Two hospital patients have died and three others have contracted fungal infections after receiving heart transplants at a major Queensland healthcare facility.

Five transplant patients were infected at the Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane, where elevated levels of mould were detected in an area where equipment for organ retrieval was kept.

Muhammad Hussain was one of the two men who died.

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The 55-year-old general practitioner had a heart transplant in May before he developed a fungal infection.

He was treated for it but died on September 20. His family say they were not told he contracted the infection.

"It's not supposed to be easy, but I think this development of finding out what has been going on at the hospital while we were there tending to my father every day in the background, to find out other people were also so ill, it's been quite shocking," his daughter Muskaan Hussain said.

A second heart transplant patient, Adam Retnock, died on Friday as a result of an infection.

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In parliament today Queensland's Health Minister apologised to the families of the patients, who said they were not clearly communicated with about the cluster.

"It's absolutely not acceptable that patients found out via the news, and the head of the transplant unit assured me that he had spoken directly to every patient and if that has not happened then I want to sincerely apologise to those families – it's not good enough," Shannon Fentiman said.

Two clinical reviews into the deadly fungal cluster outbreak are underway because while these types of infections are common in transplant units where patients are immunocompromised, the high number raised alarm bells.

"I'm not trivialising this at all we are concerned and that's why this investigation is being undertaken," Chief Health Officer John Gerrard said.

"It's very complex".

Three different strains of the fungi have been identified so far and testing is underway to see if they are genetically linked.

The storage area where elevated levels of mould were detected has undergone a deep clean and transplant patients are being given anti-fungal antibiotics as a precaution.

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More than $8 million worth of cocaine has been found onboard a ship at a major international port north of Adelaide.

The discovery of 23kg of what police believe to be cocaine was found on the ship docked at Port Pirie, 223km north of Adelaide yesterday, but police still don't know the origin of the drugs.

Crew who uncovered the suspicious packages contacted police who launched a major investigation with Australian Border Force and the Australian Federal Police.

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Detective Superintendent Billy Thompson said police were attempting to track down the source of the drugs.

"The discovery of this amount of cocaine is very significant, it is estimated that the street value of drugs would be in excess of $8 million," he said.

"If this amount of illicit drugs had successfully entered the drug market it would have no doubt led to significant harm to our community."

Members of the ship's crew are assisting police with their inquiries.

It is expected that investigators will remain at Port Pirie throughout today as they complete a full search of the ship.

Hardware giant Bunnings will stop selling engineered stone at the end of the year amid a call for a ban on the popular material, which can cause the lung disease silicosis through exposure to crystalline dust when cut.

Bunnings director of merchandise Jen Tucker confirmed the move, just weeks after a report recommended a nationwide ban on the constriction product commonly used in kitchen and bathroom benchtops.

"While there has been clear indication from NSW and other state governments that they will legislate a ban on the product, we are proactively making this decision to allow suppliers and customers time to prepare for a transition," Tucker said.

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"The vast majority of benchtops we sell in our stores are laminate and timber, but we're already well progressed with sourcing other alternative products and we're working closely with our suppliers and customers to support them through the change."

Discussions have been ramping up over a potential blanket ban on the use of all engineered stone over its links to the deadly lung disease.

Federal, state and territory workplace ministers met last month to review a report from SafeWork Australia, which recommended banning the product, irrespective of crystalline silica content.

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Inhaling the dust when the product is being cut to size causes inflammation which, over time, leads to scarring of the lung tissue which makes it difficult to breathe.

Bunnings noted it doesn't sell the benchtops to DIY or trade customers to install or cut themselves.

Another meeting is expected before the end of the year to decide on a ban.

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Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) national secretary Zach Smith said it was "the end of the line for engineered stone".

"When even a massive corporation that until now has put profits over workers' lives concedes it's lost any remaining social licence to sell this killer stone, no government can squib it on a ban," Smith said.

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Nathan Stafford is perhaps the most watched gardener in Australia.

It may seem unbelievable, but one short video of the Sydney tradie trimming hedges and mowing a lawn has been viewed close to 10 billion times since he uploaded it to his social media pages in March last year.

Welcome to the strangely satisfying and mesmerising world of garden clean-up content – a niche area of viewing which has taken off in a big way – particularly on TikTok.

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Fans of Stafford's videos describe him as a 'Picasso' and often wax lyrical about the relaxing beauty of his art.

His time-lapse videos showing overgrown, suburban lawns being tamed into neat and orderly lines of vegetation regularly attract millions upon millions of views from around the world.

But, before all of this, Stafford was a regular gardener doing "ordinary paid work all over Sydney" for his business Nathan's Lawns and Garden, which he started 15 years ago.  

When clips of yard clean-ups started to trend in the US a few years ago, Stafford decided to try his hand at making his own videos. 

But it wasn't until Stafford posted his epically popular video last March that he made a conscious decision to steer the majority of his business in the direction of garden content creation.

"The video went really big and it was just of me doing a standard job – cleaning up a yard that was a complete mess," Stafford said.

"In the first 10 minutes it got about 200,000 views – it was insane. 

"When you get a lot of views, your social media accounts shut down because they can't handle all the traffic. It's really crazy."

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These days, about 75 percent of Stafford's work is geared towards content creation.

One of the things Stafford loves about his job now is that he's able to help people in the community by offering his services for free.

"I like to go around and knock on people's doors and just help people, really," Stafford said.

"It's a situation where everyone wins. People get help with their gardens, the audience get to watch the videos, and I can make money from the videos that pays for my costs."

But not everyone is initially welcoming of an offer of a free lawn makeover, Stafford said.

"A lot of them think this is a scam, because who helps other people for free these days?" he said.

"I've had some very different reactions, some of them are extreme. I've had people chase me out of the place.

"But then you get a lot of people who are just like, 'Oh my God, thank you so much.'"

Stafford said he often helped elderly people or residents in public housing whose lawns had gotten out of control, with many of his followers sending him tip-offs of people in desperate need of a gardener.

"I do a lot of housing commission homes," Stafford said. 

"I had a bit of a rough childhood when I was younger. 

"I was a bit of a larrikin. I didn't get into big trouble, but I could have gone down a path. 

"So I can sort of relate to these people because I have a bit of an understanding, I don't judge."

'It scratches an itch in the brain'

Stafford is not the only Aussie to make it big on the garden clean-up content scene.

Tim Parker is full-time firefighter based in Sydney's north-west, who also goes by the name "Tim the Lawnmower Man".

About three years ago, Parker was looking to earn a bit of extra cash by mowing lawns, and stumbled into doing yard clean-up videos for social media instead.

He now has close to five million followers on his social media accounts.

Like Stafford, Parker offers his garden clean-up services for free on what he calls "Free mow Fridays".

When it comes to who owns the long grass he is cutting, Parker says he "doesn't discriminate".

"I just see grass and I cut grass. I'm of the mindset that everyone deserves a nice surprise," Parker said. 

While many people would expect people who let their yard grow wild to be also living in old and rundown houses, this is not always the case.

Many of Parker's videos feature properties with new and modern homes, but weeds and vegetation galore.

"A lot of these houses look new, and people assume that the people living there are extremely well off, but I live in a new area of Western Sydney where many people are struggling to pay their mortgages," Parker said.

The people with out-of-control lawns he saw in his area were often first home buyers who had previously lived in a unit, he said.

"Sometimes they don't understand what to do with a garden, or how often you've got to do it," Parker said. 

"Others just don't have an interest in it, so they don't really think about it." 

Parker said he still had trouble predicting which of his videos would take off on social media, but there was no doubt this type of content "scratches an itch in the brain".

"I think it plays to our inner control freak," Parker said.

"Anything to do with lawn edges always does really well. 

"Really an overgrown edge is probably a lot more attractive than a straight, carved edge – but our brain just is satisfied by these straight, tidy lines." 

Have you got a story? Contact reporter Emily McPherson at em********@******om.au