AN impulse purchase while visiting family on the Sunshine Coast led to a retired Darling Downs man winning $100,000 on an Instant Scratch-It ticket.

ANOTHER band of rain is making its way to the Darling Downs and will hit the western Downs late Sunday and make its way across Toowoomba on Monday and Tuesday.

The Queensland Government is sending a rapid response team to the Darling Downs west of Toowoomba to help workers stood down from a local abattoir.

THE El Nino weather pattern is still in control regardless of the rainfall received in Toowoomba and surrounding areas recently, Professor Roger Stone says.

More than 200 workers at a meat processing company on the southern Darling Downs west of Toowoomba in southern Queensland have been stood down for the rest of the week.

Work has started on an economic development strategy for the Southern Darling Downs in south-east Queensland.

NOT every Toowoomba resident is lucky enough to enjoy their job as much as East Coast Lubes’ account manager Andrew McGaghan does.

THE burgeoning tourism and wine industries of the Darling Downs and beyond were discussed at length today when two State Government ministers visited Toowoomba.

POWERLINK Queensland is inviting the community to comment on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed Western Downs Substation.

THIEVES and vandals intent on destroying the spirit of Christmas have been active in the Toowoomba region.

LOCKYER Valley farmer Rob Bauer and the 14th Dalai Lama aren’t too closely related, despite both being advocates of eating more vegetables.

Southern Downs’ residents will head to the polls early in the new year to elect a new councillor.

TOOWOOMBA and its surrounding towns will feature in a new database — queenslandplaces.com.au which has been developed by the University of Queensland.

QUEENSLAND Fire and Rescue’s south-west rural operations superintendent Wayne Waltisbuhl and his fire crews are keeping a close watch on the Darling Downs.

TWO brothers who held up Drayton’s Downs Hotel at gunpoint and made off with $40,000 were each sentenced to jail terms yesterday.

QUEENSLAND Fire and Rescue Service acting superintendent Steve McInerney was calm but vigilant as he checked the progress of fires in the region yesterday.

RESIDENTS of the Darling Downs spluttered and coughed their way through one of the worst dust storms in history yesterday.

MORE than 1000 cyclists set out from TAFE in Lindsay Street on Saturday for a nine-day, 560-kilometre scenic tour of the Darling Downs.

The Western Downs Regional Council says its budget has been created to plan for the next decade as the mining boom impacts the district.

SWINE flu has claimed the life of a Warwick woman, 49.