A VICTORIAN woman holidaying in Bali has become one of Indonesia’s first swine flu patients, prompting concerns that Australian tourists may spread the virus.Bobbie Masoner, 22, a British artist from Melbourne, tested positive for swine flu on Wednesday and remains in a Balinese hospital.Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said she was “very worried” Australians travelling to the holiday destination would circulate the virus. “We have to be more vigilant about Australian tourists so there won’t be more cases of H1N1 from Australia,” she said.
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Category Archives: Australia and Oceania
AN ADELAIDE hotel has stunned its competitors by being rated Australia’s best by a global tourism booking website.Majestic Roof Garden Hotel at Frome St, city, is rated 24th in the world in the most applauded 1000 hotels on the Expedia Insiders’ Select list published yesterday by expedia.The list takes into account more than 160,000 travellers’ opinions, balanced with value and input from Expedia’s hotel experts.The next best Australian hotel on the list is the Sheraton on the Park, Sydney, at 38th. Meridien at Port Douglas is 65th and the Lakes Cairns Resort & Spa is 80th. Adelaide’s Hilton International is at 752nd.
SYDNEYSIDERS enjoy Australia’s best quality of living but better conditions can be found across the Tasman.Vienna topped the 2009 Worldwide Quality of Living Survey, but Australia fared well with Sydney placed 10th, Melbourne 18th, Perth 21st, Adelaide 30th and Brisbane 34th.However, Auckland was fourth in the survey – the only other southern hemisphere city to make the top 10.
A DEADLY brawl between bikies that rolled through a domestic terminal at Sydney Airport was unplanned, sparked by the chance encounter of rival members on a flight from Melbourne, a court has been told.Anthony Zervas, 29, was yesterday bludgeoned to death at Qantas’s T3 terminal in a brawl involving members of the Hells Angels and Comancheros bikie gangs.Four men accused of being involved faced Sydney’s Central Local Court today.
MELBOURNE’S $100 million Southern Star Observation Wheel is in danger of quickly turning into a giant white elephant after engineers discovered damage caused to the structure during Victoria’s recent heatwave will put it out of action for at least six months.Shopkeepers are yet to learn of the longer than expected delays to the reopening of the tourist site in the Docklands precinct despite a meeting held last week to update concerned business owners on the situation, The Age has learned.
AUSTRALIANS bound for Bali have been assured there’s no need to be vaccinated against rabies despite an outbreak of the virus blamed for at least seven deaths.Almost 40,000 dogs in Bali’s densely populated south have been vaccinated and 2000 strays culled since the outbreak in early September.In the past two months more than 800 victims of dog, cat and monkey bites – including at least one Australian – have been vaccinated in Bali.The most recent death was a Balinese woman arrived frothing at the mouth at Sanglah Hospital. Hours later she was dead. Three months prior she’d been bitten by a dog that entered her home.
NEW Zealand’s world-famous war dance, the haka, has been officially given to a Maori tribe to help protect it from commercial rip-offs.The New Zealand Government has designated intellectual property rights of the All Blacks’ war cry, Ka Mate, to a North Island tribal group as part of a compensation deal.The deal recognises the haka was composed by the tribe’s legendary Maori chief, Te Rauparaha, to celebrate the fiery warrior’s escape from death in a battle in the 1820s.
VIRGIN will be selling 1000 $1 plane seats exclusively over the internet tonight.Seats on flights going from Canberra to Sydney, Canberra to Coolangatta, Port Maquarie to Sydney and Albury to Sydney will be on sale for one hour from 8pm (AEST).The sale is to celebrate the first anniversary of Virgin flying jets between these destinations.
EMIRATES flies the first scheduled Airbus A380 into Auckland today, sparking an airfare price war on the trans-Tasman route and the chances of cheap flights.Emirates is putting the world’s biggest commercial passenger jet into service on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays between Sydney and Auckland. It is effectively a hop from its Australia to London route.This doubles its capacity into Auckland on these days and puts its trans-Tasman capacity up by 10-20 per cent, said Derek Sadubin, chief operating officer of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.
TOURIST letting could be banned from some prime beach areas of New South Wales following revelations that thousands of holiday homes are being illegally rented.The trail of destruction which holidaymakers leave at many vacation hot spots has forced some councils to consider banning short-term rentals in some streets, reports The Daily Telegraph.Tenancy caps and annual levies may also be introduced in a bid to limit the impact on locals.The move comes as councils and police are being forced to defuse growing tensions between tourists and residents.
