Toowoomba News

• 'Kids can have strokes': Boy’s collapse highlights risk for children

  Hugh Proud collapsed at his tiny outback school in 2022. Four years later, he shares his story to raise awareness of childhood stroke.

• Man's alleged failed bid to steal copper wire lands him in hospital

  A man is in critical condition in hospital after allegedly trying to use a knife to cut wire from a feeder pit and likely triggering a 2-metre fireball.

• Mum and son wait hours for police as thieves hit home for third time

  Intruders break into a Toowoomba family's home in a post-midnight raid, forcing the woman and her 11-year-old son to lock themselves in a room after calling Triple Zero.

• Buskers at Australian championships showcase why live is best

  Musicians young and old battle it out for the prize of top busker at a national event in Southern Queensland.

• More children in residential care in Qld than other states, inquiry told

  Queensland's Commission of Inquiry into Child Safety spends seven months exploring the complex issues surrounding children in care and how to improve their experience. 

• Gas giant launches legal action against Australia's biggest pork producer

  A major energy company is taking Australia's largest pork producer to court over plans to build gas pipelines through its property on Queensland's Western Downs. 

• Child commissioner raises concerns about $50m secure care plan for at-risk kids

  An inquiry into Queensland's Child Safety services hears critiques of the state government's plan to build a $50-million facility to house children who pose a danger to themselves or others in care.

• Plan to bottle and export water from drought-prone area doesn't 'pass the pub test'

  Farmers say their fight continues after the local council knocked back a Chinese company's bid to extract almost 100 million litres of groundwater a year to bottle and sell.

• Farmers rally against 96 million litres per year water extraction and bottling facility

  A developer has lodged an application with a rural Queensland council to build a water bottling, storage and export facility.

• Flood warnings, food shortages for western Queensland as severe weather continues

  A tropical low is sitting over the south-eastern part of the Northern Territory, bringing the risk of heavy rainfall to parts of western Queensland that are already flooding. 

• As congregations shrink, old rural churches are being given new life

  A small timber church built in 1917 is at the centre of a growing trend reshaping the future of regional sacred spaces.

• Tick outbreak raises questions over Queensland's biosecurity

  Queensland is known for its hardline biosecurity stance against foreign pests, but farmers say a recent cattle tick outbreak has exposed systemic weaknesses.

• How one child had 22 foster carers by age 13 and landed in adult jail at 18

  Details of a child's tumultuous journey to adulthood under the stewardship of Queensland's Department of Child Safety have been laid bare in a Toowoomba inquiry this week.

• More 'hard and fast' rain likely for soaked parts of north Queensland

  A risk for further heavy rainfall and thunderstorms is possible in northern parts of the state today and into the weekend.

• Man who punctured police officer's lung with scissors given more jail time

  A man who stabbed a police officer with a pair of scissors during a domestic violence call-out in regional Queensland has had his jail sentence increased.

• Woman shares insight into harrowing childhood in Queensland's state care

  A Queensland woman whose adolescence was marred by sexual abuse and exploitation has described her experiences in residential care to Queensland's Child Safety Commission of Inquiry.

• Queensland farmers rejoice as rain breaks dry spell

  Some of the driest parts of Queensland receive up to 200 millimetres of rain, soaking paddocks and lifting spirits.

• Coroner finds contentious police tactic not the cause of man's death in custody

  A Queensland coroner finds the cause of Indigenous man Steven Nixon-McKellar's death during an arrest was "multi-factorial".

• Gold Coast cops 120mm as south-east Queensland faces looming deluge

  South-east Queensland is being told to brace for an intense soaking from today with up to 150 millimetres to fall in some coastal areas and rainfall all weekend.

• Hospital maternity unit embraces call for workplace culture overhaul

  Staff at the Toowoomba Hospital maternity unit will be implementing recommended changes to their workplace culture following an independent review.

• Severe thunderstorm, heavy rainfall warnings issued for Queensland

  Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding across parts of Queensland tonight, according to the weather bureau. 

• Girl, 5, killed in ATV rollover on Queensland property

  A young girl has died and a boy has been injured after an ATV being driven by a child rolled rolled on a rural property near Chinchilla on Tuesday evening.

• Health minister orders review of troubled hospital maternity unit

  Announcement comes after a woman reveals her support person was prevented from entering the birth suite while she was in labour by Toowoomba Hospital security. 

• Heatwave conditions to return for SEQ ahead of weekend showers

  The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting "locally severe heatwave conditions" from Tuesday, culminating in a maximum of 35 degrees in Brisbane on Thursday.

• After 30 years, has the time finally come for a national gun register?

  First proposed after the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, Australia still doesn't have a national gun register. As Queensland parliament sits for the first time since national gun reforms became law, advocates say it is time to centralise firearm information.