Trams and trains made the news in NSW and the ACT this week - but for all the wrong reasons.
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In country NSW, at one rail crossing alone, over half the number of people captured on a covert camera did not stop to check if a train was coming.
No fines were issued to the guilty parties caught on camera this time, but that's not going to last when there's an average of three deaths per year at level crossings.
When a country freight train barrels along at 120km/h, it is never going to stop in time.
And neither did the big, red tram in Canberra, which hit an errant pedestrian with such force that it produced a sizeable indentation in the laminated windscreen glass.
That sound you can hear is not a tram coming, but advertising companies rubbing their hands together for the next multi-million dollar ACT government-funded campaign on staying safe around large, fast-moving objects.
Port Kembla was once one of Australia's industrial powerhouses but there's now 200 hectares of land not far from BlueScope's steelworks now eyed off for industrial redevelopment. It's not a breezy location so that may preclude wind turbines, but the Danish company scoping it believes that the premium road and rail links will be a big attraction to companies who don't mind setting up shop down the road from a blast furnace.
Keeping local people employed through regional development is another big concern in the Hunter after BHP announced it couldn't find a buyer for its Mt Arthur coal mine and would close it within eight years. What the Hunter region looks like post mining was a key topic for discussions this week by local council heads. It's a challenging subject with no easy answers without big dollops of funding.
But clean energy hubs, like that planned for the Port of Newcastle, could be one solution. There's just one little hitch: the multi-million dollar promise on projects like this was made by yesterday's man, Scott Morrison.
And as if we didn't realise it by now, a new study has revealed that former PM and his Nationals deputy Barnaby Joyce went into the May federal election as the most unpopular pairing since Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
It's often said that country footy breeds some tough characters and here's proof once more: an ambulance was waiting for Yarrawonga boom full-forward Leigh Williams when he limped off in the final quarter, after kicking five goals for his side to post a solid win in the Ovens and Murray league game against Lavington.
It seems that not just courage, but talent abounds equally in the local minor soccer leagues. Given the Matildas were thrashed 0-7 by Spain this week - admittedly while resting some star players including goalscoring whiz Sam Kerr - talent scouts may do well to cast an eye to the border country, where 14-year-old Albury forward Elisha Wild scored her seventh hat-trick of the season.
And who could blame the good citizens of Bendigo from being abuzz with excitement this week as one of Australia's biggest new basketball stars and another country-bred talent, Dyson Daniels, was scooped up at pick eight by NBA franchise the New Orleans Pelicans.
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