News and feature articles

Get the drill

Carly Lubicz, DUO Magazine, January 2012

When it comes to fighting the battle of the bulge, feisty biggest loser trainer and fitness guru Michelle Bridges won't take no for an answer. What's that...? Drop and give me 20!

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A sight to behold

Carly Lubicz, Duo Magazine, June 2011

She has cooked for homeless children, paid home visits to the elderly, counselled distressed callers at Lifeline and now sorts the clothes racks for the Salvation Army Salvos Store. Astoundingly, Val Bradshaw - now 73 - has done all this totally blind.

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Age is just a number

Carly Lubicz, Duo Magazine, October 2011

Meet five women who are thriving and proving age holds no barrier to happiness.

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Cyclone Yasi coverage

Carly Lubicz, AAP, February 2011

Carly Lubicz covered Cyclone Yasi from Townsville on February 2, 3 and 4 for Australian Associated Press (AAP). Her stories outlining the lead-up to the Category 5 system when residents were getting to evacuation centres, during the event when the damaging winds hit, and the aftermath as Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan and Prime Minister Julia Gillard toured the region were picked up on websites all over the country including the Sydney Morning Herald, Daily Telegraph, The Age, Yahoo 7 News, Ninemsn and The West Australian.

She covered the stories with fleeting access to power and took photos that were available on AAP One of the deluge and Julia Gillard’s visit.

Click on the below links to see a selection of the work:

Sydney Morning Herald online

Daily Telegraph online

The Age online

Nine News ninemsn (written from Android phone and emailed during cyclone)

Avoiding the Busyness Trap

Carly Lubicz, Duo Magazine, January 2011

It seems to be a spiralling trend – ask someone how they are and instead of receiving a sunny “Great thanks!”, you’ll most likely score an exhausted eye-roll followed by a gruff grumble: “busy”. There’s no doubt our to-do lists are expanding by the minute, but how much of this constant busyness and its associated stress is self-inflicted?

Talk to anyone in the wellness industry and they will report a growing influx of clients who are dealing with stress and its physical and emotional manifestations. They will tell you that, in the information age, people are finding it difficult to switch-off and our penchant for “keeping up with the Jones’” sees us stretched to breaking point. “Life in general seems much busier and more stressful,” Townsville psychologist Martha Landman says. “It seems to have come with industrialisation and people chasing more luxurious lifestyles – we want more, so we have to work more, so we make more debt and we have to work even harder to cover that; plus both parents often work, they come home tired with little time for family and have to race to get the chores like cooking dinner done before collapsing – it becomes a vicious cycle.”

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Australia's camels - pest or resource?

Carly Crummey (now Lubicz), RM Williams OUTBACK Magazine, April/May 2010 Cover

As our feral camel population surpasses a million and control plans are put in place, Australia needs to decide whether the animal is an outback pest - ripe for the culling - or a valuable desert resource.

As Ashley Severin and Lyndee Matthews tour the fence line they have a rifle wedged securely against the centre console. Like cool water, it’s a staple they never leave the homestead without.  It’s 42C in the red centre and any efforts to swot the flies out of the air-conditioned comfort of the cab seem futile as more stubbornly charge in. Their cattle property is Curtin Springs – about 100km east of Uluru - and it stretches more than 1 million acres. However the fence line patrolled this afternoon is a mere 1.7km and forms a protective shield around one of their limited water resources. This dam fence is about 6ft high, has three lengths of high-tensile stainless steel cable – at least one rated to 3.8 tonnes - two levels of mesh, barbed wire at the base, and concrete reinforced steel posts. At a cost of $40,000, straight-talking Lyndee says it is yet to be breached, but admits she isn’t totally confident it will stand its ground against a thirsty herd of feral camels in search of water.

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Simply fearless

Carly Crummey (now Lubicz), CityLife Magazine, May 2010

Fearless professional bullriders from around the country will converge on Townsville this month for the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) Troy Dunn International, the first punishing contest of the nail-biting PBR World Challenge Series. Local cowboy Jock Connolly shows us what action-loving audiences can expect.

There is one thing Charters Towers-born champion bull rider Jock Connolly is sure to do before he climbs on the back of another feisty one tonne beast that is hell-bent on throwing him off, and then putting a hoof through his face if he is not quick enough to scramble out of the way: Leave his thinking brain in the chutes. “As a bull rider you need strength, balance and co-ordination, but thinking is your worst enemy because your conscious mind is too slow and you end up on your head,” Jock explains from his Charters Towers property. “I treat each bull ride the way I treat life, where you jump out of bed and open the door and meet the world. Once the chute door opens, you just have to go with it.”

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The city's dark side

Carly Lubicz, CityLife, September 2010

Dungeons, underground tunnels, murders and unnerving psychiatric misadventures - does this sound like the Townsville you know? Townsville Ghost Tours is shining a torch on the city's mysterious past.

Talking to Dave Dennis is enough to give you goose bumps. It could be his ghostly-pale skin, or his midnight black cape that engulfs his ghoulish form, or perhaps it is the stories about the origins of spirits that are said to haunt some of Townsville's most historical sites that cause skin to prickle and send shivers up the spine.

Whatever it is, audiences are getting captivated – and gravely frightened – about the stories Dave and his wife Fiona spent more than six months digging up and breathing back to life. “I started off researching in the library – I spent hours there going through material and found just one story,” Dave explains. “I ended up sourcing most of my true tales from older residents and the owners of some of the more historic hotels, but since doing the tours we have found people are offering us new information all the time about their encounters with spirits and Townsville’s past.”

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Ravenswood, QLD, 4816

Carly Crummey (now Lubicz), RM Williams OUTBACK Magazine, Dec/Jan 2010

The once-thriving gold mining town of Ravenswood in North Queensland is considered a modern-day ghost town, and not just because the number of its spirited people has declined.

A visit to Ravenswood, 89km east of Charters Towers, is like taking a journey back in time: If it wasn’t for the powerlines, bitumen and occasional street light you could easily be passing through in the early 1900s. In saying that, there would have been much more activity at the beginning of last century: Ravenswood was established as the first major gold mining town in North Queensland in 1868 and had its population peak in 1903 at about 5000 people.

At that stage the bustling settlement boasted 40 hotels and shanties that served to quench the thirst and loneliness of dusty miners who had come from far and wide. These days the population of the charming heritage-listed town sits at 140 and two pubs remain, along with a post office, a school with 19 students, a museum, church, pottery shop, camping grounds and the mining operation of Carpentaria Gold which started in 1987 and injected life into the town once more by employing about 300 people.

Like signposts to the past, there are a number of rusted mining remains dispersed around Ravenswood’s landscape, including the chimney stack ruins of the Mabel Mill and the 140-year-old miner’s cottage.

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Seven days of tropical adventure

Carly Crummey (now Lubicz), On the Road, March 2010

Rainforest, reef and rapids - take a tour of some of far-north Queensland's most prized tropical activities.

A sense of adventure is a must-have item when packing the bags for North Queensland. The coastal trek between the region’s unofficial capital of Townsville and the virtually untapped wilderness of Cape Tribulation is bursting with activities that are guaranteed to get pulses racing and senses engaged.

The direct journey is 500km, but add another 300km to factor in all the detours to waterfalls, white sand beaches and castles in the rainforest. The best bit of all for the budget conscious: There’s no need to hire an expensive four-wheel-drive – all of these heart-pumping pursuits can be accessed by the modest four-cylinder sedan, plus there’s ample camping along the way.

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It's a dog's life

Carly Crummey (now Lubicz), Great Walks Magazine, April/May 2009

You've got a dog, you love walking, let's go! But it's not that simple. Great Walks shows you where you can and can't take your best mate.

Nothing beats throwing on your walking shoes, putting your pooch in the back of the car and heading off to explore a new trail. But there’s nothing more deflating than being greeted with a 'NO DOGS' sign. So how do you avoid this? The key is being prepared before you venture out.

Dog owner Gerry Neustatl spent months looking for a holiday and walking destination that would take him and his six-month-old Labrador Ben. Eventually stumbling across Hidden Valley, just one-and-a-half hours from Sydney, man and dog had a great week.

Returning from his satisfying break, Gerry got talking to fellow dog owners and realised dog-ist attitudes were widespread. Not wanting to roll over, Gerry decided to set up an online database dedicated to pet-friendly accommodation and leash-free parks.

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Bushbash bustle

Carly Crummey (now Lubicz), Great Walks Magazine, June/July 2008

The Mount Sorrow Ridgeway Trail in Daintree NP offers a real workout for adventurous walkers.

The pristine blue tropical waters of the Daintree region proved to be trouble from the start for Captain James Cook, who named a jutting piece of the northern Queensland coast Cape Tribulation when his vessel struck a reef 40km offshore in 1770 and nearly sank. In his sombre mood, the British adventurer also dubbed a nearby 850m peak “Mount Sorrow”, with the rain-laden landmark harbouring several kinds of rainforest on its steep and unforgiving slopes.

Before the stunning Daintree region became listed as part of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area in 1988, European settlers arrived to the rainforest in droves to get rich off the area’s abundance of red cedar trees, or “red gold”, with some staying after the clearing to try their hand at tropical agriculture. But it wasn’t until the 1970s that tourism began to take off, and now the area boasts a variety of tropical experiences, including crocodile spotting tours, beach-side horse riding and a series of wooden boardwalks. These walks are designed to give visitors the rainforest experience without interfering with the natural surroundings.

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Indian with a twist

Carly Crummey (now Lubicz), Perth Woman Magazine, Summer 2004

When was the last time you stepped into an Indian restaurant without being ambushed by the habitual array of tassels, gaudy textured wallpaper and gold elephants? Perched in the nook of Milligan and Hay Streets' intersection, 9Mary's Indian Restaurant could be viewed as igniting an Indian revolution in Perth.

From the moment you step through the clear doors of the restaurant, you are greeted with a scene that is quite 'un-Indian' - spacious seating, modern furniture, funky light fightings and pop art inspired art works (minus the fake gold frame). In fact, our waiter reveals as he seats us at a comfortable booth in the corner, people often wander in off the street - attracted by the colourful interior design - and are surprised that Indian cuisine is the taste on offer.

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Chaos triggered by flu epidemic

Carly Crummey (now Lubicz), Bundaberg NewsMail, September 11, 2007

WHILE Bundaberg is still equine influenza-free, horse lovers and businesses have been stopped in their tracks as the southern part of the state continues to battle to contain the contagious virus.

Farrier Robin Smith has lost 50% of his income due to people cancelling his non-essential service, with the Bundaberg man needing to comply with stringent controls when he does visit a property to curb the chance of the sickness spreading.

Bundaberg veterinarian Peter Gardiner's business is down 75%, while horse organisations have needed to cancel all events and, up until late last week, farmers could not muster cattle to send to the sale yards.

A spokesman from the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries said it was "impossible" to say how long the outbreak would continue, but if tests from northern Queensland returned negative this evening, then it may divide the state in two, giving Bundaberg more moderate requirements.

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