Latest news with #Hobart
ABC News
2 hours ago
- ABC News
Metro drivers told to hide money when within Glenorchy bus mall
Tasmania's government-owned bus company has instructed drivers to hide their coin trays when within a major bus mall in Hobart after a series of thefts. Police this week laid charges as a result of investigations into multiple incidents. Police allege two youths stole coins from the money trays of Metro buses on multiple occasions. They also allege after getting off the bus, the youths removed an emergency hammer and damaged a bus window. No one was injured during the incidents. A 13-year-old from Risdon Vale and a 14-year-old from Lutana have been charged over several incidents. In a safety alert issued to Hobart drivers on Wednesday seen by the ABC, Metro addressed "ongoing incidents in the Glenorchy bus mall", instructing drivers between 4-8pm to "pull over at a stop prior to entering the mall" and "remove their cash trays and store them out of sight" while within the mall. The notice also said fares including cash or GreenCards should not be collected while in the bus mall during the given times, and fares could be reversed if customers tap on by mistake. The notice is valid until Sunday. In a statement, Metro Tasmania said it took a risk-based approach when deciding to implement safety controls. "Metro believes that this temporary safety measure is appropriate given the recent incidents in the Glenorchy mall." Rail Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) state secretary Byron Cubit said not enough was being done to improve driver safety. In 2023, the Rockliff government started a pilot program to introduce transit officers on buses, but Mr Cubit said they were never delivered permanently. Mr Cubit said the government's planned implementation of transit officers needed improvement. "When the Liberal government committed to transit officers, they would be privately employed and they would not have that power to detain. The union is also worried about a half-price fare scheme which is soon to come to an end. "If adult fares double on July 1st, the bus drivers are going to cop the brunt of frustration from passengers," Mr Cubit said. Transport Minister Eric Abetz said the RTBU was "central to the security screen trials, being heavily involved in consultation, and is aware that they are being rolled out as quickly as possible". "Screens are being installed as we speak, and have already protected drivers on the job," Mr Abetz said. In May, Tasmania Police unveiled Taskforce Respect, a community campaign involving high-visibility patrols in Glenorchy and surrounds. The task force was established in the wake of a string of incidents involving large groups of youths causing disturbances in the area. Glenorchy Police Inspector Jason Klug said businesses had reported a significant drop in anti-social behaviour while the task force has been active. "Whilst at the moment, its focus is on anti-social behaviour and retail crime, the task force is there and able to adapt to any crime trends or any community concerns that we see.
ABC News
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Music ephemera a rare glimpse into Tasmania's underground culture
Music posters and handbills spanning 30 years of live performance in Hobart have been donated to Libraries Tasmania. They offer a rare glimpse into underground music culture in Tasmania from the 1990s onwards, focusing on when bands largely relied on street advertising rather than the internet to promote shows. Acting heritage librarian Alex Tassell said memorabilia, such as music posters, band T-shirts and DIY music releases, was "really valuable" because it was ephemeral and often not kept for preservation purposes. Musician and library worker Julian Teakle donated the posters. He said they held huge sentimental value, but public access to documentation of Hobart's underground music scene was important. Mr Teakle can recall looking for expired local music advertisements when doing poster runs, starting in the 1990s, for his own bands and gigs he had organised. As he put posters up, he would take down expired local music posters for keeping. "I put a lot of hard work into this gig." He accumulated more than 150 items, some gathered on the streets of Hobart and others given to him by friends. Mr Teakle shared the advertisements on social media, on his page Goulburn Street Archive, but after decades of collecting, he questioned what to do with the physical posters and handbills. The items are now rare because they were not made to last. "I didn't want it to stay in my garage and get gradually damaged … I didn't want the silverfish to get them," Mr Teakle said. To ensure free access for current and future generations, he donated the collection to Libraries Tasmania. He said preservation of the posters was important to understanding street culture and life in Hobart. His donation to the library is now called the Teakle Poster Collection. "History isn't all about the big things, it's about what people were doing on a day-to-day basis." Mr Teakle said "All that is represented by some of these gigs is the poster, there's no other documentation. It is more than music documented on the posters and handbills Mr Teakle collected. Many of the venues where performances took place have ceased to exist. Venues such as Round Midnight, the Doghouse, which later became the Goulburn Hotel, and the Brisbane Hotel appear in the collection. Mr Tassel, who played in bands in Hobart, can remember sticky floors, stale beer and local characters in venues. He said people could respond quite emotionally to seeing library collection items that evoked memories. "I know so many people who were around this sort of music, who are really excited to see this sort of stuff," Mr Tassel said. The collection also preserves the work of local artists. Illustrations by internationally successful Tasmanian cartoonist Simon Hanselmann are on several posters. In 2022, his cartoon series Megg, Mogg and Owl had its animated debut on streaming service Hulu, featuring the voice of actor Macauley Culkin. Hanselmann's early designs are reminiscent of his current style. Not all posters and handbills in the collection feature the work of known artists; many are made with creative use of a photocopier and marker pens. "There's great variety," Mr Tassell said. "It's really the DIY thing of people [making] their own posters." The musicians and artists who created the posters and handbills now held by Libraries Tasmania likely never imagined they would be enclosed in archival-grade sleeves and made available for public access decades later. The memorabilia is part of a growing collection of cultural ephemera kept by the library. Band T-shirts, restaurant menus and stage show posters can also be found. Mr Tassell was particularly interested in donations that documented Tasmania's underground music scene. "I'm always happy to look and chat about things people may have and if there's a place for it in our collection," Mr Tassell said. Mr Teakle continues to find posters and handbills stashed away at home that he is donating to Libraries Tasmania. "There's a huge sentimental value, I look at these posters and they're pivotal moments of my life," Mr Teakle said. "But I know that as this is a public collection, I can access them at any time."
ABC News
12 hours ago
- Sport
- ABC News
Daria Kasatkina aiming for Australian Billie Jean King Cup debut in Tasmania
Australia will host a Billie Jean King Cup tie in Tasmania in November, with Daria Kasatkina hoping she'll be cleared to be in contention to make her debut for her adopted country in the world cup of women's tennis. The draw for the play-offs was made in London on Thursday when it was revealed that Sam Stosur's Australia team will host a three-pronged play-off tie against Brazil and Portugal in Hobart between November 14 and 16. Kasatkina, the new Australian number one after gaining permanent residence in March, has previously competed in the Billie Jean King Cup for her native Russia. The 28-year-old said she was hopeful of making her debut in the green and gold this year. She admitted, however, it was still unclear when and if she would get clearance to play. "Talking about the Billie Jean King Cup, that process is more complicated, which is not depending on me," she told reporters. "It's something which Tennis Australia has to deal with the ITF [International Tennis Federation]. This is where it's already different language. I'm not going to be the part of it. This is where the federation has to deal with the ITF." If she does get clearance and is selected, the Australian team would be a strong favourite to top its three-team round-robin group at Hobart's Domain Tennis Centre against two teams that don't have the same depth to call on. Even without Kasatkina, the world number 16, Stosur has rising teenager star Maya Joint (number 52), Ajla Tomljanović (number 66) and Kim Birrell (number 79) to choose from in the top 100, while Olivia Gadecki is 104. Grand slam finalist Ellen Perez is the 16th-ranked doubles player in the world. In contrast, Brazil has only one stand-out player in 21st-ranked Beatriz Haddad Maia, with their next two on the WTA computer being the number 219 Laura Pigossi and number 240 Carolina Alves. The Portuguese will be the rank outsiders, with their hopes resting on two sisters, 21-year-old Matilde Jorge (number 251) and her 25-year-old sibling Francisca, who's at 259. Stosur's team will be hoping to get back among the elite next year by winning the November tie after failing to reach this season's week-long final which will be held in Shenzhen, China, in September. Play-offs draw: Group A: (Monterrey, Mexico): Canada, Mexico, Denmark Group B: (Gorzow Wielkopolski, Poland): Poland, Romania, New Zealand Group C: (Cordoba, Argentina): Slovakia, Switzerland, Argentina Group D: (Varazdin, Croatia): Czech Republic, Colombia, Croatia Group E: (Hobart, Australia): Australia, Brazil, Portugal Group F: (Ismaning, Germany): Germany, Belgium, Turkey Group G: (Bengaluru, India): Netherlands, Slovenia, India AAP
ABC News
12 hours ago
- Climate
- ABC News
Winter solstice is on Saturday but it won't bring Australia's coldest weather
This Saturday is the 2025 winter solstice, Australia's shortest day of the year. How many hours of daylight you experience depends entirely on latitude — Hobart will see only 9 hours and 1 minute while Darwin will see 11 hours and 24 minutes. For remaining capitals, running south to north: The variation in the length of day through the year, and indeed the very existence of seasons, is due to the Earth's tilt of 23.5 degrees. As we orbit the Sun, this tilt leads to changes in the length of day and the angle of the Sun viewed from the ground — it's higher in summer and lower in winter. Saturday, the winter solstice, marks the day when the Sun is furthest north, tracking directly over the Tropic of Cancer. The exact time of this year's solstice is 12:42pm for eastern states and just after midday for the NT and SA, meaning the longest night of the year will follow immediately after. For WA, a 10:42am solstice will result in Friday night being the longest of the year. From this position over the Northern Hemisphere, Australia is not only in Earth's shadow for the longest period, but critically for temperatures, it's also when the Sun's noon position is lowest in the sky. From a simple energy perspective, the winter solstice therefore has the least amount of incoming heat directly from sunlight. However, for nearly the whole of Australia, the coldest weather does not arrive when the days are shortest. For the vast majority of the country, the coldest month is July, and for some locations, the coldest day on average is not until early August, even though days are longer and the Sun's angle is higher. The cause of the temporal anomaly between the shortest day and coldest temperatures is due to the different heat capacities of substances. Put simply, land regions warm up and cool down much faster than oceans. This property is demonstrated daily as air temperatures fluctuate sharply between day and night, while water temperatures remain steady regardless of the hour. Water, therefore, is said to have a greater heat capacity than land, which leads to an annual minimum temperature for waters surrounding Australia occurring mostly between July and September — well after the Southern Hemisphere's shortest day in June. The warmer oceans earlier in winter act as one giant heater — they transfer energy into the atmosphere and delay the coldest weather until well after incoming heat from the sun reaches a minimum on June 21. This delay is called seasonal lag, and it also occurs after the summer solstice in December, with the hottest weather in southern Australia not arriving until January. The coldest weather in any given year is determined by the exact timing of weather systems; however, on average, due to seasonal lag, it occurs a few weeks after the winter solstice. The delay is greatest in regions where the climate is influenced by neighbouring oceans — so coastal areas of southern Australia have a longer temperature lag than inland regions. For maximum temperatures, the absolute peak lag is about five weeks in south-west Tasmania and on the southern WA coast near Albany. For Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide the coldest day of the year — on average — lands in the second or third week of July. Unsurprisingly, parts of the central interior, well away from oceans, have a lag of only a few days. The seasonal changes in daytime temperatures across northern Australia are more intricate due to the contrast in cloud cover through the year — there are even small regions that have their average lowest winter maximums a few days before the winter solstice. The national variability in minimum temperatures is far more uniform, with well over 90 per cent of Australia, including the northern tropics, having its coldest night between July 11 and 21. Seasonal lag is even greater in some Northern Hemisphere coastal regions, depending on the time of year. San Francisco's warmest month of the year is not until September, a full three months after the summer solstice, during which time the length of day has already shortened by more than two hours. Of course, thanks to the natural variability of weather, the actual date of the coldest weather will vary considerably from year to year — even though this is far more likely to occur in winter. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, for the northern tropics, the coldest day of the year across a 30-year period can occur in most months. For most of southern and central Australia, the range is from April or May to anytime between August and November.
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Kasatkina will hope to make BJK Cup bow in Tasmania
Australia will host a Billie Jean King Cup tie in Tasmania in November with Daria Kasatkina hoping she'll be cleared to be in contention to make her debut for her adopted country in the World Cup of women's tennis. The draw for the play-offs was made in London on Thursday when it was revealed that Sam Stosur's Australia team will host a three-pronged play-off tie against Brazil and Portugal in Hobart between November 14 and 16. When Kasatkina, the new Australian No.1 after gaining permanent residence in March, was asked about her ambitions of competing in the BJK Cup having previously competed for her native Russia, she talked of her enthusiasm about making a green-and-gold debut. Hobart x @BJKCup 🇦🇺 Australia🇧🇷 Brazil🇵🇹 Portugal14-16 November, Domain Tennis Centre - Stay tuned for more 👀 — TennisAustralia (@TennisAustralia) June 19, 2025 But talking at Roland Garros, she admitted it was still unclear when and if she would get clearance to play. "Talking about the Billie Jean King Cup, that process is more complicated, which is not depending on me," she told reporters. "It's something which Tennis Australia has to deal with the ITF (International Tennis Federation organisers). This is where it's already different language. I'm not going to be the part of it. This is where the Federation has to deal with the ITF." If she does get clearance and is selected, the Australian team would be strong favourites to top their three-team round-robin group at Hobart's Domain Tennis Centre against two teams who don't have the same strength-in-depth to call on. Even without Kasatkina, the world No.16, Stosur has rising teenager star Maya Joint (No.52), Ajla Tomljanovic (No.66) and Kim Birrell (No.79) to choose from in the top 100, while Olivia Gadecki is 104. Ellen Perez is the 16th-ranked doubles player in the world. In contrast, Brazil have only one stand-out player in the shape of 21st-ranked Beatriz Haddad Maia, with their next two on the WTA computer being the No.219 Laura Pigossi and No.240 Carolina Alves. The Portuguese team will be the rank outsiders with their hopes resting on two sisters, 21-year-old Matilde Jorge (No.251) and her 25-year-old sibling Francisca, who's at 259. Stosur's team will be hoping to get back among the elite next year by winning their November tie after failing to reach this season's week-long final which will be held in Shenzhen, China, in September. Play-offs draw: Group A: (Monterrey, Mexico): Canada, Mexico, Denmark Group B: (Gorzow Wielkopolski, Poland): Poland, Romania, New Zealand Group C: (Cordoba, Argentina): Slovakia, Switzerland, Argentina Group D: (Varazdin, Croatia): Czech Republic, Colombia, Croatia Group E: (Hobart, Australia): Australia, Brazil, Portugal Group F: (Ismaning, Germany): Germany, Belgium, Turkey Group G: (Bengaluru, India): Netherlands, Slovenia, India
