For instance, who would ever have imagined that the $12,000 Middlemount Cup (1200m) would attract a winning line-up of 81 race winners of $1,715,328 in stakes? That was the scenario out west at ...

Lake Lindsay operator Tony Carbis has lived in Middlemount for 10 years and said the prices had been consistently expensive over the past decade – with diesel as high at $1.80 a litre at one point.

Mayor Anne Baker said a colony of 50,000 bats at Middlemount had been reduced to 150 and the number of bats in Moranbah had dropped from 30,000 to 100. She thanked residents for their patience.