During National Bird Week at the end of October Australians were asked to count the birds they spotted in their backyards.

The results are now in on the 5th Aussie Backyard Bird Count with more than 84,000 people returning checklists that recorded more than 2.7 million sightings.

Birdlife Australia communications manager Sean Dooley tells Mark what’s encouraging is the top three were all natives species.

The controversial Mt Coot-tha zipline is a step closer to reality with the state government clearing the way for the Brisbane City Council to make a final decision.

The council is driving the project as well as being the consenting authority and submissions on the DA close tomorrow after just three weeks.

Mark is no fan of the project and tells Council Environment, Parks and Sustainability Committee Chair David McLachlan it seems the council has made it a fait accompli.

There are calls to review an obscure provision of Queensland’s Justices Act that allowed a magistrate to exclude the public and the media from a hearing this week.

Pine Rivers Magistrate Trevor Morgan closed the hearing of a man charged with the abduction and assault of a seven year old girl “in the interests of public morality”.

Queensland Law Society Deputy President Bill Potts tells Mark the decision has left many in the legal profession scratching their heads.

Cameron Nugent is perhaps familiar to many Australians thanks to recurring roles on TV shows such as Around The Twist, Seachange, Blue Heelers and City Homicide.

Cameron has now turned his hand to directing and this week his debut feature ‘A Boy Called Sailboat’ will screen in Brisbane after winning awards at film festivals in the US.

It tells the story of an extraordinary little Mexican boy and his “little guitar”.

It features Academy Award winner J.K.Simmons and Cameron tells Mark he didn’t know the star and just emailed him as a total longshot.

It’s said that that anyone who makes their passion their job will never work a day in their life. If that’s true former Australian and Brisbane Heat cricketer Nathan Reardon is living the dream.

To wind down during his playing days he loved nothing more than to get away from it all and go fishing.

He tells Mark that once he saw his playing days were nearing an end he decided to make it his living and Outside Edge Adventures was born.

Research consistently shows that consumers want to buy freshly caught local seafood rather than imported product.

The LNP is vowing that in government it would change legislation so that any business selling seafood for immediate consumption, like fish and chip shops, would have to identify where it came from.

Queensland Seafood Industry Association CEO Eric Perez has welcomed the pledge and tells Mark the association isn’t against imported or farmed seafood but consumers deserve choice.

It has been a long time coming but thoroughbred racing is finally set to return to Eagle Farm later this month.

A litany of problems with a new track surface laid as part of a major revamp begun in 2014 has meant the course hasn’t staged a meeting since May of last year.

Racing Queensland CEO Brendan Parnell tells Mark to be on the safe side there will be limited schedule in 2019 before a return to a full calendar in 2020.

New figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show Australia’s birth rate has fallen to a low not seen since 2001.

In 2017, the average ‘total fertility rate’ was 1.74 babies per woman and it’s even lower in Queensland.

The figures also show the average age for new mothers is over 30 and climbing and demographer Mark McCrindle tells Mark there could be issues down the track.

Anyone who has visited Sydney’s Livid Festival will have marvelled at the light show projected onto the sails of the Opera House.

This Christmas St Stephen’s Catholic Cathedral in Elizabeth Street will be given a similar treatment to celebrate the festive season.

Lighting projection artist Giles Westley tells Mark the 12 minute animated show was written and narrated by Simon Pryce, better known as the Red Wiggle.

Abbie Eaton is living every petrol-heads dream.

As ‘test pilot’ for the upcoming new series of The Grand Tour she gets to put supercars through their paces and shares the spotlight with Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond.

Abbie is a professional race car driver and she tells Mark she’s now working on getting behind the wheel for next year’s Australian Supercar series.