ABC North Queensland

09/10/2025

🚗✨ Road Trip Time! ✨🚗

We want to know — what's your must-stop road stop in North Queensland?

🛣️ Whether it’s a quirky café, a scenic lookout, or that hidden gem only locals know about, we want to hear it!

Drop your favourite stops in the comments below ⬇️ or share them with Jess Naunton this Saturday morning on Saturday Breakfast! ☕🎙️

09/10/2025

The Queensland Conservation Council (QCC) has called out the LNP government for "not taking the environment seriously" with the number of flora and fauna species under threat on the rise.

Get the news that matters to you straight from the source. Download the ABC NEWS app: https://ab.co/abcnewsapp.

The Queensland Conservation Council (QCC) has called out the LNP government for "not taking the environment seriously" with the number of flora and fauna species under threat on the rise.

08/10/2025

⚒ Deal reached for Copper Refinery and Smelter ⚒

Australian taxpayers will fund a $600 million rescue package for mining giant Glencore to keep processing copper in regional Queensland until 2028.

The Swiss multinational has accepted the three-year deal from the federal and Queensland governments for its Mount Isa Copper Smelter and Townsville Refinery.

The company previously warned its copper assets would be mothballed without a government bailout, triggering almost five months of negotiations.

Glencore directly employs 600 workers across the Townsville refinery and Mount Isa smelter, but the operations are tied to thousands more indirect jobs.

It reported half-year earnings of US$5.4 billion worldwide in early August.

07/10/2025

LOCAL FIRE BANS 🚫Until - midnight Tuesday 21st October
📍Townsville Local Government Area

🚫 Until Friday 10 October
📍 Charters Towers, Flinders and Richmond Local Government Areas

NO OPEN FIRES
ℹ️ https://ab.co/3DxD47Q
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​👉Check warnings for your location at ab.co/ABC_QLD

07/10/2025

Parts of the state are still reeling from last season's flooding, storms and rainfall, with the majority of council areas disaster-declared already.

Get the news that matters to you straight from the source. Download the ABC NEWS app: https://ab.co/abcnewsapp

Parts of the state are still reeling from last season's flooding, storms and rainfall, with the majority of council areas disaster-declared already.

06/10/2025

Queensland's outgoing human rights commissioner says his office needs more powers, including the ability to launch legal action over issues such as young people being held in watch houses.

In an interview ahead of the end of his seven-year term today, Scott McDougall said he had "lost sleep at night worrying" about some juveniles "spending weeks and weeks" in the state's watch houses.

Personalise your news and stay in the know with the ABC NEWS app: https://ab.co/abcnewsapp

Queensland's outgoing human rights commissioner says he has lost sleep worrying about some juveniles "spending weeks and weeks" in the state's watch houses.

05/10/2025

Temperatures could soar to almost 10 degrees above average this week, increasing the risk of bushfires that are already burning across the state.

Stay across the latest warnings for your area at abc.net.au/emergency.

Temperatures could soar to almost 10 degrees above average this week, increasing the risk of bushfires that are already burning across the state.

05/10/2025

It's that time of year again! ⏰

At 2am, clocks around the country jumped forward to 3am AEDT.

Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia do not observe daylight saving, so if you're travelling between states, you might want to keep that in mind.

From today until April 5, 2026, the Australian mainland will simultaneously experience five different time zones.

For example, if it's 3pm in the ACT, NSW, TAS, and VIC during daylight savings, it'll be 2pm in QLD, 2:30pm in SA, 1:30pm in the NT, and 12pm in WA.

04/10/2025

Advocates say an outdated funding model and cost shifting has left Queensland councils in a risky financial position, with nowhere left to turn for cash except ratepayers.

Personalise your news & stay in the know with the ABC NEWS app https://ab.co/abcnewsapp

Advocates say an outdated funding model and cost shifting has left Queensland councils in a risky financial position, with nowhere left to turn for cash except ratepayers.

03/10/2025

🎤🎼GIG ON THE AIR🎼🎤

✨From singing to soothe strangers, to a brand-new side hustle that’s music for the soul.

This week on Saturday Brekky's Gig on the Air you met Pat Dzwonczk, the unstoppable pensioner who’s spent the past seven years volunteering her voice in aged care and palliative care. But now, she is turning her passion into a new venture called Sing Along with Pat 💃🎤

Hoping to make music the medicine for loneliness and low spirits, Pat told host Jess Naunton "I don't know what it is about music, it's like an international language, but it lifts your spirit somehow."

Whilst she is a fan of Taylor Swift, Pat's repertoire consists of the classics.

"I've never seen myself as a performer, i'm just someone that instigates singing along," said Ms Dzwonczk.

🎧Listen Back on the ABC listen app or https://tinyurl.com/yc8c8h5v

03/10/2025

LOCAL FIRE BAN 🚫 Friday 3 October to Friday 10 October
📍 Charters Towers, Flinders and Richmond Local Government Areas
🔥 All open fires are prohibited. All Permits to Light Fire issued are suspended
ℹ️ https://ab.co/3DxD47Q
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​👉Check warnings for your location at ab.co/ABC_QLD

03/10/2025

Townsville has recorded its hottest October day in 67 years.

The Bureau of Meteorology says Townsville reached a peak of 36.4 degrees on Friday, the hottest October day since 1958 and the second hottest October day on record.

Townsville's hottest October day was 37.1 degrees.

How are you staying cool?