Innisfail, Australia News

AUSTRALIA'S banana growers have thanked the public for sticking by them after Cyclone Yasi wiped out three-quarters of the country's crops.

WHILE other food crops have faced considerable hurdles in both public and industry acceptance of genetically modified products, the "GM bogey man" has seemingly not raised his head when it comes to bananas.

When Ian McBean received a letter asking if he would accept his nomination for membership of the Order of Australia, his gut reaction was to decline.

"An inch is the most through the house in certain spots and then in other spots it's half an inch," he said.

EAST Palmerston parents have called for the State Government to review its decision the close one of the region's oldest educational facilities.

''Numerous people who have forwarded these erroneous viral emails have been advised that they are in fact not correct and have been requested not to continue their circulation,'' he told the Sunday Canberra Times.