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Famous Paluma structure goes up in flames!

Even the editors at Paluma.org can’t resist the odd attention grabbing headline (or click bait as it is now called) …….

Len Cook watches the smoke and flames emerging from the Anagama kiln

Last week saw the famous Anagama wood-fired kiln blaze into life at the Paluma Pottery on Lennox Crescent. Len Cook, our local award-winning Pottter, spent the last several months making hundreds of pots of various sizes and shapes, in preparation for the annual wood firing.

Len Cook at around 3am on the 4th day- still going strong

The process started last Monday evening (October 29) at 8pm and finished exactly 100 hours later at midnight on Friday. Prior to the start of the firing the lower part of the shelter that houses the kiln was chocked full of firewood, mostly pine and black wattle from the blocks at Hussey Road. By Friday most of the wood had been fed into the kiln, producing temperatures in excess of 2,000 degrees in the front part of the kiln. Continuous stoking of the fire was needed to maintain the temperatures that allow the wood ash that constantly flows over the pots to melt and form a wonderfully variable glaze on the pots. Len, together with Kelly Davis and Jamie Oliver worked shifts feeding the kiln, monitoring temperatures and making the odd adjustment to airflow vents and shutters.

The pots started to glow after the first day and by the end of the firing the entire inside was glowing red.

Each time new wood was added (about every 15 min, 24 hours a day) the chimney would produce billows of smoke and fire, which was particularly impressive at night.

The kiln is currently in cool-down mode and Len will not know what the results of this year’s efforts have been until later this week. But given the wonderful results from previous firings, there should be some spectacular pieces.

More pictures:

Rifle Bird Courtship at Paluma

The breeding season for the Victoria’s Rifle Bird is between September and January. Courtship behaviour and displaying by juvenile male birds is in full swing at Paluma during the peak of the breeding season in early November. The elaborate courtship rituals are something to see!

Over several days, numerous young male birds have been sighted on ‘perches’ high in the rainforest canopy, carrying out their elaborate dance displays to attract the females. At one location on a suitable tree stump I observed three birds displaying in quick succession, one after the other on the same perch. The displays were accompanied by the distinctive raucous, raspy calls which were quickly answered by other birds throughout the nearby forest. The distinctive clapping sound made by the male birds rapidly alternating their wings during displaying was also heard from the surrounding rainforest.

Cliff and Dawn Frith have spent many years studying the courtship display and mating habits of rifle birds. Much of their research was based at Paluma. They describe the courtship display as typically having three discrete components:

Calling – usually associated with the opening of the beak and exposure of the inside of the bright yellow mouth.

2. Circular wings and gape display

3. Alternate wing clap – this involves the rapid, alternating ‘clapping’ of the wings whereby the female is ’embraced’ within the male birds wings. The tempo of the wing clapping increases until copulation.

Just describing the remarkable courtship behaviour of the male rifle bird does not do it justice. The video below captures a short sequence of the typical display.

Text & Photos by Michele Bird. Video by Michele Bird & Jamie Oliver.

Bruce Highway Closure

Overnight closures of the Bruce Highway, north of Townsville 19 – 21 November 2018

Please see the attached flyer with information about the upcoming overnight closures of the Bruce Highway at Yabulu, north of Townsville between Monday 19 and Wednesday 21 November 2018.

Flyer_Bruce Highway closure-Yabulu

It is expected that the highway will be closed each night at 8pm and reopened to traffic each morning at 4am. Every effort will be made to ensure the highway will be reopened by 4am. However, should weather events or construction issues require a longer closure, then updates will be provided on the QLD Traffic website www.qldtraffic.qld.gov.au and App.

This is a significant closure of the Bruce Highway, with no alternative routes. Please review the information in the flyer and if you have any questions, contact the Customer and Stakeholder Management Team on 1800 625 648 or email engagement.northern@tmr.qld.gov.au.

Kind regards,

Erin

Customer and Stakeholder Management Team
North Queensland Region
Program Delivery and Operations Branch | Infrastructure Management and Delivery Division | Department of Transport and Main Roads

Platypus on the Village Weir

The Village Weir is a wonderful place to sit and contemplate nature, especially during a misty morning. You can even catch up on your emails while waiting for a platypus to appear.

Following the sighting of a platypus on the Village Weir in late September there have been 4 other confirmed sightings and it would seem that this individual has taken up residence (hopefully for the long term) in the weir.

Sightings have been primarily in the early morning (6-7am) and it appears to prefer the left side bank (looking up from the weir wall).

A list of all recent sightings can be found here. If you happen to see our new aquatic resident please contact Jamie Oliver with details so he can add this to the sightings record.

The video below shows the Platypus swimming across the weir from right to left early in the morning on October 28, 2018.

video by Juanita Poletto

Paluma Dinner under the stars

Outer Limits would like to invite you to a community dinner on Saturday, 27th October at the Adventure Centre. Starting 5pm

The Deadline for confirming your presence coming up soon. Please RSVP before October 25th:

info@outerlimitsadventure.com.au ph 0421 484 211

Catering by the Feel Good Foodie. $15 per person/ BYO drinks

Paluma Featured in RACQ Road Ahead Magazine

Paluma has an entry in the latest issue of the RACQ Road Ahead magazine in the “My Town” section.

The article was written by Michael Drew and features information on what to do, where to eat and our main attractions. Thanks to Michael Drew for composing this article, which is intended to correct the impression in a previous RACQ article that there is little to do in Paluma. A quick browse of our website should also dispel that notion!

Relics of a Bygone Era

On Friday 12^th October, two new arrivals appeared on the lawns adjoining Lennox Crescent and Mount Spec Road. They emerged from a dense cloud mist which enveloped Paluma that day, like visitors from the mists of time. The ambience seemed fitting, as these new arrivals are relics of a bygone era; a timber hauler, which was used to haul timber on Mt Spec and a bitumen mixer used in surfacing the Range Road during the 1950’s. The large, solid steel machines are well preserved and represent the epitome of engineering design and workmanship of their day.

The machines were for many years kept on a property on Spiegelhauer Road until Wilfred Karnoll acquired them and brought them up the Range on a tilt-tray to their new home on Mount Spec Road. Appropriately, they are sited on the lawns of the former Cavilcade Guest House, which was built in the late 1930’s by Bert and Grace Cavill. The house is a historic landmark building in Paluma, and in its heyday in the 1930’s, accommodated tourists who travelled up the newly constructed road.

The former owner of these machines is Mrs Helen Davies whose late husband operated the timber hauler for dragging logs from the forests in the Paluma area. The timber hauler is a Campbell bob-tail, No 122, manufactured by A.B. Campbell Engineering in Gloucester, NSW. It was towed behind a small bulldozer. A steel rope from the winch on the dozer ran over the pulley on the bob-tail. By retracting the winch rope the heavy end of the log would be lifted off the ground and dragged out of the scrub to the loading ramps. The logs would then be loaded onto trucks towing timber jinkers for transport to saw mills or the rail siding at Moongobulla.

The bitumen mixer was originally owned by the Main Roads Commission; its serial number is MRC 2776. There is no marking to indicate its age or the foundry in which it was built. The machine was used in the surfacing of the Range road in the 1950’s. Until then the road was unsealed. The bitumen mixer carried a drum that had two sets of paddles running through it which mixed the liquid hot tar with sand and gravel to produce bitumen for sealing the road. Unfortunately the engine driving the mixer via two leather belts, is missing. Possibly it was a Southern Cross engine, one of which may eventually be obtained and set in place.

On the left side of the Range road, (going down) near The Saddle, are two steel tanks which were used to liquefy the tar. These may be hard to locate, obscured as they are by long grass.

It is satisfying to have in the village these two solid reminders of Paluma’s past. They complement the photographic history on display in the Community Hall of the industries, the people and the development of this area.

Text and photos by Colwyn Campbell

Rainforest Tree of the Month, October 2018 – Alphitonia petriei

Pink Ash – Alphitonia petriei

Around the world there are 20 species of this distinctive tree, mostly in tropical Asia, while in Australia there are seven or eight species, found in eastern northern Australia. Alphitonias are known by several popular names which can cause some confusion in identifying a particular species. Pink Almond, White-leaf, White Ash, Soap Tree, Sarsaparilla, Red Ash, Red Almond, Foam-bark and Pink Ash are those names most commonly used.

Alphitonia petriei is a pioneer species which grows rapidly on the edge of the forest or in a gap where sunlight can reach. Trees can grow to a height of 40 meters and sometimes look grotesque with gnarled and twisted limbs and branches which reach out impossible distances laterally from the trunk. At present trees around Paluma are particularly eye-catching as most are densely covered in white flowers, often with a tiered effect and, from a distance, appear like snow-laden Christmas trees.

The flowers which grow in dense panicles at the ends of branchlets and between leaves are white, cream or pale green. They have five petals, only 1.5 mm long which envelop the stamens. Flowering is usually from September through to March. Pollination is by beetles. Butterflies are also attracted to Alphitonia. The fruit is produced from February to July; globular, dark capsules, which ripen to reveal three orange to red seeds surrounded by a powdery flesh. Many birds, including King Parrots and Crimson Rosellas, feast on these while fallen fruit is eaten by cassowaries.

Leaves of the Alphitonia are simple, lanceolate and can be 65 to 180 mm long. The upper surface is glabrous and a dull grey-green in colour while the undersurface is whitish and slightly hairy. In some species of Alphitonia, notably A. excelsa, the leaves when rubbed in water will produce a soapy froth, hence the popular name Soap Tree. This species is more commonly found at a lower altitude than that of Paluma.

The bark on the trunk and limbs of this tree is grey, flaky, almost tessellated and if torn gives off a liniment-like odour. This is a distinctive feature of the tree. The strong liniment smell of broken twigs and leaves is methyl salicylate, produced in the cambial layers of the limbs. Some people liken the smell to sarsaparilla, hence another popular name for this tree. Rainforest Aborigines used the Alphitonia petriei medicinally, probably as a liniment.

Alphitonia petriei is one of the many rainforest trees that contain bio-active chemicals which could potentially produce valuable medicinal drugs. In his book ‘Plants of Tropical North Queensland’, John Beasley says that “research at Paluma found that more than half the trees tested showed marked bioactivity.”

There are many of these interesting trees growing in and around Paluma. Particularly good specimens may be seen outside No 62 Mount Spec Road and at the corner of the western entry to Lennox Crescent from Mount Spec Road.

Text and photos by Colwyn Campbell

Platypus sighted on Village Weir

While Platypus are apparently regularly seen by some residents on the creeks behind Hussey Road, reports of these elusive but iconic Australian animals in the pond above the weir near the village green are pretty rare. Last month (September 14) there was a confirmed sighting in the middle of the weir pond by Eridani Mulder. I went down to the weir twice during the subsequent week (once at dawn and once at dusk) and searched quietly for about 30 minutes without any luck, but I encourage others to do the same and post any further sightings to this message. It would be great if we could determine if we now have a resident Platypus on the weir! It would also provide a strong argument in support of our proposal to the city council for the construction of a nature walk and viewing platform around the weir.

Jamie Oliver

Vale John Plant

John Plant , the son of Flight Sergeant Bruce plant, died on 14 September 2018 .

John’s father was Paluma’s 1930s son who lies in a war cemetery in Germany, having been killed in 1943 piloting a Lancaster bomber as part of the legendary 460 SQN RAAF. The site of the incident has been generously marked by a local german group who seek out and memorialize such crash sites.

Bruce is remembered on our War Memorial following a recent ceremony conducted by members of the Garbutt RAAF ,where Bruce started his Wartime career as a Mess steward , but quickly rose through the ranks to become a Fighter Pilot at Amberley before training on Lancasters in Canada .Bruce was an outstanding Australian!

John and Bruce never met. A planned meeting on the Ipswich railway station was foiled by the fact that the train carrying Bruce did not stop leaving John’s mother bereft on the platform holding an infant John.

John suffered a tremendous detriment with the death of his father due to the extremely cruel actions of his step father until John broke free at age 13.

John secured a trade in a railway rolling stock construction company at Ipswich and his great intelligence , skills and wonderful personality stood him in good stead with that company all of his working life.

John’s wife Eunice was his great love and mainstay as he coped with the loss of his father in his younger years. Eunice is grief stricken at her loss of John.

John was most appreciative of the RAAF ceremony hosted by PDCA and his son Barry has again asked that the family’s thanks be passed on to Palumarites!

John’s story is typical of the repercussions of War where often the next generation of the person Killed in Action have a great burden to bear which is often unrecognised by more fortunate members of subsequent generations .

Lest We Forget ….the tribulations of the families of our War dead.

Michael Drew