following offer advice on spotting cyber scams and methods to protect you from becoming a victim:

www.scamwatch.gov.au
www.accc.gov.au/consumers/online-shopping
www.staysmartonline.gov.au
www.fairtrading.qld.gov.au
www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/fraud/internet_fraud

by Sergeant Tony Rehn

To subscribe to updates of scams, go to the Scamwatch website here.

To report Cyber Crime, visit the ACORN website here.

Wanna Hang Ya Boss Out To Dry?

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Wanna Hang Ya Boss Out To Dry?

Courtney Gleeson from CLO Lawyers waves good-bye as she is raised up in the Cherry Picker for the 2016 Hang Ya Boss Out To Dry. (the other photo is when the Cherry Picker was raised up!)

Toowoomba Hospice Administration and Fundraising Manager, Mark Munro, wants to encourage staff to hang their boss out on Friday 11th August all for a good cause – The Toowoomba Hospice.

 “We are asking businesses on the Darling Downs to “Hang their boss out to dry” by placing him or her in a scissor lift/cherry picker and raising it to the top. The Boss must raise a minimum of $2,000 from up  in the air to be let back down.  They can contact anyone they like to raise their money, so hopefully no-one will be left hanging!”

 The Hospice has cared for over 1,220 clients with the highest standard of care being afforded to all, however to maintain this level of support, they are forced to rely heavily on the financial assistance of the community to fund an operating budget of at least $1.7 million dollars this financial year. 

 Just over $217,000. has been raised over the last 4 years – “This year we hope to raise at $60,000. from this fun event and as an extra incentive, the Boss who raises the most money gets to host the 2018 Hang Ya Boss Out To Dry at their work place next year PLUS all those who get hung out to dry go into a draw to win a weekend away said Mr Munro

 The event will be held on 11 August 2017 from 6am onwards at The Toowoomba Hospice (57B O’Quinn Street) with a live outside broadcast. The Lions Club of Wilsonton will have a BBQ Breakfast cooking and the Coffee Cruiser will also be there sell their hot beverages to help keep participants and spectators warm.

 Mr Munro said you can be guaranteed that your time and money will is going to a great cause †The Toowoomba Hospice. If you are interested, please contact admin.toowoombahospice@bigpond.com  or 07 4659 8500 

 

Korean War Veterans Remembered

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Korean War Veterans Remembered

On the 27th July, 2017  the nation remembers those Australians who served in the Korean War, on the 64th anniversary of the 1953 Armistice agreement.

The Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Dan Tehan, said that of the more than 17,000 who served, 340 Australians lost their lives and more than 1,200 were wounded. 21 Nations provided military personnel, medical support or other assets to the United Nations effort in Korea, despite most still recovering from the impact of the Second World War.

“Australian soldiers, sailors, airmen and nurses made an important contribution to this international endeavour, serving both during the conflict and in the post-armistice period which continued until 1957,” Mr Tehan said. “In Korea Australian service personnel earned international respect for their courage and endurance in battle. Today we pause to remember the service and sacrifice of our veterans and the debt of gratitude owed to them by all Australians.”

Among the many actions in which Australian soldiers, sailors and airmen were involved in Korea, two in particular, the battles of Kapyong and Maryang San, have become the focus of commemorations. At Kapyong, 32 Australians died in fierce fighting, and the Battle of Maryang San, where 20 Australians died, was described by Official Historian, Robert O’Neill as the greatest single feat of the Australian Army in Korea.

In October last year, eight Australian veterans of the Korean War returned to Korea for the 65th anniversary commemorations of the battles of Kapyong and Maryang San. Minister Tehan said,  “I had the pleasure of meeting this group of men both on that mission to the Republic of Korea and at services in Canberra last March to honour their service and sacrifice.”

“Australia owes the men and women who served in Korea our ongoing thanks and gratitude”

Photo: Royal Australian Regiment Korea 1950

Veterans and Veterans Families Counselling Service (VVCS) can be reached 24 hours a day across Australia for crisis support and free and confidential counselling. Phone 1800 011 046 (international: +61 8 8241 45 46). VVCS is a service founded by Vietnam veterans.

Bruce Dawe Poetry Prize – Winner Announced

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Bruce Dawe Poetry Prize – Winner Announced

A poem forty years in the making has won Tim Collins the 2017 Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize. The Brisbane poet and playwright attended the USQ Bookcase event for the presentation of the National Poetry Prize and recital of the winning poem Stage Whispers at USQ Toowoomba.

Winner of the 2017 Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize, Tim Collins

“Stage Whispers is a poem that has germinated over the past 40 years,” Mr Collins said. “Many poems just occur. This one hung in the back of my mind taunting me for decades.”

Mr Collins is the author of seven volumes of poetry and the short story collection Until A Shrimp Learns To Whistle. “Winning the 2017 Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize was an honour because of its prestige and importance in the Australian Poetry scene,” he said.

The poem topped 975 entries to win this year’s Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize, established in 1999 to honour one of Australia’s most popular and influential poets. Emeritus Professor Bruce Dawe AO was also named USQ’s first Honorary Professor in recognition of his contribution to the University.

The Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize judging panel included USQ School of Arts and Communication lecturers Associate Professor Laurie Johnson, Dr Jessica Gildersleeve, Dr Nike Sulway, Dr Daniel Hourigan and Dr Sharon Bickle. Associate Professor Johnson said the judging panel looked for poems that opened with a strong image or emotion, developed this idea through engaging soundscapes and sustained interest through to a close that left the reader with a powerful lasting image.

“Mr Collins produced a poem that has all of these hallmarks to it †the subject of the poem is never identified explicitly and yet the poet draws the reader into an experience of the subject’s life from his connection to the old theatre,” Associate Professor Johnson said. “This connection forces us to reconsider the matter-of-factness of the opening line, where the stage is mentioned as the scene of his death, adding poignancy.

“While it is free verse, the poem is structured in such a way that this after-the-fact emotional kick is reinforced †lines begin with one phonic pattern, setting up a rhythmic expectation, but then are routinely interrupted by a reversal of the pattern,”  Associate Professor Johnson said.

The head judge said the formal features of the poem disappeared from view due to the rich descriptions of the man, distilling his life into a few brief illustrative encounters. “These ‘stage whispers’ that give the poem its name, tied together the stage, its dust and the moth that has taken up residence by the end.”

To read Stage Whispers and other entries visit: www.usq.edu.au/bela/school-of-arts-and-communication/bruce-dawe-poetry-prize


Jeff Brown Country Music Show

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Jeff Brown Country Music Show

Mount Tyson traditional country music artist, Jeff Brown will be holding his annual concert at the the Oakey Cultural Centre on Saturday, 29th July –  it’s a little bit later in the year this time.

Besides Jeff, there will be guest artists Stuie French (record producer and guitarist extraordinaire) with Camille Te Nahu, and local bush poet Gary Fogarty will also be featured. This is a fantastic lineup for any fan of traditional country music, and you’ll enjoy 3 hours of great entertainment.

Jeff Brown will perform many bush ballads from his latest CD, “Wandering Man.”

The show starts at 1pm with afternoon tea available. Tickets are $20 at the door of Oakey Cultural Centre. That’s this coming Saturday, July 29th. Make sure you’re there!

 

Many Hands Make Light Work At Camellia Show

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Many Hands Make Light Work At Camellia Show

The much-anticipated Toowoomba Camellia Show and Garden Expo is this weekend…and it’s all hands on deck so to speak at the TAFE South-West Horticultural Centre precinct, corner of Lindsay and Campbell Streets today and tomorrow (Sat 15 and Sun 16 July).

Camellia Show President Kevin Cotterell said his Committee are over the moon with the way so many people have come together to help us. “We would not be able to put on this wonderful event if we didn’t have the support of all these wonderful community minded volunteers”

Many volunteers from different community clubs, groups and businesses have joined forces to help put together what will trigger off a series of events culminating in Queensland’s largest Camellia Show and Garden Expo this Saturday and Sunday.

Camellia Show Member Mr Mike Wells added, “As the Toowoomba Camellia Show and Garden Expo continues to bloom so does our need for volunteers to help set up and run the event, and once again the community have come forth to do so”.

“Like all events there are so many people who work behind the scenes and we are so privileged to have all these wonderful volunteers from different walks of life coming together to work as a team to put on what will be a great event and to help raise money for a true local charity The Toowoomba Hospice”, Mike said.

 

There was a Friday night sponsors evening to thank businesses for their support at which members of the cast of the Toowoomba Choral Society’s next major production (“Sweeney Todd”) performed several musical items from the show.

 

Remarkable Planet Discovery By USQ Student

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Remarkable Planet Discovery By USQ Student
  • USQ Astronomy PhD student Kelvin Getley has uncovered evidence of a new planet orbiting a binary star
  • Exoplanet more reminiscent of Pluto than other planets in our Solar System
  • A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Luke Skywalker lived on a planet circling twin sun. While Star Wars is science-fiction, two stars in orbit of each other is firmly based in reality.
An artist’s impression of the newly discovered exoplanet around the binary star KIC 5095269. Credit: USQ Media Design

USQ PhD astronomy student Kelvin Getley, working with an Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO) astronomer, has uncovered evidence of a new planet orbiting a binary star (two stars that orbit a common centre of mass). Adding interest to this discovery is the observation that the planet orbits the stars on a tilt †an example of the weird and wonderful diversity of the Universe.

The binary star, KIC 5095269, system was first observed by NASA’s Kepler space telescope. The newly-discovered planet has a mass 7.7 times more than Jupiter and orbits the binary star every 237.7 days.

“My PhD research involves performing an eclipse timing variation study of binary stars in order to look for any third bodies that may be present, like stars/brown dwarfs or planets,” Mr Getley, who lead authored the journal article announcing the discovery, said “I created a program that determined when one star passes in front of another as seen from Earth, and compared them to what we’d expect to see if there was nothing else in the system. My PhD supervisors, Professor Brad Carter and Dr Rachel King (USQ), and Simon O’Toole from the AAO, guided and advised me, and helped come up with tests that could be done on the system to try to make sure what we were seeing was possible.”

Supervisor and AAO astronomer Dr O’Toole is an expert in exoplanetary systems. “This is a really neat result,” Dr O’Toole said, “Planets orbiting two stars have been found before, but the cool thing here is that Kelvin has discovered a planet with a tilted orbit, more reminiscent of Pluto than the other planets in our Solar System.”

Professor Carter leads USQ’s Astrophysics Research Program Team and commended Mr Getley on his work and discovery. “Kelvin’s research demonstrates that evidence for new worlds can be gathered through an innovative analysis of the Kepler space telescope’s treasure trove of observational data,” he said.

Mr Getley is studying a PhD in Astronomy and is an external USQ student living in Charlton, Victoria. “Being an astronomer is something that I’ve wanted to be basically my entire life,” he said. “My granddad was interested in astronomy as a hobby so I grew up reading his books. Doing this research, and making a discovery like this is amazing.”

The AAO is a division of the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science. The USQ Astrophysics Group is part of the University’s Computational Engineering and Science Research Centre.

Learn more about studying Astronomy at USQ via www.usq.edu.au/astronomy.

Publication details:

A.K. Getley (University of Southern Queensland), B. Carter (University of Southern Queensland), R. King (University of Southern Queensland) and S. O’Toole (Australian Astronomical Observatory), “Evidence for a planetary mass third body orbiting the binary star KIC 5095269”,  Published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS) through Oxford University Press. MNRAS, 2017, 468, 2932

https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/468/3/2932/3070417/Evidence-for-a-planetary-mass-third-body-orbiting.


 

 

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Blood Donors Needed This Winter In Toowoomba And Ipswich

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Blood Donors Needed This Winter In Toowoomba And Ipswich

The Australian Red Cross Blood Service in Toowoomba needs another 200 donors and Ipswich another 80, to give blood in the coming weeks, as winter takes its toll on national blood stocks.

Sandee Thompson from the Blood Service urged new and lapsed donors to roll up their sleeves and give blood this winter, when the Blood Service loses more than 1000 donations a day due to colds and flu. “During the cold and flu season, our national blood stocks come under real pressure,” Sandee said. “Donors who have a cold or the flu are unable to give blood until they are well again, so during winter our blood stocks take a real hit.”

25,000 blood donations are needed across Australia each week just to meet patient needs, but colds and flu prevent more than 1000 donations a day during winter.

“At a local level, Toowoomba Blood Donor Centre needs to collect 450 blood donations every week, while Ipswich Blood Donor Centre needs 250 blood donations to ensure we have sufficient stock on-hand when patients need it. The need for blood never stops, which is why we are putting the call out for new or lapsed blood donors in Toowoomba and Ipswich to make an appointment during July,” said Mrs Thompson.

Giving blood takes less than one hour and each donation can save three lives.

To make an appointment to give a life-saving blood donation, please call 13 14 95 or visit donateblood.com.au

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