Last Saturday (July 31st) there was a great turnout of locals to the gardening working bee at the Community Hall. Graham Pope brought his mini-tractor along and quickly ensured that the huge pile of mulch near the kiosk was distributed among the Trees of Memory and along the freshly weeded garden beds around the Community Hall. With over a dozen pairs of hands, the mulching was quickly finished and we then got to work digging trenches for a new irrigation system for the garden beds. Using a hose and a piece of conduit to create a channel under one of the concrete paths resulted in a few muddy hands and trousers but we soon got the piping laid and the earth and turf replaced into the trenches. While all this was going on some of the group carried out a bit of vegetation trimming along the road.
As soon as the work was complete it was time for the Paluma Push Thankyou Drinks and BBQ hosted by Paluma RFS. This was a great success, although it’s hard to fail when the drinks and food are free!
Before everyone got down to eating we were very fortunate to have Felicity and Josh from the Mt Zero -Taravale Sanctuary gave a very informative talk on the great work being done by the Wildlife Nature Conservancy just down the road from Paluma. The new $1.5 million project to build a predator-free safe-haven for the endangered northern bettong was a highlight of the talk. Judging by the number of questions flying during and after the talk it was clear that their work generated a lot of interest and possibly some new volunteers to help out.
After the meal, Sam Stedman from Outerlimits gave a brief talk on the outstanding success of this year’s Paluma Push and highlighting near-record number of participants, the quality of the challenging tracks, and the funds raised for our local SES and Rural Fire Services. He presented substantial cheques (both in size and dollars) to the two RFS branches and the SES, and expressed his gratitude to all the volunteers who helped to make this year’s push such a success.
