Tag: Tasmania

Thousands of Australians without power as heavy rain, damaging winds lash Tasmania

SYDNEY (Reuters) -Tens of thousands of people in Australia’s southern island state of Tasmania were without power on Sunday after a cold front brought damaging winds and heavy rains, sparking flood warnings. “Around 30,000 customers are without power across the state this morning,” Tasnetworks, a state-owned power company, said on Facebook on Sunday. The nation’s weather forecaster said on its website that a cold front over Tasmania, population around 570,000 people, was moving away, “although […]

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‘Like wolves to Yellowstone’: Tasmanian devils released on Australian mainland

by Holly ROBERTSON Agence France-Presse SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Tasmanian devils have been released into the wild on Australia’s mainland 3,000 years after the feisty marsupials went extinct there, in what conservationists described Monday as a “historic” step. Aussie Ark, along with a coalition of other conservation groups, revealed Monday that they had released 26 of the carnivorous mammals into a 400-hectare (1,000-acre) sanctuary at Barrington Tops, about 3.5 hours north of Sydney. Tim Faulkner, […]

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Hundreds of whales stranded in southern Australia

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — At least twenty-five whales have died and scientists are trying to rescue 250 more that are stranded in a remote bay on the Australian island of Tasmania, officials said Monday. Tasmania’s environment department said the whales had become stuck on a sandbar in Macquarie Harbour, on the island’s rugged and sparsely populated west coast. Nic Deka, who is managing the incident response, said two large pods were stranded on sandbars a […]

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Australian village, including cows, on sale for $10 million

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — A small, picturesque Australian village has been listed for sale, attracting interest from China and Singapore, with its new buyer set to own dozens of homes, a lake full of fish and 35 Highland cattle. Property agents said they hoped the 145-hectare (358.3-acre) Tarraleah village in the heart of Tasmania state would fetch up to Aus$13 million (US$10 million). “I’ve never sold a town before,” property agent John Blacklow, who has been […]

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Bushfires burn Wilderness World Heritage Area in Australian state of Tasmania

REUTERS — Bushfires were burning out of control in parts of Tasmania’s Wilderness World Heritage Area (WHA) on Monday (January 25). Fire crews have been brought in from interstate to help extinguish the blazes, many in remote areas of the island state. The fires are threatening areas in South West National Park, the Central Highlands and Cradle Mountain and authorities have said that heavy rainfall is needed to extinguish dozens of blazes in the WHA […]

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