Online grocery shopping takes off in Perth

Supermarket internet shopping has arrived in Perth, with Coles launching the service a few weeks ago and Woolworths expected to follow its rival’s lead within months.

General manager of online shopping for Coles, Keith Louie, said the use of the service had exceeded the company’s expectations and had created 150 jobs in Perth.

Thousands of orders have been taken in the few weeks the service has been operating.

Rival retailer Woolworths says it plans to go online in Perth by the end of the calendar year.

Spokesperson for Woolworths Claire Buchanan said online supermarket shopping was still very much a niche market.

“We tend to see a lot of people buying their bulky goods online and then shopping for fresh produce themselves. This is even though we tell them that our staff hand pick the goods as if they were buying for their own families,” Ms Buchanan said.

She said the value of online shopping to Woolworths equated to an additional supermarket in each of the cities in which it had been established.

“The market is still very small,” Ms Buchanan said.

“But once people try it they tend to come back. Some people will do a monthly shop online and then top up by visiting their local supermarket each week to get fresh food.

“We have online shopping in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne and by the end of this year will have it in Brisbane and Perth.”

Mr Louie said people were opting to shop online because they wanted more control over their spending.

He said shoppers in Perth could now choose from over 20,000 supermarket products online.

PERTH
JANE HAMMOND http://www.thewest.com.au

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The Vines Golf Course

The Vines Resort & Country Club is hidden amongst a colourful blend of history, people, art and world class wine in the historic Swan Valley.

The Resort has been designed to blend a relaxed country club atmosphere with the level of excellence expected of a Novotel Resort.
Enjoy our Resort’s accommodation, sensational restaurant and dining venues, 36-hole championship golf course and an abundance of Resort facilities.

Pleasure knows no bounds: taste award winning wines, visit the local galleries and studios, relax by the pool or cruise through 18 holes, the choice is yours!

http://www.thevines.com.au

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Sunday British Roast Buffet @ Joondalup Resort

Sunday British Roast Buffet

You can entertain relatives, friends and overseas visitors with a hearty Sunday British Roast Buffet at Bistro 38. Dine alfresco on the terrace overlooking the lagoon style pool.

The heart of buffet features:
– Three beautifully roasted joints of succulent meat – beef, turkey and gammon ham
– Delicious Yorkshire pudding
– Freshly steamed and roasted vegetables
– Mouth-watering desserts including apple crumble, chocolate fudge cake and treacle sponge

When: Every Sunday
Time: 12 – 2pm
Cost (food only): $45pp / $20pp 13 – 16 years / $13pp 5 – 12 years

Book Now (08) 9400 8866

Joondalup Resort 2009 Country Club Boulevard, Connolly Western Australia 6027 | Tel: 61 8 9400 8888

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About Perth Airport

Strategically located in relation to South East Asia, Europe and Africa, Perth Airport is Australia’s fourth largest airport in terms of passenger traffic and is the winner of the (AAAustralian Airports Association A) award for Australian Major Airport of the Year for 2003 and 2004.

Only 12 kilometres from the heart of Perth, the capital of Western Australia, the airport is part of a 2,105 hectare estate with sufficient capacity to expand and meet the projected commercial aviation demand of the 21st century.

Of the 2,105 hectares, over 700 hectares is available for a wide range of non-aviation property development, providing the potential for the airport to become a major commercial and industrial centre.

Westralia Airports Corporation (WAC) also works closely with the tourism industry to develop tourism in Western Australia and is a member of the Perth Convention Bureau, the Pacific Asia Travel Association and is a gold member of the Tourism Council of Western Australia.

WAC is closely involved with Tourism WA in promoting the State as an attractive destination for overseas visitors, with a strong focus on working with airlines to increase the number of passengers travelling to Western Australia.

Perth Airport is the premier international, domestic and regional gateway to this exciting State for commercial aircraft, freight and passengers, and plays an important role in Western Australia’s economy.

Economic Benefits of Perth Airport

In 2003, Economic Research Associates Pty Ltd studied the economic significance of Perth Airport to Western Australia’s economy. The report estimated that all airport associated activities generated approximately $2.2 billion a year, or 3% of the Gross State Product
(GSP) for Western Australia.

Direct employment is estimated at 5,960 jobs, with $342 million in direct salaries and wages. In total, Perth Airport provides around 16,800 jobs for Western Australians, generating approximately $850 million in wages.

Perth Airport Facilities

Perth Airport’s primary aviation facilities include:

•A two building with nine operational aircraft barunway system able to handle both existing and planned intercontinental commercial aircraft
•An International Terminal ys, five of which have aerobridges
•A with three freighter positionMulti-User Domestic Terminal complexs and a total of 22 operational aircraft bays, five of which have aerobridges
•Air freight, aviation fuel and in-flight catering facilities
•Air traffic control facilities
•24-hour rescue and fire fighting facilities.
Terminals at Perth Airport

Terminal 1 (International) is located on the eastern side of the main runway and is positioned between this runway and a future wide-spaced parallel runway.

The Domestic Terminals are located on the western side of the airfield. Qantas operates Terminal 2, where Qantas, QantasLink and Jetstar domestic services arrive and depart.

Adjacent to Terminal 2 is the Westralia Airports Corporation (WAC) operated Terminal 3. The airlines operating from Terminal 3 are Alliance Airlines, OzJet, Skywest Airlines, Virgin Blue.

Perth Airport also encompasses several smaller terminal operations, which provide charter services and services to specific regional areas in Western Australia.

http://www.perthairport.com

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Unis demand easier passage for academic migrants

UNIVERSITIES are urging the Government to ease immigration restrictions on academics to help head off a looming shortage as large numbers of baby-boomer professors and lecturers retire.

Amid the fallout from the global financial crisis, the Government in March moved to cut the permanent skilled migration intake. But universities, which see migration as a way to overcome looming academic skills shortages, are warning that the move could leave the economy short when it recovers.

universitiesof five universities, said in a briefing paper.

“In fact, it has the potential to see the economy left wanting precisely at the time we expect to see improved economic conditions.”

The ATN is lobbying Immigration Minister Chris Evans to ease restrictions on academic migration to make it easier to recruit offshore amid rising competition globally for academics.

Between 1994 and 2006, Australian universities employed more than 7000 academics from overseas on permanent or long-term arrangements.

“This figure will need to grow expotentially to replace the exodus of academics leaving the workforce in the next 15 years,” the ATN said.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au

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Diver mauled by shark at Sydney Harbour is back diving

A Navy diver who lost a hand and a leg in a Sydney Harbour shark attack is back diving and walking, and says he wants to return to work at the scene of the attack.

Doctors said navy clearance diver Paul de Gelder was lucky to survive the mauling by a 2.7-metre bull shark off Garden Island Naval Base on February 11.

After seven weeks in hospital, Mr de Gelder has told 60 Minutes he is determined to put the experience behind him.

He is already walking with a prosthetic leg, driving high performance cars and confronting his fears head-on by swimming with sharks at an Manly’s Oceanarium.

The extremely fit 31-year-old appeared comfortable examining graphic medical photographs of his injuries taken just before doctors decided to amputate his leg and hand.

Asked whether he planned on being a Navy clearance diver again, he said: “I do, I’ve never stopped”.

After five years as a clearance diver and working on peacekeeping mission in East Timor, he said his goal was to get back to working exactly where he was before the incident.

“That will be something that I’ll have to do,” he told the Nine Network.

“It’s going to be a tough bridge to vivid savagcross, but you can’t show weakness.”

Mr de Gelder gave an account of the e 6.30am (AEDT) attack while visiting the scene north of the Garden Island docks.

“It’s all a little bit nerve-wracking really,” he said.

“I kind-of wish I didn’t come out that day but you can’t change the past. You have to look to the future.”

He said that during equipment testing sharks were “everywhere” off Garden Island and the thought of the predators circling came into his mind “every time”.

“You just put it to the back of your mind and try not to worry about it.

“You have an obligation, a role and a job that you have to get on with so you don’t let the things that scare you stop you from doing that.”

He said sharks were in his mind on the morning the attack.

“Then it was in my leg,” he joked.

“I remember it all.”

Mr de Gelder was on the surface when the shark began mauling his leg and hand.

“I was swimming on my back. I had my fins on and a wetsuit on, and I was just checking my direction and when I got halfway back from turning around I got hit in the leg and looked down and there was a big toothy grin.

“(It was) grey, white, toothy and beady.

“I’d never seen a shark up close before. To see it like that was not something you expect.

“You look down and there’s a big monster attached to you and your mind goes into panic mode.”

At one point, the shark’s head was just 50cm away from Mr de Gelder’s face.

“We were pretty much staring eye to eye for about three or four seconds.”

In one bite it took his “whole hand and the whole of the back of my leg”.

“It just felt like getting hit in the leg with a plank of wood, you don’t feel the teeth go in or anything.

“I think the adrenalin, the panic, probably puts a numb on the pain and you don’t feel it.”

Four navy colleagues dragged him onto a boat and got him to shore before he was rushed to St Vincent’s Hospital in a critical condition.

“I thought he was dead,” Navy colleague Lane Patterson said.

Doctors said he most probably would have died in the water if the main artery in his leg had been severed.

He is now living with his girlfriend in an apartment paid for by the Navy and is being helped by his life-long friend Brock who quit his job to care for him.

But he is still getting used to the new hi-tech leg and will soon have a bionic hand fitted.

I get out of bed and it’s a bit of a struggle,” he said.

“It takes all your strength to sort of roll yourself out and get going in the mornings, physically.

“Mentally, I just want to bound out of bed, go and have breakfast and run down to the water and go for a swim but … baby steps.”

http://www.ninemsn.com.au

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First Home Owner Grants

A NATIONAL affordable housing organisation has called on the Federal Government to scrap its first-homeowner grant.

The grant, which was raised from $7000 to $14,000 for existing dwellings and from $14,000 to $21,000 for new homes as part of Labour’s $10.4 billion stimulus package last year, is due to expire on June 30.

The National Shelter has called on Treasurer Wayne Swan to axe the scheme when he hands down his second budget tomorrow, saying it inflates housing prices beyond the value of the grant.

“We’d be in favour of getting rid of all of it,” chief executive Adrian Pisarski told ABC Radio today, adding if the scheme was continued, it should be means-tested.

“That actually targets those lower-income families who really struggle to get into the housing market and doesn’t advantage wealthy families who can support their kids into the market at the cost of those lower income families.”

But the Master Builders Association says the enhanced scheme should be kept as it is, minimising the effects of the global financial crisis.

“We put to the government that … the best bang for the taxpayers’ buck would come from keeping the boost for new housing,” chief executive Wilhelm Harnisch said.

“It does generate new activity, it does generate jobs, it also has the multiply effect into retail, manufacturing and other sectors.”
http://www.news.com.au

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Aussies win ‘Ashes’ cricket in Hollywood

Entertainment

The sun shone. The beer flowed. The Four’n Twenty meat pies were a hit. The Aussies thrashed the Poms. The Americans were largely clueless about what they were watching.

That sums up the second annual Westfield Hollywood Ashes cricket match held on the picturesque Woodley Park cricket field in Los Angeles on Saturday, with retired Australian paceman victory.

leading a team of Australian celebrities and ring-ins to a 29 run victory.

England were the favourites for the Twenty 20 contest.

At last year’s inaugural Hollywood Ashes, England scored a one run upset victory over an Australian team led by one of the all-time greats, Steve Waugh.

With lanky 65 test veteran Graham Hick at the helm this year, the English team also included actor Julian Sands, a star of the action TV series 24, and 65-year-old UK and US Dancing with the Stars judge Len Goodman.

England also had plenty of celebrities in the VIP tent, including Monty Python funnyman Eric Idle and comedienne Tracey Ullman, the game’s official “coin tosser”.

“It is one of the greatest wins of my entire cricket career,” Kasprowicz, a 38 test and 43 one day international veteran for Australia, said with tongue firmly implanted in cheek.

“Nineteen years of first class cricket, so yeah, as you can see it is a big moment.

“I’m glowing.”

Australia batted first and set the healthy target of 153, with Kasprowicz the top scorer with 29 not out off 17 balls, and former Perfect Match host Cameron Daddo drawing on his high school cricket days to add a quick fire 23 off 17 balls.

England managed just 135, with Hick scoring 20 not out.

Jessie Spencer , a star on the TV series House, and celebrity chef Curtis Stone, were late scratchings from the Australian team but former Calvin Klein underwear model model Travis Fimmel was a favourite among the female fans in the 800 or so strong crowd.

Fimmel, however, was limp with the bat, scoring a duck.

Kasprowicz gave a one word answer when asked after the victory if any members of his team may be good enough to sneak a spot in Australia’s test or one day team.

“No,” Kasprowicz replied.

Daddo was not so sure.

“I disagree with that,” LA-based Daddo, 44, who has appeared in numerous US TV series including 24, Without a Trace and Boston Legal, said.

“I think Travis has a good shot and I think I can carry the drinks for the test team.”

The biggest laugh came when an American spectator watching her first cricket game asked why it was called “The Ashes”.

“Who died?” she asked.

http://www.thewest.com.au

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