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23 cities you learned about in school that no longer exist

Looking around your city, it may be hard to imagine that there might be a time when it no longer exists. But that’s exactly what happened to these communities.Read on to learn all about the fires, floods, disasters and unsolved mysteries that led to these cities no longer existing.East Berlin, Germany The Soviet sector of Berlin was established in 1945 and existed until 1990. The Wall that divided it from West Berlin became a symbol of the evils of communism to the rest of the world until it finally fell in 1989.Today, a united Berlin is the largest city and capital of Germany. Berlin has also earned the distinction of being deemed one of the most honest cities in the world.Hashima Island, JapanHashima Island was formerly one of the most populated cities in the world. The 6 hectare island provided jobs to more than 5000 people, many of whom made their living at the island’s underwater coal mines.When the mines were closed, Hashima Island was abandoned. Today it is nothing but dilapidated high rises and forgotten buildings as evidenced in these pictures of Hashima Island.Consonno, ItalyConsonno was a tiny town with a population of less than 300 and roots dating back to the middle ages. The residents made their living harvesting crops like chestnuts and celery.Then Mario Bagno came along and decided to turn the area into the Las Vegas of Italy and planned on calling it the City of Toys. He demolished nearly every building and set to work on building his masterpiece.Then disaster struck: in 1976 a landslide buried the access road and the project was never finished. Today, Consonno has been abandoned.Little America, AntarcticaLittle America was the name of not one, but five different postal outposts in Antarctica. The first was established in 1933 and the last, in 1958.Where did they go? The answer is as unique as Antarctica itself. One by one, they floated out to sea. If the glaciers continue to melt, that could spell disaster for Antarctica.Eastern Settlement, GreenlandEastern Settlement in Greenland isn’t just an abandoned city, it’s also a mystery. Once the most populated area in Greenland, the area was abandoned and no one knows why.The last known writings from the area pertained to a wedding in 1408 and offered no clues.Pompeii, ItalyPompeii was once a resort town in Italy where wealthy Romans spent their vacations.In 79 CE, Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried the city under ash. It was all but forgotten until 1800 years later when archaeologists found the city that remained intact beneath the rubble.Machu Picchu, PeruToday Machu Picchu is on the bucket list of dream trips for many travellers, but there was a time it was an Incan city spanning over eight kilometres.Historians believe it was a religious or royal site but the city’s origins are largely mysterious. Machu Picchu was abandoned in the early 1500s around the time of the Spanish Conquistadors.Since archaeologists haven’t discovered evidence the area was attacked, many speculate the population could have been wiped out by a smallpox epidemic.Troy, TurkeyTroy was rendered immortal in Homer’s epic poem, The Iliad. For many years, the Troy of Ancient Greece was merely the stuff of legend but in the 1800s its location was discovered in what is now Turkey.The site contains layers of ruins archaeologists are still studying.Bannack, MontanaGold was discovered at the site that became Bannack in 1862 and the city that sprung up around the ensuing boom briefly served as the capital of the Montana territory.Like many cities built during the gold rush, Bannack is now a ghost town. The location and old buildings have been preserved as a state park for visitors who want to experience a little bit of history.Kolmanskop, NamibiaKomanskop was once an affluent mining village that owed its riches to the world’s never-ending need for diamond engagement rings.After World War II, the diamonds became increasingly scarce and by the 1950s the mine was depleted. With no way to earn a living, the residents eventually moved away and the abandoned city is now a tourist attraction.Hallsands, United KingdomThe people in the small town of Hallsands were minding their business one evening in 1917 when the entire village – save for one house – collapsed and fell into the sea.The residents were left homeless and rebuilt elsewhere. Today the remains of the village of Hallsands are under the sea.Centralia, PennsylvaniaCentralia was a tiny town whose residents relied on coal mining to make their living. Then in 1962, a fire made its way into a coal seam – and has continued to burn for 50 years. In 1981 a young boy was almost killed falling through a sinkhole caused by the fire, prompting congress to buy out the remaining residents to give them the means to relocate.There were a few holdouts, leading the state of Pennsylvania to condemn all the remaining buildings and strip Centralia of its postcode in 1992 to encourage the remaining residents to move.Despite this, a church still stands in Centralia and is open to all who seek a place to worship.San Juan Parangaricutiro, MexicoSan Juan Parangaricutiro was a thriving community until the Paricutin volcano erupted in 1943, covering the city in lava and ash. The volcano continued to erupt for eight years, completely decimating all except the tower and altar of the city’s church. Today, the half-buried church is a major tourist attraction.Pripyat, UkraineThe nuclear disaster in Chernobyl led to the downfall of the once vibrant city of Pripyat when tens of thousands of people were forced to abandon their homes, never to return. Today, Pripyat is an abandoned city full of overgrown vegetation and crumbling high rises.Cahokia, IllinoisToday Cahokia is the name of a village in Illinois but there was a time when the area was the site of an industrious indigenous community and the biggest city north of Mexico.It was abandoned around 1350, although no one knows why. They did, however, leave behind the famous Cahokia Mounds, which you can still go and visit today.Lukangol, SudanLukangol was a bustling city until ethnic clashes led to a horrifying massacre in 2011. Fortunately, nearly 20,000 people were able to flee before the attack, but there was nevertheless a severe loss of life. The city itself was burnt to ashes and the citizens of Kukangol were unable to return.Taxila, PakistanThe ancient city of Taxila, Pakistan flourished from the 5th century BCE until the 2nd century CE.It was an important site for the scholarship and practice of Buddhism and the architecture reflected the influence of Persian, Greek and Central Asian cultures.Unfortunately, the Epthlatites invaded and destroyed most of the city. It was never rebuilt and subsequently abandoned by its people. Its awe-inspiring ruins still remain today.Nan Madol, Federated States of MicronesiaAncient architects pulled off some pretty amazing feats, but perhaps none were more mind-boggling than Nan Madol, a city built on top of coral reefs. The columns and stones are so heavy and imposing that even today, scientists have yet to figure out how it was built.The city was the centre of the Saudeleur Dynasty until the first part of the 1600s when the Saudeleur were overthrown and the site was abandoned.Easter IslandEaster Island is one of the seven wonders of the world, and for good reason. Originally known as Rapa Nui, the island is about as remote as you can get.It’s located 3700 km from South America and 1700 km from the next nearest island.To this day, scientists can’t explain when Easter Island was populated, how the citizens built its heavy stone statues, or why and how everyone left.Dead Cities, SyriaThe Dead Cities of Syria was actually a group of 40 villages dating from the 1st to 20th Centuries CE. Long enough to transition from the pagan religions of the Roman Empire to Christianity.Although no one is sure why they were abandoned, most researchers theorise it was due to unfavourable trade routes or a series of invasions.The cities still stand and remain an architectural wonder today.Fort Mose, FloridaFort Mose has a fascinating and important history. More than a quarter-century ago, escaped slaves from the Carolinas found refuge in America’s oldest city, St Augustine. From there, they established America’s original underground railroad and toiled to free the people left behind. Eventually, they were granted their own town by Florida’s Spanish governor.The community of Fort Mose has been long since abandoned but it will go down in the history books as the first legally sanctioned free black town in what is now the United States.Akrotiri, GreeceThe picture-perfect city of Santorini is built on top of the ancient city of Akrotiri. Akrotiri was destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Thera during the 16th century and covered in ash and lava.Many believe it was the origin story for the mythology of the Lost City of Atlantis.Scientists have been working to preserve and excavate what they can of ancient Akrotiri since 1967 so we can learn more about the lives of the people who once lived there.Humberstone, ChileHumberstone was once known as La Palma. It was renamed after James Humberstone, a chemical engineer who emigrated to South America in the late 1800s and made a fortune mining saltpeter.At its peak, Humberstone was a mining town that provided a home to approximately 3500 people. However, saltpeter was no longer needed after synthetic fertilisers were invented after World War I and the city was abandoned.The city is still remarkably well preserved due to the area’s arid climate.Image credits: Getty ImagesThis article originally appeared on <a href="https://www.readersdigest.com.au/culture/24-cities-you-learned-about-in-school-that-no-longer-exist?pages=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reader's Digest</a>.

International Travel

Australian forests will store less carbon as climate change worsens and severe fires become more common

Eucalypt forests are well known for bouncing back after fire, and the green shoots that emerge from eucalypts stems as they begin their first steps to recovery provide some of the most iconic images of the Australian bush. Resprouting allows trees to survive and quickly start photosynthesising again, which keeps carbon “alive” and stored in the tree. On the other hand, if a tree dies and slowly rots, <a href="https://theconversation.com/decaying-forest-wood-releases-a-whopping-10-9-billion-tonnes-of-carbon-each-year-this-will-increase-under-climate-change-164406">the carbon stored in the tree is released into the atmosphere</a> as a source of greenhouse gas emissions. But <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112721010100">our new research</a> finds more frequent, severe bushfires and a hotter, drier climate may limit eucalypt forests’ ability to resprout and reliably lock up carbon. This could seriously undermine our efforts to mitigate climate change. Our findings paint a cautionary tale of a little known challenge posed by climate change, and gives us yet another reason to urgently and drastically cut global emissions. <img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435821/original/file-20211206-25-9ok01m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="" /> Eucalypt forest recovery up to four years after severe bushfire north of Heyfield. T Fairman <h2>We need forests to fight climate change</h2> At the international climate summit in Glasgow last month, more than 100 nations pledged to end and reverse deforestation. This put a much-needed spotlight on the importance of the world’s forests in <a href="https://www.wri.org/insights/what-cop26-means-forests-climate">storing carbon to mitigate climate change</a>. Victoria’s national parks alone store almost <a href="https://www.delwp.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0023/416408/8-Carbon-factsheet-FINAL.pdf">1 billion tonnes</a> of carbon dioxide equivalent. For perspective, that’s roughly a decade’s worth of Victoria’s net CO₂ emissions in 2019 (<a href="https://www.climatechange.vic.gov.au/victorias-greenhouse-gas-emissions">91.3 million tonnes</a>). Australia’s forests have forged a tight relationship with bushfire. But climate change is already changing – and will continue to change – <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-black-summer-of-fire-was-not-normal-and-we-can-prove-it-172506">the size, severity and frequency of bushfires</a>. In Victoria, for example, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ddi.13292">over 250,000 hectares have been burned</a> by at least two severe fires in just 20 years. This unprecendented frequency has led to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/ash-to-ashes-what-could-the-2013-fires-mean-for-the-future-of-our-forests-12346">decline</a> of <a href="https://www.3cr.org.au/lostinscience/episode-202110140830/reseeding-victorian-forests-after-bushfire-and-nobel-prizes">fire sensitive forests</a>, such as the iconic alpine ash. <img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435826/original/file-20211206-15-152s50j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="" /> Extensive wildfires that have burned in Victoria between 2000 and 2020 have overlapped, resulting in large areas of forest being burned by multiple severe fires in that period. Geary et al, 2021 While resprouting eucalypts can be <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1365-2745.13227">resilient to periodic fires</a>, we know surprisingly little about how they’ll <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-testing-the-resilience-of-native-plants-to-fire-from-ash-forests-to-gymea-lilies-167367">respond to</a> increasingly common severe fires, particularly when combined with factors like drought. Early evidence shows <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479718311496">resprouting can fail when fire is too frequent</a>, as seen in <a href="https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/recurring-fires-are-threatening-the-iconic-snow-gum">snow gum forests</a> in the Victorian alps. Understanding why is an <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pce.14176">area of active research</a>, but reasons could include damaged resprouting buds (as their protective bark is thinned by successive fires), or the depletion of the trees’ energy reserves. <img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436259/original/file-20211208-27-k7kmvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="" /> Snow gum forest killed and burned by three successive severe fires in ten years in the Alpine National Park. T Fairman <h2>Forests burned by two fires stored half the carbon</h2> If resprouting after fire begins to fail, what might this mean for carbon stores in widespread fire-tolerant eucalypt forests? <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112721010100">In our new paper</a>, we tackled this question by measuring carbon stored in Victoria’s dry eucalypt forests. We targeted areas that had been burned once or twice by severe bushfire within just six years. In these places, severe fires usually occur decades apart. In general, we found climate change impacts resprouting forests on two fronts: <ol> <li> as conditions get warmer and drier, these forests will store less carbon due to reduced growth </li> <li> as severe fires become more frequent, forests will store less carbon, with more trees dying and becoming dead wood. </li> </ol> <img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435823/original/file-20211206-15-qhxm3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="" /> Our study forest type in West Gippsland, and the effects of one and two severe fires within six years. In the frequently burned site, nearly all trees had their epicormic buds killed and all resprouting occurred from the base of the trees. T Fairman First, we found carbon stores were lower in the drier and hotter parts of the landscape than the cooler and wetter parts. This makes sense - as any gardener knows, plants grow much better where water is plentiful and it’s not too hot. When frequent fire was added to the mix, forest carbon storage reduced even further. At warmer and drier sites, a forest burned by two severe fires had about half as much carbon as a forest burned by a single severe fire. More trees were killed with more frequent fire, which means what was once “living carbon” becomes “dead carbon” - which will rot and be a source of emissions. In fact, after two fires, less than half of the forest carbon was stored in living trees. The carbon stored in large living trees is an important stock and is usually considered stable, <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/eap.2383">given larger trees are generally more resilient to disturbance</a>. But we found their carbon stocks, too, significantly declined with more frequent fire. <img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436256/original/file-20211208-27-1jcp4sn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="" /> Victoria’s high country, recovering from multiple fires in the last 20 years. T Fairman <h2>What do we do about it?</h2> Given how widespread this forest type is in southern Australia, we need a better understanding of how it responds to frequent fires to accurately account for changes in their carbon stocks. We also must begin exploring new ways to manage our forests. <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2571-6255/4/3/61">Reinstating Indigenous fire management</a>, including traditional burning practices, and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00049158.2021.1894383">active forest management</a> may mitigate some of the impacts we’ve detected. We could also learn from and adapt <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/fee.2218">management approaches</a> in the dry forests of North America, where the new concept of “<a href="https://academic.oup.com/jof/article/119/5/520/6279705">pyro-silviculture</a>” is being explored. Pyro-silviculture can include <a href="https://theconversation.com/forest-thinning-is-controversial-but-it-shouldnt-be-ruled-out-for-managing-bushfires-130124">targeted thinning</a> to reduce the density of trees in forests, which can lower their susceptibility to drought, and encourage the growth of large trees. It can also involve controlled burns to reduce the severity of future fires. With the next, inevitable fire season on Australia’s horizon, such approaches are essential tools in our management kit, ensuring we can build better resilience in forest ecosystems and stabilise these crucial stocks of carbon.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173233/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/tom-fairman-13940">Tom Fairman</a>, Future Fire Risk Analyst, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-melbourne-722">The University of Melbourne</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/craig-nitschke-1111728">Craig Nitschke</a>, Associate Professor - Forest and Landscape Dynamics, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-melbourne-722">The University of Melbourne</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/lauren-bennett-131892">Lauren Bennett</a>, Associate Professor - Ecosystem Sciences and Forest Carbon, The University of Melbourne This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-forests-will-store-less-carbon-as-climate-change-worsens-and-severe-fires-become-more-common-173233">original article</a>. Image: T Fairman

Travel Trouble

These tourist attractions could vanish in your lifetime

1. Machu Picchu Located in southern Peru, Machu Picchu is the remains of a huge stone citadel that was built during the 15th century. These incredible Incan ruins are widely considered one of the must-see spots in South America. Unfortunately, this has backfired in a way. The site has been a victim of over-tourism, seeing the detrimental effects of the surge of tourists it gets as they wear down the structures. In addition, the area surrounding Machu Picchu has seen rampant urbanisation, as well as mudslides and fires, in recent years, leading UNESCO to work for its preservation. 2. Portobelo-San Lorenzo forts While not as ancient as some of the other sites mentioned here, these fortifications on the Panama coast are considered historically significant. The Portobelo-San Lorenzo forts were constructed by the Spanish in Panama in efforts to protect trade routes; they were built over two centuries, starting in the 1590s. They demonstrate a wide range of architectural styles, featuring everything from medieval-style castles to neo-classical 18th-century redresses. The forts face a couple of challenges, urbanisation has encroached upon them on land, and a shrinking coastline and erosion present natural threats on the coastal side. Maintenance has also fallen by the wayside. They were listed as endangered in 2012. 3. Hatra These grand ruins stand in the Al-Jazīrah region of Baghdad, Iraq. As the capital of the first Arab Kingdom, Araba, Hatra is a site of massive historical significance. It withstood Roman military force in the second century CE. It was the king of the Sāsānian Empire, an early Iranian regime, who eventually destroyed it in the third century. The ruins went undiscovered until the 1830s; German archaeologists only began excavating it in the early 1900s. In addition to becoming a UNESCO world heritage site, Hatra was also immortalised as the temple featured in The Exorcist. Sadly, it became a target of ISIS in 2015. Militants assailed the structures with bullets and destroyed statues, seeking to dismantle remnants of polytheism. It was after this that UNESCO gave it an endangered status. 4. Nan Madol This remarkable architectural jewel of the ancient world dates back to the 1200s. It spans more than 100 islands and islets surrounding the Federated States of Micronesia, to the northeast of Papua New Guinea. Throughout the 1200s to the 1500s, indigenous people from the island of Pohnpei built an expansive ‘city on water’, constructing more than 100 man-made islets out of coral boulders and basalt. The stunning expanse, untouched for hundreds of years, is a testament to the ingenuity and skill of ancient Pacific Islander peoples. However, it’s the forces of nature this time that pose a danger to it as plants, storms and water damage encroach upon the impressive structures. It has been on UNESCO’s endangered sites list since 2016. How to help There are plenty of resources you can use to help preserve endangered spots like these. For starters, you could donate to <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/donation">UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre</a>. UNESCO also gives citizens an option to report threats to protected sites (<a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/158/">scroll to the bottom of this page</a> for contact information. And if you choose to visit these spots, treat them with the utmost care! Be respectful, don’t touch anything you’re not explicitly allowed to touch, and do your part to keep the area clean. Written by Meghan Jones. This article first appeared in <a href="https://www.readersdigest.com.au/travel/travel-hints-tips/10-top-tourist-attractions-that-could-disappear-in-your-lifetime">Reader’s Digest</a>. For more of what you love from the world’s best-loved magazine, <a href="http://readersdigest.innovations.com.au/c/readersdigestemailsubscribe?utm_source=over60&utm_medium=articles&utm_campaign=RDSUB&keycode=WRA93V">here’s our best subscription offer.</a>

International Travel

“On the brink of extinction”: The iconic Aussie animal set to vanish within 50 years

Australia’s beloved platypus is now feared to be on the “brink of extinction”. Researchers at the University of New South Wales say the number of platypuses in the wild could drop by 66 per cent by 2070 due to climate change and other environment threats. According to researchers, increasing temperatures across the country, the intense drought and land clearing are all contributing to the species’ decline. Director for UNSW’s Centre for Ecosystem Science, Richard Kingsford said the future for the animal was “grim”. “This is impacting their ability to survive during these extended dry periods and increased demand for water,” Mr Kingsford said in the journal article, Biological Conservation. “If we lost the platypus from Australian rivers, you would say, ‘What sort of government policies or care allow that to happen?’” The study’s lead author, Gilad Bino said the growing threat of climate change could hinder the platypus’s ability to repopulate, which in turn would result in “extinction”. “We are not monitoring what we assume to be a common species. And then we may wake up and realise it’s too late,” said Dr Bino. The platypus is currently listed as “near-threatened” under the IUCN Red List of threatened species but Dr Bino says the government needs to assess how much the animal is at risk. The Victorian Environment Department said they were working with the federal government over whether the platypus’ status needed to be changed to “threatened”.

Home & Garden

Andrew Twiggy and Nicola Forest pledge incredible $70 million to bushfire crisis

Billionaire Australian businessman Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest and his wife Nicole will be parting ways with $70 million as a bushfire recovery package. The Western Australian mining magnate will be spending $50 million on a “national blueprint” for fire and disaster to develop new approaches to fight the serious threat of bushfires. “We know that this is a matter of national resilience,” Mr Forrest told reporters in Perth. “This goes to a holistic assessment of where the nation is at and what we need to do to improve resilience.” Forrest will further provide an additional $10 million through the couple’s Minderoo Foundation to build a “volunteer army” which will be deployed through different regions that have been devastated by bushfires. They will also contribute a further $10 million for communities that are working in collaboration with the Australian Red Cross, the Salvation Army and other agencies on the forefront. The foundation has also established a Fire Fund and the Forrests say they will match every dollar donated with two dollars. “We are here representing a family and from our family to your families, your fire-affected families, the wildlife, the children who are devastated, the parents who have lost farms and properties and homes and dreams, we are here with our family to help support your family,” he said. Mr Forrest said they are “so proud to be Australians” and to see everyone rallying together “during this cataclysmic time”. The businessman hopes to raise $500 million through a global campaign to establish a long-term bushfire research project. “We are stepping up, as we did for the Black Saturday bushfires, to go out to the communities in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, find out what you need, what your families need, what your communities need and to help you, not rebuild to perhaps what you had, but to plan for what could be – what may be even better,” he said. “I would just like to say, on behalf of all of the Minderoo Foundation and all West Australians, that we weep along with Australia, along with you and, as a family and as a foundation, we would like to step up and help you. Thank you.” The federal government has committed at least $2 billion towards the bushfire recovery and further established a new national agency to co-ordinate efforts on the ground. This will be run by former Australian Federal Police commissioner Andrew Colvin. The NSW and Victorian governments have set up similar agencies at a state level. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said “tremendous generosity” has been expressed by many people all over the nation, from billionaires “down to boys and girls raising money in their local schools”. “Can I start by acknowledging the tremendous generosity of so many Australians, whether it is James Packer or Anthony Pratt, or Andrew Forrest, or whoever it happens to be,” he told reporters in Canberra. “The generosity of that response, I think, has been simply extraordinary. “It’s important that we work hard to best channel and co-ordinate that support that is coming through into the areas of greatest need.” Mr Colvin said they had spoken to Mr Forrest. “Very generous what he’s put together,” he said today. “He’s done this before. Last thing I’m gonna do is step in the way of that. I will make sure it’s best utilised.” Mr Forrest is seventh on Forbes’ ‘Australia’s 50 Richest People’ list with a net worth of $US8.8 billion ($A12.8 billion).

Money & Banking

Heartbroken family of 71-year-old man watch footage of him vanishing in Sydney shopping centre

Retired barber Bernard Gore, 71, was on a three-week trip to Sydney with his wife of 50 years, Angela, to visit one of their three adult children in December 2016. The couple were staying in their daughter’s apartment in Woollahra, in the city’s east and planned to return to his home in Tasmania on January 11, 2017. However on January 6, 2017, Mr Gore set off for a day trip to Westfield Bondi Junction at 12:30 Pm. His final moments were recorded on CCTV footage, which showed him on his 15- minute walk past a number of shops along Oxford St before he went into the shopping centre. Footage from inside the shopping centre shows him walking inside at 12.48pm, up the incline of level four and through door L407 at 12.50pm. This footage has been shown to his family for the first time, with Mr Gore’s daughter, Melinda, beginning to cry as she saw her father disappear from sight on the TV screens in the NSW Coroners Court in Lidcombe on Monday morning. “There is no further CCTV footage of Bernard after the time Bernard entered the fire stairs,” counsel assisting the coroner, Anna Mitchelmore SC, said. When Mr Gore initially disappeared, his wife searched through the areas they usually visited before returning home at 2pm. His family became “increasingly worried” as it got darker and reported him missing to police at 8pm. Later that night they also reported him missing to Woolworths and Westfield security. “Tragically, (it was) not until around 8 am on January 27, 2017, that Bernard was found deceased in the fire stairs,” Ms Mitchelmore said. “His body was found by a maintenance worker at the bottom of the stairwell he had entered.” She said it had been “immensely distressing for his family” who had wondered for weeks where their beloved family member was gone. “Only for him to be found at the place for which he had set off on January 6,” Ms Mitchelmore said. She said the 71-year-old was found lying in a “semi-kneeling position” in the stairwell. “It appears that he had been sitting on a chair that was found near his body, and at some stage he had fallen forward and off the chair.” He was found along with his white hat, a handkerchief, dentures, glasses case and a $5 note. The court was told Mr Gore had gone missing once before in Hobart. His son, Mark, had bought him a watch which had a GPS tracking device but Mr Gore hadn’t worn it on the day he went missing as it wasn’t working. His daughter, Melinda, had also given him a copy of her address and contact details on that day. Records obtained from the shopping centre showed the push-button exit door at the bottom of the stairwell was not opened once in the three-week period between when Mr Gore went missing and when his body was discovered. No alarm was activated. He was taking medication for hypertension and a mild cognitive impairment at the time of his death. The married couple had “more or less had a routine when they attended Westfield,” Ms Mitchelmore said. Deputy State Coroner Derek Lee is this week overseeing a five-day inquest into Mr Gore’s death. A forensic entomologist analysed data that “indicated to him Bernard died a minimum of one to two weeks before his body was found,” according to Ms Mitchelmore. The issues due to be explored are the adequacy of the review of CCTV footage, the physical searches conducted by Westfield security and police, and the signage – both painted and illuminated – in the stairwell. Ms Mitchelmore said she anticipates the inquest will hear there was no ‘Code Grey’ - the centre’s missing person procedure - called on January 6 or 7. “It’s likely that it was a more informal search as opposed to a search ... by a Code Grey.” The inquest will also investigate why police and security formed the view in the early stages of their investigation that Mr Gore had never arrived at Westfield. “The intention is to always conduct a coronial investigation in a thorough and comprehensive way,” Mr Lee said. “It’s also the aim to identify whether there have been any shortcomings or deficiencies. “Not for the purpose of assigning blame or fault (but) whether some important lessons can be learned from an otherwise traumatic event.”

News

The Amazon is burning: 4 essential reads on Brazil’s vanishing rainforest

Nearly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/21/world/americas/amazon-rainforest.html">40,000 fires</a> are incinerating Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, the latest outbreak in an overactive fire season that has charred 1,330 square miles of the rainforest this year. Don’t blame dry weather for the swift destruction of the world’s largest tropical forest, say environmentalists. These Amazonian wildfires are a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/22/americas/amazon-fires-humans-intl-hnk-trnd/index.html">human-made disaster</a>, set by loggers and cattle ranchers who use a “slash and burn” method to clear land. Feeding off very dry conditions, some of those fires have spread out of control. Brazil has long struggled to preserve the Amazon, sometimes called the “lungs of the world” because it <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/the-amazon-is-burning-at-a-record-rate-and-parts-were-intentionally-set-alight">produces 20% of the world’s oxygen</a>. Despite the increasingly strict environmental protections of recent decades, about a quarter of this massive rainforest is already gone – an area the size of Texas. While climate change <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2780/nasa-finds-amazon-drought-leaves-long-legacy-of-damage/">endangers the Amazon</a>, bringing hotter weather and longer droughts, <a href="https://www.thedialogue.org/analysis/nearing-the-tipping-point-drivers-of-deforestation-in-the-amazon-region/">development may be the greatest threat</a> facing the rainforest. Here, environmental researchers explain how farming, big infrastructure projects and roads drive the deforestation that’s slowly killing the Amazon. 1. Farming in the jungle “Deforestation is largely due to <a href="https://theconversation.com/strict-amazon-protections-made-brazilian-farmers-more-productive-new-research-shows-105789">land clearing for agricultural purposes</a>, particularly cattle ranching but also soybean production,” writes Rachel Garrett, a professor at Boston University who studies land use in Brazil. Since farmers need “a massive amount of land for grazing,” Garrett says, they are driven to “continuously clear forest – illegally – to expand pastureland.” Twelve percent of what was once Amazonian forest – about 93 million acres – is now farmland. Deforestation in the Amazon has spiked since the election last year of the far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. Arguing that federal conservation zones and hefty fines for cutting down trees hinder economic growth, Bolsonaro has slashed Brazil’s strict environmental regulations. There’s no evidence to support Bolsonaro’s view, Garrett says. “Food production in the Amazon has substantially increased since 2004,” Garrett says. The increased production has been pushed by federal policies meant to discourage land clearing, such as hefty fines for deforestation and low-interest loans for investing in sustainable agricultural practices. Farmers are now planting and harvesting two crops – mostly soybean and corn – each year, rather than just one. Brazilian environmental regulations helped Amazonian ranchers, too. Garrett’s research found that improved pasture management in line with stricter federal land use policies led the number of cattle slaughtered annually per acre to double. “Farmers are producing more meat – and therefore earning more money – with their land,” she writes. 2. Infrastructure development and deforestation President Bolsonaro is also pushing forward an ambitious infrastructure development plan that would turn the Amazon’s many waterways into electricity generators. The Brazilian government has long wanted to build a series of big new hydroelectric dams, including on the Tapajós River, the Amazon’s only remaining undammed river. But the indigenous Munduruku people, who live near around the Tapajós River, have stridently opposed this idea. “The Munduruku have until now successfully slowed down and seemingly halted many efforts to profit off the Tapajós,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/amazon-deforestation-already-rising-may-spike-under-bolsonaro-109940">writes Robert T. Walker</a>, a University of Florida professor who has conducted environmental research in the Amazon for 25 years. But Bolsonaro’s government is less likely than his predecessors to respect indigenous rights. One of his first moves in office was to transfer responsibilities for demarcating indigenous lands from the Brazilian Ministry of Justice to the decidedly pro-development Ministry of Agriculture. And, Walker notes, Bolsonaro’s Amazon development plans are part of a broader South American project, conceived in 2000, to build continental infrastructure that provides electricity for industrialization and facilitates trade across the region. For the Brazilian Amazon, that means not just new dams but also “webs of waterways, rail lines, ports and roads” that will get products like soybeans, corn and beef to market, according to Walker. “This plan is far more ambitious than earlier infrastructure projects” that damaged the Amazon, Walker writes. If Bolsonaro’s plan moves forward, he estimates that fully 40% of the Amazon could be deforested. 3. Road-choked streams Roads, most of them dirt, already criss-cross the Amazon. That came as a surprise to Cecilia Gontijo Leal, a Brazilian researcher who studies tropical fish habitats. “I imagined that my field work would be all boat rides on immense rivers and long jungle hikes,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/amazonian-dirt-roads-are-choking-brazils-tropical-streams-89226">she writes</a>. “In fact, all my research team needed was a car.” Traveling on rutted mud roads to take water samples from streams across Brazil’s Pará state, Leal realized that the informal “bridges” of this locally built transportation network must be impacting Amazonian waterways. So she decided to study that, too. “We found that makeshift road crossings cause both shore erosion and silt buildup in streams. This worsens water quality, hurting the fish that thrive in this delicately balanced habitat,” she writes. The ill-designed road crossings – which feature perched culverts that disrupt water flow – also act as barriers to movement, preventing fish from finding places to feed, breed and take shelter. 4. Rewilding tropical forests The fires now consuming vast swaths of the Amazon are the latest repercussion of development in the Amazon. Set by farmers likely emboldened by their president’s anti-conservation stance, the blazes emit so much smoke that on Aug. 20 it blotted out the midday sun in the city of São Paulo, 1,700 miles away. The fires are still multiplying, and peak dry season is still a month away Apocalyptic as this sounds, science suggests it’s not too late to save the Amazon. Tropical forests destroyed by fire, logging, land-clearing and roads <a href="https://theconversation.com/high-value-opportunities-exist-to-restore-tropical-rainforests-around-the-world-heres-how-we-mapped-them-119508">can be replanted</a>, say ecologists Robin Chazdon and Pedro Brancalion. Using satellite imagery and the latest peer-reviewed research on biodiversity, climate change and water security, Chazdon and Brancalion identified 385,000 square miles of “restoration hotspots” – areas where restoring tropical forests would be most beneficial, least costly and lowest risk. “Although these second-growth forests will never perfectly replace the older forests that have been lost,” Chazon writes, “planting carefully selected trees and assisting natural recovery processes can restore many of their former properties and functions.” The five countries with the most tropical restoration potential are Brazil, Indonesia, India, Madagascar and Colombia. Written by Catesby Holmes. Republished with permission of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-amazon-is-burning-4-essential-reads-on-brazils-vanishing-rainforest-122288">The Conversation. </a>

Travel Tips

Vanished holiday-maker: Search called off for missing woman who fell off cruise ship

The search for a female passenger who reportedly fell overboard a cruise ship into the Mediterranean Sea has officially been called off. The cruise was heading from Cannes in France to Palma de Mallorca in Spain when a 63-year-old Korean passenger fell off the ship on Saturday morning, a cruise line spokesperson told <a rel="noopener" href="https://people.com/travel/female-passenger-falls-overboard-norwegian-cruise-search-called-off/" target="_blank">PEOPLE</a> in a statement. “As soon as the report was made, the authorities were notified and a search and rescue operation ensued,” the statement explained. “The search ceased after several hours, and sadly, the guest was not found. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the individual’s family during this difficult time.” According to reports, the passenger was last seen wearing pink pyjamas. The ship was due to arrive in Palma on Saturday but turned around to search for the missing woman, returning to where she was believed to have fallen off the ship before circling the area. “It took us two hours to get back to the place where they were last seen. We stopped there for four hours to try and find the person,” British passenger Claire Murphy told <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9252958/missing-woman-cruise-ship-overboard-search-majorca/" target="_blank">The Sun</a>. “They asked everyone on board to help look for that person, so a lot of people were looking out of the windows or were on the edge of the ship but no one could see anything.” The incident added to the growing list of individuals disappearing after going overboard from cruises or ferries. According to a <a rel="noopener" href="http://www.cruisejunkie.com/Overboard.html" target="_blank">website</a> that collects information on missing cruise and ferry passengers and crew, there have been 340 known overboard cases since 2000, averaging to roughly 18 victims per year.

Travel Trouble

Discovering Australia: Visit the world’s largest river red gum forest

Barmah National Park, together with parks on the New South Wales side of the Murray River, protects the largest river red gum forest in the world. Call into the Barmah Forest Heritage Centre in Nathalia before you visit to glean all sorts of interesting things, such as that it wasn’t just woodcutting and riverboating that were the lifeblood of these riverside towns last century – apparently leech collecting for medicinal bloodletting was once big business, too. The hardy harvesters would walk through the swamps collecting the bloodsuckers on their legs for the princely sum of one shilling per pound – a hard way to make a living! You can camp anywhere you like along much of the 112-kilometre river front in this national park, but the free campground at Barmah Lakes has toilets and tables and lots of room to move. It’s a great place to launch a kayak and explore the river, although be careful: the current is stronger than it looks. It’s also a good spot to fish, particularly for the famed Murray cod. You will need a New South Wales fishing licence to fish the Murray River, even though you are technically on the Victorian side of the border. Also worth your while is the two-hour cruise along the narrowest and fastest flowing section of the Murray through the wetlands – home to almost 900 species of wildlife – and red gum forests. Cruises depart from the Barmah Lakes picnic area. For more river cruising, take a drive to nearby Echuca (40 kilometres west of the campground), the self-proclaimed paddle steamer capital of the country. During the river port’s boom days in the 1880s, when the Murray River was the only way to transport goods from the remote inland settlements to the coastal ports, hundreds of paddle steamers loaded and unloaded their cargo at the historic wharf. Echuca still has the world’s largest collection of working paddle steamers, some more than a century old, including the PS Adelaide built in 1886 and the PS Pevensey, made famous in the 1980s TV series All the Rivers Run. A river cruise is the most popular thing to do in town and there are several cruise options – head down to the wharf to check sailing times. Before you go, drop into the Echuca Historical Society Museum to see the old river charts that the riverboat captains used to navigate the river. They’re hand drawn on long linen scrolls; sometimes all the captains had to go on was a picture of a tree on a bend. The museum is in the old police lock-up and has a huge collection of old photos and memorabilia from the riverboat era. Where is it? Barmah National Park lies along the Murray River between the towns of Barmah and Strathmerton, about 225km north of Melbourne. Why go? Camping and scenery When to go? Relatively mild, the Barmah forests are a good year-round destination, although winter is generally wetter than summer. The park sometimes floods after heavy rain, so check current conditions on the national parks website (see below) before travelling. How long? 2-3 days This is an edited extract from Australia’s Best Nature Escapes by Lee Atkinson published by Hardie Grant Books [39.99] and is available in stores nationally. Photographer: © Lee Atkinson <img style="width: 250px !important; height: 300px !important;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7821757/australias-best-nature-escapes-cvr.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/f93accc9ea374a19945367220d612101" />

Domestic Travel

TV star vanishes from cruise ship

A massive search is underway for a German TV star and singer who has gone missing while on a cruise to Canada. The cruise operator, Aida Cruises, said there was reason to believe Daniel Kueblboeck may have jumped into the sea on Sunday morning. “That is our suspicion,” spokesman Hansjoerg Kunze said. Kueblboeck first entered stardom after appearing on Germany’s version of Pop Idol in 2003. However, the star’s disappearance follows a recent post the 33-year-old wrote about being bullied. Kueblboeck revealed on his official fan club page that he had suffered “months of bullying” as a child at school, that shook him “deeply”. “Dear fans. Unfortunately, I still do not feel better mentally and physically,” he wrote. “I have yet to cope with this pain of the past months.” <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/BgiiwEmjKKS/?utm_source=ig_embed_loading" data-instgrm-version="12"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BgiiwEmjKKS/?utm_source=ig_embed_loading" target="_blank">A post shared by Daniel Kaiser-Küblböck (@daniel_kaiserkueblboeck)</a> on Mar 20, 2018 at 2:18am PDT </div> </blockquote> Kueblboeck, who auditioned but was not selected as Germany’s Eurovision entry in 2014, was travelling to Newfoundland, Canada, with 2200 passengers. When Kueblboeck was found to be missing, Aida said the ship was stopped and returned to the spot off the coast of Newfoundland where it is believed he went overboard. The incident occurred 185km north of the city of St John’s, Newfoundland. The Canadian coastguard confirmed on Sunday that it was using a surveillance plane and helicopter to search the Labrador Sea for Kueblboeck. Two other cruise ships also reportedly assisted with the search. Kueblboeck, who was born in Bavaria, made his last major TV appearance in the eighth season of Let’s Dance in 2015 and was studying to be an actor at the European Theatre Institute Berlin. Kueblboeck's cruise ship disappearance comes months after an Australian woman died after she fell from an upper-level deck of the Pacific Dawn into the ocean off the coast of New Caledonia. Last month, a British cruise passenger was rescued after surviving 10 hours floating in the Adriatic Sea off Croatia. The 46-year-old claimed that she fell over the balcony, but passengers have since claimed that she jumped after a <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/travel/travel-trouble/bizarre-twist-in-case-of-woman-who-was-lost-at-sea-for-10-hours/">drunken argument</a> with her boyfriend.

Travel Trouble

Qantas passengers furious after frequent flyer points vanish

Qantas has been slammed by shocked passengers who claim their frequent flyer points have vanished from their accounts. People aren’t only angry about Qantas’s rule that sees frequent flyer points expire after 18 months of inactivity, others claim they are victims of the air carrier’s decision that they didn’t know about. Back in 2016, Qantas and Woolworths made a deal for the Woolworths Rewards program. Under the changes, the default option for Qantas passengers changed to earning discounts with the supermarket instead of frequent flyer points. People wishing to continue earning Qantas points while shopping at Woolworths needed to manually change their options in their account. Although Qantas maintains the change was well publicised at the time and they emailed all customers, some passengers say they weren’t informed or that the email had ended up in spam folder. They also questioned why Qantas didn’t call or text their customers. Instead passengers found out this year they had not been earning any points since the change and thus they had expired. For some people, they lost hundreds of thousands of points, worth thousands of dollars. One passenger wrote on the Qantas Facebook page of their loss: “Qantas wiped 360,000 points from me, all accumulated from fifo work, only contacted by email when they wiped my account, very disappointed Qantas.” Another said: “Qantas the reason most people lost their points was when Woolworths stop(ped) their rewards points system. If Qantas was reasonable they would do the right thing by these people.” Qantas has repeatedly told customers they don’t give back expired points. A spokesperson said: “It’s really easy to stay active in the Qantas Frequent Flyer program — it’s as simple as earning or redeeming one Qantas Point within 18 months. “Even if members aren’t flying regularly there are a variety of ways to earn or use points on the ground through everyday spend using a Qantas Points-earning credit cards, buying a burger or watching a movie at the cinema.”

Travel Trouble

Why this airline is set to "vanish" overnight

It’s one of the world’s most beloved airlines – but today the airline has taken its last flight ever. Ranked as one of the US’s favourite airlines, Virgin America is no more after being taken over by Alaska Air as part of a $US2.6 billion deal. Today, all check-in counters, kiosks, signs and gate areas branded as Virgin America will be removed from 29 airports around the US and Mexico. <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media"> <div style="padding: 8px;"> <div style="background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 50.0% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;"> <div style="background: url(data:image/png; base64,ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaacwaaaascamaaaapwqozaaaabgdbtueaalgpc/xhbqaaaafzukdcak7ohokaaaamuexurczmzpf399fx1+bm5mzy9amaaadisurbvdjlvzxbesmgces5/p8/t9furvcrmu73jwlzosgsiizurcjo/ad+eqjjb4hv8bft+idpqocx1wjosbfhh2xssxeiyn3uli/6mnree07uiwjev8ueowds88ly97kqytlijkktuybbruayvh5wohixmpi5we58ek028czwyuqdlkpg1bkb4nnm+veanfhqn1k4+gpt6ugqcvu2h2ovuif/gwufyy8owepdyzsa3avcqpvovvzzz2vtnn2wu8qzvjddeto90gsy9mvlqtgysy231mxry6i2ggqjrty0l8fxcxfcbbhwrsyyaaaaaelftksuqmcc); display: block; height: 44px; margin: 0 auto -44px; position: relative; top: -22px; width: 44px;"></div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh_DstVg4nC/" target="_blank">A post shared by Brendan Hooley (@socalgecko)</a> on Apr 25, 2018 at 12:36am PDT </div> </blockquote> The two final flights bearing the Virgin America name were Virgin America Flight 1182 which departed San Francisco at 9.30pm, and Virgin America Flight 1948 which took off for Los Angeles at 9.32pm local time. The airline had a big celebration for those on-board the last flights. “We’re planning to delight our guests flying on these last two flights with a few surprises,” Alaska Airlines said. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> Today we say goodbye to Virgin America. Starting tomorrow, signage will be removed and operations will be moved to a unified passenger experience including one gate area, check-in counter and reservation system under <a href="https://twitter.com/AlaskaAir?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AlaskaAir</a>. <a href="https://t.co/QaMApHspUu">pic.twitter.com/QaMApHspUu</a> — Orlando International Airport (@MCO) <a href="https://twitter.com/MCO/status/988900486932770816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 24, 2018</a></blockquote> Super fans of the airlines have also planned their own celebrations. “We’ll be having a get-together in the gate area before the flight,” frequent flyer Nate Vallier, who owns an airline IT company, told <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/todayinthesky/2018/04/24/virgin-america-alaska-airlines-merger/546812002/" target="_blank">USA Today</a>. “We’ll have posters, memorabilia and other swag to hand out and, after the flight, we’ll be gathering in the Alaska Airlines lounge in LAX to toast to the sunset of the Virgin America brand.” Most airlines are in the news because of customer complaints, but not Virgin. The airline had a 7/10 rating on Skytrax and was famous for its safety video.

Travel Tips

Common payment method set to vanish completely in 2019

While there was once a time where you couldn’t manage your finances without them, cheques finally seem to be going the way of the dodo in Australia, with forecasts suggesting they could be completely extinct by the end of 2019. Comparison site <a href="https://www.finder.com.au/bank-accounts-with-cheque-books" target="_blank">Finder.com.au</a> analysed data from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) which suggests if current usage trends continue, the once-popular payment method will disappear completely within two years. The average number of cheques processed in Australia has been steadily declining on a month-by-month basis for quite some time now, dropping from 45,900 cheques in January 2012 to a mere 6,549 cheques in October 2017. The RBA predicts total cheque circulation will fall to 3,000 in December 2018 and continue to decline until the payment method disappears entirely by the end of 2019. <a href="https://www.finder.com.au/bank-accounts-with-cheque-books" target="_blank">Finder.com.au’s money expert</a> Bessie Hassan spoke to <a href="http://www.news.com.au/" target="_blank">News.com.au</a> and said the findings were no surprises, as cheques had been experiencing a “slow death” in recent years. “It’s possible that the slow death of cheques will be extended slightly longer, with some users holding out and numbers continuing to dwindle,” she said. “However, once cheques become increasingly rare, we would expect businesses to stop accepting them completely. “Generation Z, which covers all children currently in primary and secondary education, will likely grow up to not recognise a paper cheque at all.” Cheques, which take an average of three business days to clear, have fallen out of favour with Australian consumers in recent years, who have become used to electronic payments that can be made almost instantly. What are your thoughts? Will you be sad to see cheques go? Or have you stopped using them?

Retirement Income

The town where women keep vanishing

Multiple women have died or gone missing in the past six months in one rural North Carolina town in the US. The bodies of Christina Bennett, 32, and mother-of-five Rhonda Jones, 36, were both found on April 18. Ms Bennett’s decomposed remains were found in an abandoned house and Ms Jones’ body was discovered in a nearby rubbish container. A day later, Ms Jones’s friend Megan Oxendine <a href="http://wncn.com/2017/06/07/lumberton-police-id-3rd-woman-found-dead-in-same-neighborhood/">was interviewed about her friend’s death </a>by CBS North Carolina but in a shocking twist Ms Oxendine was found dead three weeks later – less than 200m from where the other two women were found. Disturbingly, at least two other women from town – Abby Patterson, 20, and Cynthia Jacobs, 41 – have disappeared from town. They have been missing for at least a month with nobody aware of their whereabouts. Police have not released details on how each of the women died and have stopped short of linking the multiple deaths and disappearances, despite evidence all five were known to share a common trait – drug addiction. The reluctance to connect the cases in an official statement by investigators has drawn the ire of residents, who have set up Facebook groups and blogs to conduct their own amateur sleuthing. Many believe there’s a serial killer preying on vulnerable women in the small community of 21,000 people. The latest disappearance of 20-year-old Abby Patterson has created waves in the small community as police refuse to link it to the other cases. Young and attractive, Ms Patterson had been recently discharged from a drug rehabilitation and came to town to visit her mother but soon vanished. Captain Terry Parker of the Lumberton Police told CBS News' Crimesider that investigators do not think that Ms Patterson's disappearance is related the deaths of the three other women in town. He called the case an "active missing person" investigation and said they have "no information, not even a rumour" that Patterson is deceased. The FBI is assisting in the investigation into the women's deaths.

Legal

Kraft about to vanish from Australia

One of the world’s biggest brands is being phased out of Australia and New Zealand. Kraft has been part of Australian households for nearly a century. Although born in Chicago, it’s part and parcel of Australian culture, first arriving to our shores in 1926. In every household you’ll find a Kraft product, whether that’s Mac & Cheese or Vegemite. But despite it being worth more than Nestle or Kellogs – it’s worth 12 billion globally according to Forbes – Kraft will disappear from our shelves by the end of the year. But don’t fret, the products will remain, it’s the Kraft name that will disappear. This month, Kraft Singles was replaced by UK brand “Dairylea Slices”. And that hallmark Kraft Peanut Butter jar? Australia will soon get “The Good Nut” spreads. “The Kraft name symbolises familiarity. When shoppers go to the chiller it has that recognition,” University of Adelaide marketing expert Dr Dean Wilkie told news.com.au. “Removing the Kraft name runs the risk that many people will not hear about the change. In a perfect world you’d keep it.” In Australia, Kraft products have been through a series of takeovers and mergers that has left the brand in a strange position – Kraft products aren't even owned by Kraft here. And by the end of the year, it won’t matter, there’ll no longer be Kraft in our households.

News

79-year-old cruise passenger spends night in Alaskan forest after being left behind

A 79-year-old cruise passenger has had an unexpectedly long shore excursion after her Princess Cruise ship left without her. The Coral Princess docked in Juneau, Alaska, but the Canadian holidaymaker got lost on a trek that should have taken two hours, and the ship departed, leaving her behind. She was forced to camp in a forest near the East Glacier Trail without any appropriate gear and surrounded by black bears. After noticing she hadn’t returned, rescuers scoured the area but could not find the woman. The next morning, she hiked to a nearby visitor centre, tired and wet but uninjured. She was then driven by police to an airport where she was flown to re-join the cruise ship. “She is a strong lady, and she knew what she was doing,” Princess Cruises port manager Kirby Day said. “She did all the right things except for making one wrong turn.” We’re glad to hear this brave lady was found safe and sound! Have you ever been left behind by a cruise ship? Tell us about your experiences in the comments below. Related links: <a href="/travel/cruising/2016/08/5-reason-to-stay-onboard-when-your-cruise-is-in-port/">5 reason to stay onboard when your cruise is in port</a> <a href="/travel/cruising/2016/08/13-things-to-do-to-make-the-most-of-a-river-cruise/">13 things to do to make the most of a river cruise</a> <a href="/travel/cruising/2016/07/5-golden-rules-for-safe-shore-excursions/">5 golden rules for safe shore excursions</a>

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Common payment method set to vanish completely in 2019

The town where women keep vanishing

Kraft about to vanish from Australia

79-year-old cruise passenger spends night in Alaskan forest after being left behind

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