Author: admin

Announcing the Paluma & District Photo Exhibition 2026

Got a burning desire to show your mates an amazing photo that you took? Like an excuse to run off and take a bunch more photos? Do you simply enjoy a good social outing sharing a story with others over a photo or two? Then this event is for you!

I’m sure you’ll agree that we regularly travel in and out of our misty mountain climes, tall majestic forests, stunning woodlands and pristine coastal lowlands, not always having or making as much time as we’d like to truly stop and appreciate the amazing diversity, beauty and unique people of the region that we live in.

In the name of celebrating ourselves and where we live…………and to have some fun, a photo exhibition is to be held in September and October of this year with prizes awarded to the most popular photos voted by you, the community!

With no particular photo categories that need to be addressed as part of this exhibition, the subject matter of the photos to be submitted by you is…………completely up to you, but should be of interest to the community.

Whilst we aren’t particularly big on a lot of rules in this part of the world, a few loose ‘boundaries’ regarding entry and participation in the exhibition are as follows.

  • Photos are to be taken in / or be from roughly the area covering Bluewater to Jourama, and Mutarnee to Zig Zag (i.e. Paluma & District)
  • Photos submitted can be of any age.
  • Entry of photos and voting is open to residents and their family and friends, as well as former residents only.
  • The photo entrant must be either the copyright holder or be entering on behalf of the copyright holder whose name is entered for exhibition purposes.
  • No AI-generated images please.
  • All uploaded photos should conform to social norms as they are applied to most social media platforms.  If an image would be banned from Facebook or Instagram it will be removed from the upload site.”

Photos are to be uploaded by you to a specific gallery page on paluma.org where they will be available for viewing, voting on and for making comments. A free scanning service will be available for those who are unable to digitise a hard copy photo for submission.

The most popular voted photos will have their entry printed, framed and hung in the Paluma & District community hall for a 12month period, where the winners will gain the people’s ovation and fame, before the print is given to the owner.

And last but not least, we have a couple of gripping socials lined up to celebrate the skill of our participants and to announce the winners of the exhibition.

Stay tuned for more details about the photo exhibition, which will start on 1st September 2026 and see you all snapping out there…………..

Sonya Brice

Paluma Bird of the Month, July 2026 – Lesser Sooty Owl

The Lesser Sooty Owl (Tyto tenabricosa multipunctata) is one of two owls that are residents in Paluma (3 others are occasional visitors). It is not as commonly heard or seen as the other resident, the Babook owl, but its cry is unforgettable and quite un-owl-like. It sounds like the whistling of a descending WWII bomb.

Lesser Sooty Owl call. Recording by Andree Griffin

It is not that common around the village, but a few years ago I was walking along the track from McClelands lookout and hoping I might catch a glimpse of an individual that had been calling when I felt the whisper-soft touch of wings on my head as a bird dive-bombed me and then settled in a tree 5m away. With a shaky hand, I tried to simultaneously illuminate the bird with my head torch and frame it with my iPhone. The result was one of the blurriest, overexposed bird shots in my collection, but it was enough to convince me it was indeed a Lesser Sooty Owl.

Lesser Sooty Owl near McClellands Lookout Photo by Jamie Oliver

Here is what it might have looked like if I had the right equipment and steadier hands …..

Lesser Sooty Owl, Atherton Tablelands Photo by Bruce Wedderbun (Ebird)

The Lesser Sooty Owl can be found in rainforest and adjacent wet Eucalypt habitats from Cooktown to Bluewater. It has been considered a separate species in the past but it is now one of three subspecies. The other two ( T.t. tenebricosa and T.t. arfaki) are larger and found in southeastern wet forests of Australia, and mainland New Guinea, respectively.

Lesser Sooty Owls are mainly sedentary and have permanent territories. They breed throughout the year but mainly from March to May. They are monogamous and form lifelong pairs. As with other species of Tyto, males provide food to the female, who feeds the young nestlings. Later, both parents hunt and feed the young. The young fledge and leave their nest at about 3 months, but remain dependent on their parents for food for several weeks to months.

Like most owls, the Lesser Sooty hunts at night and can capture prey in complete darkness using the sound of rustling leaves. The diet of owls is fairly easily studied. They eat their prey whole or in large chunks and then regurgitate the undigested parts (bones, teeth, fur, feathers, and even small whole skulls) as compacted pellets at its roosts. Researchers can easily collect pellets on the forest floor below known roosts and then identify the body parts down to species.

Based on a study of pellets near Lake Tinaroo in the Atherton Tablelands, the diet of the Lesser Sooty Owl was found to be composed primarily of small mammals, with the Bush Rat, Melomys species and the marsupial mouse Antechinus godmani making up 75% of prey items. Overall, the owls’ diets ranged from Ringtail possums and small gliders to microbats and small lizards.

Studies of owl pellets can also inform conservation management of rare species. The above study included the bones of a near-threatened species of tree mouse. Apart from 3 museum specimens, the existence and ongoing presence of an isolated population from this locality has only been detected from owl pellets.

Text by Jamie Oliver, photos as indicated

Further reading

Dhillon, J., M.D. Bruce, J. S. Marks, and G. M. Kirwan (2022). Sooty Owl (Tyto tenebricosa), version 2.0. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.sooowl1.02

McDonald et al. (2013). Utility of owl pellets for monitoring threatened mammal communities: An Australian case study. Wildl Res (2014) 40 (8): 685–697.

Another Successful Paluma Push

Last Saturday saw several hundred people come up to Paluma to join (or support) the 2026 Paluma Push. The event was back in Paluma this year with around 400 competitors participating in all standard event distances. Overall, the Push was a great success. There was strong Community support with about 32 residents from Paluma to Hidden Valley turning up to man the various checkpoints and to help run the Bar at Hidden Valley. The time and effort contributed by these volunteers contributed greatly to the overall success of the event.

The Community also benefited significantly. A total of $3,500 will be donated by Outer Limits jointly to the SES, RFS and PDCA for our support with volunteers and logistic assistance. In addition, the bar, run by Wifred Karnoll and others at the Hidden Valley campground, reported a profit of $2,000 for the PDCA coffers.

Thanks to everyone who turned up, and to Outer Limits and Sam Stedman for his ongoing support for the Community and for helping to promote Paluma as a destination.

The early morning sun on riders crossing the dam wall provided some interesting perspectives from an overhead drone.

Checkpoint 1

The PDCA bar (left) at Hidden Valley was well patronised.

High-Speed Internet and Wifi for the Community Hall

Last year, the Paluma Community Hall was nominated by the City Council’s Disaster Management Group for a federally funded program to install Wi-Fi and internet facilities at the Hall. Our nomination was successful, and last week an NBN technician installed a new community Wi-Fi in the Paluma Community Hall with internet provided via the NBN skymuster satellite.

I have measured a speed of 80Mbps in the building, which is a great improvement on what has been available from either the TCC community Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi derived from local 4G/5G, in the building. Because Skymuster uses geostationary satellites, there is still that slight delay (latency) because of the distance to the satellite.

This service was applied for because of problems experienced in February 2025 caused by the failure of the Telstra facility in Paluma. It should provide a reliable backup following most weather-related problems, provided the satellite dish survives. It also provides faster Wi-Fi around the building for visitors to Paluma who don’t have a Telstra mobile phone.

A sign advertising this new facility will be placed outside the hall.

In approximately two years, the current NBN satellites are due to be replaced with Amazon low-earth-orbit (Leo) satellites that are currently going into orbit. This service should transfer with that transition.

Charlie Allen