Any journalist worth their weight in salt has done a stint in a busy rural newsroom, and James is no different.
He covered off on local politics and business rounds for the Central Queensland paper, breaking stories which dominated local discussion and drove reader engagement.
Below you’ll find some of the articles he wrote while at the paper:
Does council need divisions?
Driving debate about the divisive issue of divisions, this story included gaining the confidence of a key councillor and a week's worth of data mining to figure out whether there was a funding disparity between the city area of Gladstone and the wider Gladstone region.
Glencore still trying to offload WICET stake
A story following up on revelations broken by myself that global commodities giant Glencore was struggling to sell capacity at a yet-to-be-built coal terminal, demonstrating a lack of appetite for the terminal more broadly as coal prices started to bite in Queensland.
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Mid-year update scraps oil and gas training centre
Following a tip-off, James investigated the federal coalition's mid-year economic update, which included a spate of cuts. One of the cuts was the scrapping of an oil and gas training centre which was to be built in Gladstone, just days after a key government body warned of the need for more oil and gas training centres in Australia.
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GRC chief mad as hell over funding snubs
This is a story which kicked off virulent debate in Gladstone, and promoted state premier Jeff Seeney to pen an op-ed for the paper extolling the virtues of the state government's Royalties for Regions program.
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CSIRO scientist leads enquiry into bund wall
The other thing Gladstone is known for - leaking bund walls. Following up on the announcement of a review into a leaking bund wall in Gladstone Harbour, this story included canvassing the thoughts of local green groups and updating the story in real-time.
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