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The Guardian
a day ago
- The Guardian
Why one couple, two kids and 10 camels are trekking almost 6,000kms through the Australian outback
Instead of a dozen red roses, a bottle of bubbly or romantic poetry, Emily Parrott gave her husband a camel to celebrate their first Valentine's Day. 'When he met me, that's when he met camels,' she says of husband, Luke. 'He found his first two loves. 'As long as I don't ask which one comes first, then we don't have a problem.' Nearly 15 years after that fateful February, camels remain the centre of the Parrott family's world. The couple runs the Oakfield Ranch with Parrott's father at Anna Bay in the New South Wales Hunter Valley, hosting camel rides along the picturesque beaches of Port Stephens. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email They're gearing up to take 10 camels, including Foxy Lady, Polished Copper, Bronte, Barry and Jeffrey on a nearly 6,000km round-trip via South Australia to Queensland for the Desert Champions Way: Outback Camel Trail. Winding through the red dust to the Queensland outposts of Jundah, Birdsville, Bedourie, Boulia and Winton in July, the trail features camel races and rides, live music and markets at every stop. Parrott, who has been around camels since she was a baby and began racing at 14, can get the animals running up to 45km/h. It's a bumpy – or humpy – ride around the dirt track as jockeys skilfully hover above the saddles. 'They're not very nice to sit on at speed,' Parrott says. 'They're quite bouncy, so the less your bottom is in the saddle is probably more comfortable.' Apart from the rollicking races, the trail is a celebration of the outback spirit and pays tribute to the history of cameleers. Camels were brought to Australia from Afghanistan and the Indian subcontinent during the gold rushes, when they were used to transport goods across the arid inland. Cameleers established their own transport and import businesses until cars were introduced in the 1920s. Many of the animals were then released into the wild. An eccentric 'globetrotter' named HD Constantinou spent nine years walking with camels and a cameleer from Sydney to Perth in the 1930s, wearing through 50 pairs of boots. 'He stated he had walked every inch of the way across from Sydney, the camels … carrying his baggage,' Brisbane's Telegraph newspaper reported in 1939. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Parrott feels an affinity with the creatures, a passion passed down by her father who bought 20 camels to establish his business. 'Animals don't get enough recognition for the amount of effort they've put in for humanity,' she says. 'Donkeys and camels are a huge part of Australia's history. 'They were brought over here to build Australia up.' Her 10-year-old daughter, Abby, who will accompany her parents on the outback trail with her six-year-old brother, Cooper, has observed the deep connection between her mum and the herd. 'About six months ago she said, 'Mum, when do I get my special power?'. 'I said, 'what do you mean?', and she said, 'your special power, how you know what animals are thinking'.' The Desert Champions Way: Outback Camel Trail kicks off with the Jundah camel races on 5 July and ends in Winton on 26 July.
ABC News
2 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
Shiraz hits dry patch as wine drinkers opt for sweeter whites like moscato
An oversupply of shiraz grapes and young drinkers trending towards lighter whites are putting the number one grape variety grown in Australia in a "diabolical situation". The world's oldest continuously productive shiraz vines were planted in the Barossa Valley in 1843. But despite the long history, drinkers are falling out of love with the heavy reds, prompting wine makers to pull out hectares of vines. The managing director of De Bortoli Wines, Darren De Bortoli, said consumers were moving away from reds in favour of whites. "Shiraz is in a diabolical situation at the moment," Mr De Bortoli said. According to the 2024 Wine Australia national vintage report, the shiraz crush dropped to its lowest levels since 2007. It's a far cry from Australia's record shiraz crush of 535,000 tonnes in 2021, with just 297,868 tonnes crushed last year. De Bortoli has vineyards in several wine regions, including the Hunter Valley, King Valley, Rutherglen, Heathcote, and the Riverina. Over the past two years, they have removed 130 hectares of red wine varieties in Rutherglen and the Riverina. Mr De Bortoli said there was a range of factors at play. "Leading up to COVID, the demand from China was exceptionally strong and a lot of new vineyards went in," Mr De Bortoli said. "Then we had an altercation between our prime minister and the Chinese government and were effectively banned from sales into China." He said that had now been resolved, but demand had not returned to the same levels. "Additionally, we've seen an anti-alcohol theme as well," he said. Data by the International Wine and Spirit Record shows drinkers aged 18–39 years old were more likely to choose wines described as sweet, delicate, soft and simple. The demographic also preferred low-alcohol options and were reducing the amount they drank. One such wine is moscato, an industry quiet achiever that is low alcohol and sweet. Katherine Brown is a fourth-generation family winemaker at Brown Brothers in Milawa, Victoria. She said moscato, which is made from muscat grape varieties, had grown to become their biggest product. "We released our first moscato about 35 years ago, and at the time it felt like the wine industry was having a laugh at us," Ms Brown said. Out of the 14,000 tonnes of fruit Brown Brothers produced in their 2025 vintage, 40 per cent will go towards making 20 different moscato-based products. "We have a theory that the next generation doesn't want to be seen drinking what their parents drank," Ms Brown said. "Crouchen riesling is a sweet white wine, but it's now old-fashioned." Ms Brown said prosecco had been the other big performer. "I've never seen growth like that before." Zero-alcohol wines were also increasing in popularity across all generations. "Gen Z is not going out as much, and we're seeing the baby boomers who are asked to drink less for their health," Ms Brown said. "I think there are big pressures on people at the moment about not drinking." Brown Brothers had also seen a decline in demand for red wine varieties, however, Ms Brown noted that wines came in and out of fashion. "Yes, there's a decline in red wine, but red wine grapes also make rosé, which is growing in popularity," she said. "This issue is not new. My grandfather was doing this over 60 years ago, when there was a pivot point and it was mostly red wine production. Mr De Bortoli said he was confident gen Z would discover wine as they aged. "It's definitely a demographic the wine industry is missing out on," he said.
ABC News
6 days ago
- ABC News
Linq Buslines accused of safety breaches over Hunter Valley disaster
A bus company linked to the deadly 2023 Hunter Valley bus crash, and its directors and managers, are being prosecuted for alleged heavy vehicle law breaches. Last year, Brett Andrew Button was jailed for at least 24 years over the crash which killed 10 people returning from a wedding in the Hunter Valley in June 2023. The court found the high concentration of opioid Tramadol in Button's system at the time would have impaired his driving ability. The coach was operated by Linq Buslines Pty Ltd. The company's directors and two managers had matters heard in Gosford Local Court on Tuesday. They're accused of heavy-vehicle safety breaches, including alleged failed drug testing policies between November 2022 and June 2023. Fines of up to $1.7 million can be imposed for the most serious offences. Manager Rodney Parker was accused of two breaches of duty under national heavy-vehicle laws and two counts of breaching the duty of an executive of a legal entity. Mr Parker is accused of contravening his duty by allegedly failing to ensure he didn't cause or urge drivers, like Button, to contravene heavy-vehicle laws. According to the charge sheet tendered in court today, Mr Parker is accused of "disclosing to Mr Brett Button that drug testing was to take place on 6 February 2023," four months before the crash. Button started working for Linq Buslines in November 2022 and the court documents alleged Mr Parker had not contacted any prior employer. "He failed to exercise due diligence by not making reasonable enquiries of a person authorised by Mr Brett Button's prior employer as to any matter impacting upon his capacity to perform the role and to safely drive buses," the documents said. Area Manager Katie Parker, who was responsible for scheduling and directing the local fleet of 16 buses, was also charged. "[She] failed to ensure as far as reasonably practicable drivers were not driving under the influence of substances that rendered their driving unsafe by implementing regular random drug testing of drivers," the documents said. Directors Anthony John Royle and Christopher Terrence Fogg are also accused of three counts each of breaching national heavy-vehicle laws. "[The pair] failed to exercise due diligence to ensure the company complied with its duty, contrary to the law, and it contravened its duty, contrary to heavy-vehicle national law," according to the court documents. It is further alleged that the company had a duty to minimise or eliminate risks posed by drivers. It was alleged the company, "failed to ensure it had procedures and policies to prevent drivers driving under the influence of substances that rendered their driving unsafe." Linq Buslines is separately charged with similar offences. The matter will return to court in September.
News.com.au
11-06-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Resources Top 5: Coal player fuels rare gains as silver and gold stocks roll out the drill rigs
Australian Pacific Coal heads our list today for sustained daily gains Inaugural diamond drilling at the Elizabeth Hill project in Western Australia's Pilbara region struck shallow, high-grade silver An 8100m drill program is underway across the Tin Can trend at the Newman project of Peregrine Gold Your standout resources stocks for Wednesday, June 11, 2025. Australian Pacific Coal (ASX:AQC) Australian Pacific Coal is making progress after resuming underground mining at the Dartbrook Coal Mine in the Hunter Valley of NSW earlier this year following a restart program in 2024. Shares lifted 21.88% to a daily high of 7.8c and closed at 7.1c. On June 2 the company advised that it is well on the way to meeting the final two Conditions Subsequent (CS) of a senior secured finance facility with Vitol Asia Pte Ltd for Dartbrook. One remaining CS requires the project to rail 20,000 tonnes of produced coal in a consecutive 30-day period. The Dartbrook JV recently commenced a washed coal railing, with further railings continuing whilst the wash plant nears completion of its recommissioning. The JV has contracts in-place to rail the required tonnage and remains focused on commencing exports of its high-quality thermal coal product in the near future once more steady-state production is reached. There is about 150,000 tonnes of ROM coal stockpiled. The other CS outstanding relates to the registration of the Trepang Lease with the NSW Land Registry Service, which is under way. AQC said the outstanding matters were largely administrative and it had no reason to believe that they would not be satisfied in due course. Located about 10km northwest of Muswellbrook, Dartbrook has access to world-class infrastructure, a skilled workforce and support industries utilised by major mining companies in the region. Vitol has expressed its continued support and commitment towards the project, as evidenced by the recent increase in funding it made available to the project of US$4.2 million on May 30, 2025. West Coast Silver (ASX:WCE) Increasing safe haven investment demand along with growing demand for industrial uses, including solar panels, has seen silver break the back of long-term resistance at US$35/oz and currently trading at around US$36.40 (~A$55.86). These factors are leading to increasing supply deficits and seeing interest in silver producers, developers and explorers steadily improve. Among them are West Coast Silver which hit a new 12-month high of 10.5c in morning trading before closing lower at 8.9c after inaugural diamond drilling at its Elizabeth Hill project in Western Australia's Pilbara region struck shallow, high-grade silver. Notable preliminary results from the first two diamond holes include 2m at 6951g/t silver from a down-hole depth of 27m in the first hole, 25WCDD001, and 12m at 153g/t silver from the surface in the second hole, 25WWCDD002. Anomalous lead, zinc and copper values were also returned from these holes, which were selected to test the potential for shallow, high-grade mineralisation. While the results are based on portable XRF readings and assays are awaited, they indicate that the drill program has achieved its objectives. Should a significant silver resource be defined, West Coast Silver could have a clear line to production given that Elizabeth Hill is an historical mine that only needed low-cost gravity separation to recover native silver. Systematic core logging is underway to improve the company's understanding of Elizabeth Hill while regional soil samples have been sent to the laboratory for assessment before being used to help define the next steps. 'We are extremely pleased with this exceptional start to our maiden drill program,' executive chairman Bruce Garlick said. 'To intersect high-grade silver from surface in our first two holes is a tremendous result and validates our belief in the near-surface potential at Elizabeth Hill. 'The grades seen in 25WCDD001 are particularly encouraging and point to a strong future for the project.' Elizabeth Hill is one of Australia's high-grade silver projects and has a proven history with 1.2Moz of silver produced from just 16,830t of ore at a head grade of 2,194g/t. This was obtained during 12 months of production before the mining operation ceased in 2000 due to low silver prices of around US$5/oz. Encouragingly for WCE, the previous operations had a simplistic processing technique with native silver recovered via low-cost gravity separation. Untapped potential remains in the ground with the deposit open at depth while a recent consolidation of the land package offers potential to discover more Elizabeth Hill style deposits. Through the consolidation of the surrounding land packages into a single contiguous 180km2 package, significant exploration and growth potential exists both near mine and regionally. This land package holds a significant portion of the Munni Munni fault system which is considered prospective for Elizabeth Hill look-a-like silver deposits. The project is on a mining lease in a Tier-1 mining jurisdiction and with a potential processing option at the nearby Radio Hill site. Peregrine Gold (ASX:PGD) Any Western Australian explorer with links to Mark Creasy attracts more attention than most others owing to the legendary prospector's high success rate. One such company is Peregrine Gold which has Creasy as its top backer while former Azure Minerals chairman Brian Thomas is also on board as non-executive chairman. Adding further to these credentials is technical director George Merhi, who has a history of success as exploration manager for the Creasy Group and Novo Resources, particularly in the Pilbara region. It is little wonder then that Peregrine was 14.29% higher at 16c after launching an 8100m drill program across the Tin Can trend at the Newman gold project in the Pilbara. After landing all necessary approvals, the aircore program is underway testing the extent of an open 1km-long gold and arsenic anomaly identified from geochemical sampling. This includes areas with 'subtle' chargeability anomalies identified through Induced Polarisation, which may indicate the presence of sulphide mineralisation. The 81-hole aircore program will average around 100m per hole with results expected in the next quarter. During the drilling Peregrine will test for extensions to the Tin Can West discovery, which previously returned 4m at 9g/t gold from 12m along with 8m at 8.33g/t from 56m, 8m at 6.53g/t from 48m, 4m at 11.35g/t from 28m and 4m at 10.82g/t from 32m. After wrapping up the Tin Can program, the company expects to begin initial aircore drilling at the Epithermal prospect, subject to a final review of survey results. 'We are excited to commence aircore drilling at Tin Can,' Peregrine's technical director George Merhi said. 'The team is eager to see what this round of drilling will discover as we have a compelling fertile target of substantial scale which has already generated high-grade gold mineralisation as evidenced by prior drilling results. 'Following the drilling at Tin Can we can look forward to commencing first phase aircore drilling at the Epithermal prospect.' The Newman gold project spans 1900km2, about 30km southwest of Newman. Asian Battery Metals (ASX:AZ9) Asian Battery Metals has enhanced its standing in Mongolia on confirming high-grade mineralisation at the Oval copper-nickel discovery with shares climbing 10.35% to a daily high of 3.2c before retreating to 2.7c. The Oval is one of 30 promising targets identified at the Yambat project, which covers 106.07km2 in the north-central part of Gobi-Altai Province. Previous drill hole OVD0213 ranked among the highest-grade intercepts drilled in recent years delivering grades of 6.08% copper and 3.19% nickel over 8.8m. And now, assays from phase 3 drilling have flagged a massive sulphide intercept in hole OVD034 which correlates well with previous results of 1.3m at 4.70% Cu, 3.65% Ni, 1.19g/t E3 (gold-platinum-palladium) and 0.12% cobalt from 79.6m. Hole OVD033 confirmed strong mineralisation down-dip from the phase 1 standout hole OVD0211 with 27.7m at 1.36% Cu, 0.86% Ni, 0.44 g/t E3 and 0.04% Co from 92.3m and 6.7m at 1.17% Cu and 0.96% Ni from 159.8m. Hole OVD032 intersected deeper, high-tenor sulphides, including 0.5m at 1.39% Cu, 1.91% Ni, 0.62g/t E3 and 0.07% Co from 293.7m. Asian Battery Metals (ASX:AZ9) said the results confirmed Oval as a new magmatic mafic intrusion related copper-nickel sulphide system in southwestern Mongolia. Visual logging of recent holes OVD036 and OVD0404 has indicated further strong intervals of massive sulphides, suggesting the system remains potentially open along strike and at depth. Additional assay results from these holes are expected in late June. The plan now is to start a ground-based EM survey later this month to guide follow-up drilling and test for deeper feeder zones. Ordell Minerals (ASX:ORD) (Up on no news) As drilling continues at the Barimaia gold project in the Murchison region of WA, Ordell Minerals is awaiting first results with bated breath, as are investors who sent shares up as much as 17.02% to 55c before closing at 49.5c. A multi-pronged, 5000m campaign is targeting extensions and new discoveries within the expanded 7km-long Barimaia Intrusion. First pass reverse circulation (RC) drilling is targeting discovery opportunities outlined by recent aircore drilling along strike from the 2.5km zone of mineralisation defined at the McNabs and McNabs East prospects. The company expects diamond drilling to start in the first half of June. Extensions to the host granodiorite intrusion identified by recent aircore drilling will also be systematically followed up in the second half of 2025. The flagship Barimaia project represents an advanced exploration project with significant historical drilling results. Ordell acquired an 80.3% interest in Barimaia from Genesis Minerals (ASX:GMD), which is now a major shareholder of Ordell with an 8% shareholding. Barimaia, which was never systematically explored due to Genesis' strategic focus on its assets in the Leonora region, is in a Tier-1 mining jurisdiction in proximity to several gold processing plants and adjacent to Ramelius Resources' Mt Magnet mill. Ordell's exploration at Barimaia is targeting new discoveries of a similar style to the Eridanus deposit, which forms part of Ramelius' Mt Magnet operations. Eridanus is ~6km northwest of Barimaia and hosts a resource of 21Mt at 1.7g/t Au for 1.2Moz of contained gold, with an additional +300,000oz already mined from the open pit.
News.com.au
10-06-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Rio Tinto Tomago aluminium smelter in NSW reportedly close to collapse
Rio Tinto's massive Tomago aluminium smelter in NSW is reportedly close to collapse. The facility, situated in Tomago about 13km west of Newcastle, employs some 1000 workers directly, but a stoppage would hit another 5000 indirect workers across the Hunter Valley. Mining giant Rio Tinto holds a 51.6 per cent interest in the smelter, which produces about 590,000 tonnes of aluminium each year, or about 37 per cent of Australia's total production. Multiple reports suggest the company is in emergency talks with state and federal governments for a bailout. NewsWire has contacted NSW energy minister Penny Sharpe, federal energy minister Chris Bowen and the Australian Workers' Union for confirmation of the discussions. Rio Tinto declined to comment on Tuesday. The AFR first reported on the talks on Friday, citing high energy costs for the possible shutdown. Tomago is currently powered by AGL Energy's Bayswater coal fired power station, but is pivoting to renewable energy. In January, the federal government announced a $2bn production credit for aluminium businesses to transition their smelters to green energy, which Rio heralded as a vote of confidence in domestic manufacturing. 'As traditional energy sources for heavy industry become increasingly uncompetitive, today's announcement is a critical piece in helping future-proof the industry,' Rio Tinto chief executive for Australia Kellie Parker said. 'Such support is crucial for sustaining and growing regional economies. 'As global industrial customers and consumers increasingly focus on low-carbon products, this support signals Australia's potential to be a major supplier of the aluminium needed for the global energy transition.' But negotiations over a new energy contract have troubled the smelter's operations for months. The current contract with AGL is due to expire in 2028. 2GB's Ben Fordham, speaking on Tuesday, said the situation was 'not good'. 'We've got the materials, we've got the workers, we've got the smelters, but what we don't have is a working energy system,' he said. 'If it shuts, we're not just losing a smelter, we're risking 6000 jobs.' Some 90 per cent of Tomago aluminium is exported to Asia.
