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ABC News
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Board gamers foster connections and fight loneliness by rolling the dice
When Luke Atkinson started a tabletop gaming club more than a decade ago, only 10 people turned up to its first session. They squeezed into a small room at the local library to play a single game, and it was an altogether modest affair — but at its end, Mr Atkinson was jubilant. He had only moved to the small town of in Kadina on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula earlier that year, and alongside a friend, Mark Dennett, had founded the group with the idea of making community connections in his new home. In that light, the first event had been, for him, an unqualified success. But he could not have foreseen how his and Mr Dennett's club would prove an even greater one: the group, 13 years on, now has its own building, and more than 300 people come there to play games throughout the year. Copper Coast Tabletop, the gaming club the pair started, still runs three times weekly out of a former weigh station in the nearby town of Wallaroo. They play everything, from Monopoly and Cluedo to miniature model games like Warhammer, or the card deck-builder Magic: The Gathering. The club has, in many ways, been the beneficiary of the board-game popularity boom that has blown the industries out to an estimated $18.8 billion globally in the past decade. But its success is also attributable to a larger social movement that has become particularly important in regional communities — combating loneliness. It's no secret making friendships can be difficult for people moving to regions, particularly if they don't play sport. And Mr Atkinson knows that all too well. So when he arrived in Kadina, he thought one of his old hobbies might help him and others who felt the same way. "When you first move to a town, you don't know anyone, and generally there's a lot of close-knit friendship groups because they've known each other for generations or went to school together," Mr Atkinson said. "And I've loved board games and miniature games since childhood, for both the challenge and their artistic value, and I wanted to offer that same joy and connection to the wider community. "Because developing an environment where people can just come and enjoy hobbies and not feel like an outsider … and just connect with people, that's so important. "Moving to a new place can be lonely." According to the Department of Human Services (DHS), 27 per cent of South Australians experience persistent loneliness, while 20 per cent experience persistent social isolation, meaning they had infrequent social contact for at least eight weeks at a time. The DHS says South Australians are the second-most socially isolated people in the country behind the Northern Territory. Flinders University senior lecturer in social policy Ben Lohmeyer said in Australia, young people in particular were more vulnerable to loneliness than previously thought. "Having choice over where they do that, particularly if they're choosing something that's a shared interest, sounds like a great way to build connections and get to know other people." He said it was important for people to have a "third space" — somewhere outside of work and home. "It could be sport, a religious community or a shared interest like gaming. "But that third space is really important to give us a sense of connection and combat things like loneliness." Across South Australia, on the Eyre Peninsula, another group of gamers gathers. In Port Lincoln, Steven Johnson from the West Coast Youth and Community Support group runs games sessions every Thursday and it expands to more than board games. "We noticed that a lot of the clients I was working with, a lot of the people that I met, were gamers of some degree and shared a love for gaming," Mr Johnson said. "Through my program we try and link people who are a bit isolated in the community back into their community in all the wonderful areas that it has." He said the community was created for people who felt isolated and wanted to make friends who shared a similar interest. "It just lets everybody come together in the same physical space and actually create some friendships." Back in Wallaroo, Mr Atkinson reflected on the 13 years and the hundreds of people who have come along to Copper Coast Tabletop to play. "This community is something special," Mr Atkinson said. "For many of our members, especially those with social needs, the structured nature of games provides a framework for interacting, helping them build confidence and a sense of fairness. "We've seen many people grow — not just in gaming skill, but in confidence and connection — and that's what keeps us going."
ABC News
10-06-2025
- Climate
- ABC News
Animals move into built-up areas as drought continues in South Australia
Native animals are migrating onto properties and into towns in search of food and water due to severe drought conditions in South Australia. The change in animal behaviour comes after areas in the state's south received record-low rainfall in the past 12 months. Northern and Yorke Landscape Board general manager Tony Fox said animals such as kangaroos moving onto properties had exacerbated the problems facing farmers. "We've got a really compounding problem here," Mr Fox said. "Not only are the kangaroos struggling now to find feed, but they're actually removing ground cover in many parts of the landscape. "We're now more prone to dust, erosion, and removal of topsoil. "It's a really difficult situation … for a farmer who's trying to manage his property sustainably and then having a lot of his hard work undone." Whyalla has seen an influx of emus and kangaroos. While the unusual sight can be interesting for people living in more built-up areas, experts have warned against feeding or leaving water out for animals. Cassandra Williams from Whyalla Wildlife Rescue said it was likely the visiting emus were young and had recently struck out on their own. "Essentially, they become used to being around humans, which then puts them at risk, which then causes more complications due to traffic, destroying private properties, and can be a hindrance with other animals." Ms Williams also warned that tap water was not suitable for wildlife. "Their bodies can't deal with the chemicals that are in our tap water," she said. "They can actually become ill." Ms Williams said in extreme cases, the animals had to be euthanased because they became too sick. Mr Fox said that while he could understand the sentiment of helping an animal in distress, intervening could have unintended consequences. "This is a natural sort of cycle that they're going through," he said. Mr Fox said farmers were not unsympathetic and would have seen these animals in distress. He said staff had increased reports of kangaroos being left "weak" and "struggling to move" due to malnutrition and dehydration. "Many farmers would be seeing the welfare issues coming through with these malnourished animals that haven't got access to good water," he said. "You quite often see them by the sides of the roads now because roads often have just the occasional bit of moisture that dribbles off that will create a bit of green. "That's the other reason we're seeing so many dead kangaroos being hit by cars on roadsides." National Parks and Wildlife Service district ranger Peter Wilkins said the department was aware of the increased reports of animals moving into townships. Both Ms Williams and Mr Wilkins said animals that migrated towards towns were not forcibly relocated if they were healthy. "Relocating them is not an advisable thing," Ms Williams said. "It causes a great deal of stress to the animal if we have to basically corner it to catch it and then remove it." Ms Williams said the animals would eventually move on if they were left alone.
ABC News
27-05-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Sara Garcia
Thousands of South Australian households and businesses are without power as the clean-up continues after the gusty winds, high rainfalls and high tides that lashed most of the state yesterday. 4m ago 4 minutes ago Tue 27 May 2025 at 12:30am Liberal defeats in the South Australian key battleground seats of Sturt and Boothby have prompted a scathing assessment from former senator Simon Birmingham, who said his party was in "rock bottom" territory. Sat 3 May Sat 3 May Sat 3 May 2025 at 12:37pm South Australia's ongoing dry conditions are being blamed for a power outage affecting more than 20,000 households and businesses across the Yorke Peninsula and parts of the Mid North. Fri 14 Mar Fri 14 Mar Fri 14 Mar 2025 at 7:45am Cricket Australia has confirmed the Sheffield Shield final will not be played at Adelaide Oval, saying on its website the AFL had blocked use of the iconic venue. Fri 14 Mar Fri 14 Mar Fri 14 Mar 2025 at 1:07am Whyalla's steelworks has gone into administration for the second time in under a decade. Here is a look at how events have unfolded in the city in recent years. Sat 22 Feb Sat 22 Feb Sat 22 Feb 2025 at 8:07pm Steele Hall's parliamentary career stretched more than 33 years, including stints in both the federal and state parliaments. Mon 10 Jun Mon 10 Jun Mon 10 Jun 2024 at 9:25pm The state government says this year's budget will focus on supporting South Australians who need it most as it pledges a $266.2 million cost-of-living package — while also keeping the budget in the black. Here's a look at the winners and losers of this year's budget. Thu 6 Jun Thu 6 Jun Thu 6 Jun 2024 at 6:29am Former Adelaide Crows captain Rory Sloane announces his retirement from the AFL after 255 games over 16 seasons, following a second round of surgery on a detached retina earlier this year. Mon 29 Apr Mon 29 Apr Mon 29 Apr 2024 at 4:51am The South Australian government is offering some live music venues the opportunity to apply for $60,000 grants to help revive the industry that was "decimated" during COVID. But one venue owner says it might not be enough to save the live music scene. Fri 12 Jan Fri 12 Jan Fri 12 Jan 2024 at 3:36am Promoters of a two-day South Australian music festival say they have been forced to postpone the event just weeks before it was scheduled to take place because of "economic pressures". Thu 11 Jan Thu 11 Jan Thu 11 Jan 2024 at 5:09am Jacinta Davila, who had been co-accused of murdering prominent Adelaide doctor Michael Yung during an alleged home invasion, has been granted home-detention bail. Fri 22 Dec Fri 22 Dec Fri 22 Dec 2023 at 1:11pm Two former immigration detainees released into South Australia after a High Court ruling are registered child sex offenders — and a third person is in custody over an alleged indecent assault, police have revealed. Tue 5 Dec Tue 5 Dec Tue 5 Dec 2023 at 3:42am Slain SA Police officer Brevet Sergeant Jason Doig has been remembered as kind, caring and a "much loved" member of his community, in a public funeral at the Adelaide Convention Centre. Mon 4 Dec Mon 4 Dec Mon 4 Dec 2023 at 3:04am On the one hand, is a $3 billion development to accommodate thousands of families. On the other, is a burial site that is of immeasurable cultural significance. The problem? They are both on the same ground. Tue 14 Nov Tue 14 Nov Tue 14 Nov 2023 at 9:29pm This suburban park in Adelaide's north-east used to resemble a small forest, filled with hundreds of well-established pine trees — but it has been left decimated thanks to an exotic pest. Tue 19 Sep Tue 19 Sep Tue 19 Sep 2023 at 1:59am After seeing how quickly her son Khye succumbed to the disease, Nicole Hammat wants young people to be more aware of meningococcal and is pleading for the B strain vaccine to be made accessible to more people. Sun 13 Aug Sun 13 Aug Sun 13 Aug 2023 at 8:25pm An Adelaide barbershop that bans women from entering its premises in order to provide its clients with a "male sanctuary" has applied for an exemption to the Equal Opportunity Act. Mon 7 Aug Mon 7 Aug Mon 7 Aug 2023 at 1:31am The number of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases have jumped close to 10 times higher in some states across Australia when compared to last year. Experts say COVID complacency and higher testing rates could be why. Thu 6 Jul Thu 6 Jul Thu 6 Jul 2023 at 5:30am SA Police suspect two elderly people, who died one year apart, may have been murdered by the same person after abnormalities in both of their toxicology reports were found. Thu 29 Jun Thu 29 Jun Thu 29 Jun 2023 at 9:28am The state government will pour billions of dollars into fixing its troubled health system and abolish stamp duty for some first-home buyers — but it comes at a cost. Thu 15 Jun Thu 15 Jun Thu 15 Jun 2023 at 8:02am Australian man Jason Kennison dies while descending Mount Everest, a climb he had undertaken to raise money for Spinal Cord Injuries Australia. Mon 22 May Mon 22 May Mon 22 May 2023 at 1:30am A neighbour who was with Sean Ferris minutes before he stabbed two police officers and was then shot dead says the incident should never has escalated to this — as homemade weapons and a Samurai sword are removed from the property. Thu 4 May Thu 4 May Thu 4 May 2023 at 8:54am Unless you've lived in South Australia you probably have no idea what Stobie poles are, or why they are so iconic to their home state. Here's a look. Fri 31 Mar Fri 31 Mar Fri 31 Mar 2023 at 1:13am South Australia's Premier Peter Malinauskas has conceded he does not expect the state's First Nations Voice to Parliament to lead to sudden improvements but hopes that "over years and decades to come, there is some positive change". Mon 27 Mar Mon 27 Mar Mon 27 Mar 2023 at 7:51pm Thousands of people are without power across Adelaide as wild winds continue to lash the city. Mon 20 Mar Mon 20 Mar Mon 20 Mar 2023 at 4:04am
ABC News
26-05-2025
- Climate
- ABC News
Warning for SA coastline as abnormally high tide lashes beaches and jetties
Damaging winds will ease overnight across South Australia but a warning remains in place for "abnormally high tides" along much of the state's coastline. The Bureau of Meteorology said the "strong cold front" which lashed the state throughout Monday has moved south and over the border to Victoria and conditions would gradually ease in SA. According to a warning issued late on Monday, "abnormally high tides" were likely to lead to sea water flooding at low lying coastal areas in the Spencer Gulf and Gulf St Vincent on Monday. It said the tides were likely to rise "significantly above the normal high tide mark" during the afternoon and evening. The sea level was expected to reach 3.9 metres above the lowest astronomical tide, while at Port Pirie it was expected to rise to 4.6 metres. "Large surf in combination with the elevated sea levels may also lead to coastal erosion and localised damage to coastal infrastructure, including about the Adelaide metropolitan beaches," the warning says. The bureau said the locations expected to be affected include Port Adelaide, Adelaide metropolitan beaches, Port Pirie, Port Lincoln, Whyalla, Port Augusta, Wallaroo, Victor Harbor and Port Wakefield. Footage has also emerged on social media of waves crashing across jetties along and a structure at Marion Bay on the Yorke Peninsula being swept away in swell. The bureau said winds from the west and south-west could average up to 65 kilometres per hour with possible peak gusts of 90 kph into Tuesday morning. The highest gust on Monday was 126 kph recorded at Neptune Island at 5.22am, while on the mainland a gust of 107 kph was recorded at Minlaton Airport at 1.05pm. Other places which recorded gusts of 90 kph and above include Port Pirie, Cultana, Cummins and Cape Borda. She said the expected sea level peaks were similar heights to an event in May 2016 which caused damage along the coastline. "With these severe winds, we are also expecting large waves of 6m-9m this afternoon about exposed coasts, and these will abate during Tuesday," she said. In May 2016 historic jetties, including the heritage-listed Port Germain jetty on the Spencer Gulf, were damaged during severe weather. Other jetties damaged at the time included Moonta Bay, Henley Beach, Venus Bay, Port Rickaby and Elliston.
SBS Australia
24-05-2025
- Science
- SBS Australia
'Never had a situation like this': Why Australia is unprepared for this deadly ocean threat
Across South Australia's coast, toxic algae have been destroying marine life. Source: Getty, SBS, Supplied Edithburgh Jetty on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula is usually a hot spot for divers. Known for its azure blue waters and vibrant micro-ecosystem, dive enthusiasts come from all over the world to marvel at its marine wonders: leafy sea dragons, pyjama squid, rodless angler fish and vivid corals and sponges that cover the jetty's pylons. But since mid-March, life under the jetty has been decimated by a deadly algae bloom , now spanning four-and-a-half thousand square kilometres of South Australia's gulf and coastal waters. Cinematographer Paul Macdonald has been studying life under the jetty for more than 20 years and says the damage is staggering. "It's been part of my life for so long, and now, to see this devastation, it's just heartbreaking," he says. "Words cannot describe how sad it is." Macdonald also runs a local dive school at the jetty with his wife, Elizabeth Solich. Their monitoring in recent years led to the Edithburgh rodless angler fish being confirmed as a new species in 2021 and given the Indigenous name Narungga Frogfish. "I'd seen it breed three times. It was always in the one spot, and the coral it was living in was the size of a football," Macdonald says. To realise it was gone was a really sad moment. The harmful algae bloom (HAB) was initially identified as karenia mikimotoi, a phytoplankton that produces a reactive oxygen species that damages gills — preventing marine creatures from breathing. It also causes respiratory and flu-like symptoms in humans. Another strain of karenia that produces small amounts of neurotoxin (brevetoxin) has also been identified in the bloom. What's perhaps most alarming is that little can be done to prevent HABs from occurring, but the effects can be mitigated with close monitoring. Most of what is known about the impact of the bloom on marine species has come from data collected by citizen scientists like Macdonald and Solich. Karenia mikimotoi was first identified after surfers reported a mysterious foam at Waitpinga Beach on South Australia's Fleurieu Peninsula in March. Since then, more than 1,400 citizen reports and photos of dead or sick marine life have exposed the consequences of the HAB. A shared database published on the website shows that more than 200 different species of marine life have been killed. OzFish, one of the non-government organisations leading the project, identified more than 100 species of fish and sharks alone. "This includes rarely encountered deepwater sharks and iconic leafy sea dragons, and popular recreational fishing species like flathead, squid, and blue swimmer crabs, and rock lobsters," says OzFish's South Australian project manager Brad Martin. There have been calls for increased monitoring and testing during HABs and questions raised over Australia's preparedness for future events. Faith Coleman, an estuarine ecologist, who has spent hours volunteering to educate the local community about the bloom, suggests the lack of data is "a wasted opportunity". Coleman runs an environmental consultancy agency with her mother, scientist Peri Coleman, and says the main response to the bloom has come from citizen action. The Colemans have been undertaking plankton counts under a light microscope from samples collected by the citizen scientists. "That's really the only data we have in the public sphere," Coleman says. So that means there is very limited stuff we can do, to work out how to stop it in the future. She says regular monitoring of swimming beaches and samples taken at sea and at depth are needed to study the bloom. In the US, federal legislation governs the research and monitoring of HABs. Director of the Southern California Conservation Observing System, Clarissa Anderson, says this has led to "state-of-the-art monitoring systems" in areas with a history of HABs. "We've been lucky to have a big academic and now government investment monitoring program that goes back to the early 2000s," she says. "So we do have some pretty long-term records with which to put any one of these individual events into context." In Australia, the only labs testing for HABs at the species level are those paid for by the aquaculture industry. Marine biologist Shauna Murray — who identified the first sample of karenia mikimotoi at Sydney's University of Technology — says there are only a handful of experts equipped to do this work in Australia. "I think largely there hasn't been that many samples collected, and that's largely because we don't have the infrastructure for it," Murray says. "We've never had a situation like this in the past where we've had to collect a lot of samples rapidly from a harmful algal bloom that's not just affecting the aquaculture industry, but is affecting the wider population." What's causing harmful algae blooms? There are hundreds of phytoplankton species that are not toxic and regularly bloom in South Australia, due to an upwelling of nutrient-rich water from the depths. "All the way from Ningaloo [Reef, off Western Australia] to New Zealand, we have this long string of blooms that often occur every year, and it's why the southern right whales come to feed, and it's why they have their children here, [because] there is this food source," Coleman says. South Australia is also in the midst of one of the most severe and long-lasting marine heatwaves on record; the state's environmental protection authority says it has created conditions that have allowed karenia mikimotoi to bloom. In other parts of the world karenia mikimotoi blooms at cooler temperatures. But, according to Coleman, the destruction of oyster reefs, seagrasses and other life on the floor of the Spencer and St. Vincent gulfs either side of the Yorke Peninsula has contributed to the imbalance. "The hope is that if we can restore the benthic life [deep-sea dwelling marine life] in the gulfs," she says. "We will have more fish, we'll have more life; we'll also have water that is clearer and cooler — and it will reduce our vulnerability." SBS News contacted the South Australian government for comment but did not receive a response. Share this with family and friends
