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Wilderness First Aid Course

Outerlimits Adventure is sponsoring a 3-day accredited Remote and Wilderness First Aid Course in Paluma
October 19-22, 2018
 at the Paluma Adventure Centre (High Ropes Facility)
$670 pp incl. meals, accommodation

Jason Taylor from Category 5 Emergency Care is coming to Paluma to teach a Standard Wilderness and Remote First Aid course.

Sam and Aline have done multiple courses with Jason already and highly recommend them to anyone who likes to adventure and maybe even works outdoors, especially in remote areas. So we have teamed up with Jason and we are bringing you the Standard R.A.W First Aid course to Paluma.

We will spend the weekend at the Adventure Centre in Paluma and stay at the Adventure House. Meals will be provided, please let us know if you have any dietary requirements.

What is R.A.W First Aid?

Category 5 offers a unique training course specific to North Queensland and is delivered under our remote area training division SOS (Specialised Outsdoor Survival). Remote and Wilderness First Aid designed for those who work and play in the outdoors. While “Senior” First Aid Courses give you great basic skills and knowledge, they don’t account for being a long way from help.

RAW First Aid differs significantly from standard first aid courses that are oriented toward the urban environment. RAW first aid will give you extended knowledge and skills to deal with situations that may occur whilst in a remote location. We prepare students for emergency situations that involve prolonged patient care, severe environments and improvised equipment. Our courses are scenario based which means you get hands on experience to prepare you for the real thing. They are fun, practical and very comprehensive. We use stage makeup and blood to give the realistic effect and a true outdoor experience.

These courses are perfect for Outdoor Professionals, Mine sites, Camping, Scuba Diving Professionals and anyone who works or plays in the outdoors.

Topics include:

  • Introduction & Medical Legal Issues
  • Patient Assessment & Basic Life support
  • Traumatic Injuries
  • Spinal Injury (including clearing a spinal injury in the field)
  • Head Injury
  • Bleeding and Wound Management
  • Musculoskeletal Injuries (including relocating dislocations and angulated fractures)
  • Environmental Injuries
  • Bites & Stings
  • Medical Emergencies
  • Common problems
  • Adult CPR/EAR Urban and Remote Specific
  • AED – Defibrillation
For bookings please call Sam 0421484211 or send us an email info@outerlimitsadventure.com.au

Visit the website for more details

Mulching In the Mist – Village Green, Paluma

There will be a Working Bee at the Village Green on Saturday 25th August 2018, commencing at 3.30 PM.

The Working Bee is to complete the spreading of wood-chip mulch around the Trees in Memory garden bed and also to complete the spreading of topsoil on the Village Green.

The Working Bee is to assist and complete the great work already undertaken by Michael Drew in attending to the Village Green.

All are welcome to attend and lend a hand. Please bring:-

 Your gardening expertise, prowess and enthusiasm
 Your favourite rake, spade, wheelbarrow, bucket or other garden tools

“Many hands make light work”, so please come along for some fresh air and exercise.

The Village Green and the Trees in Memory will love you for it………and so will the scrub turkeys!!

For more information contact Michele on 0417 767 099.

Rainforest Tree of the Month – August 2018 Gympi Gympi (Stinging Tree)

Gympi Gympi (Dendrocnide moroides)

 The Gympi Gympi is also known as the Stinging Tree, and is said to be one of the world’s most venomous plants.  Those unlucky enough to have suffered a major sting claim the pain is the most excruciating of any they have endured.

A small stinging tree with ripe berries found beside Chicks Rd. Photo by Charlie Allen

World-wide there are 37 species of stinging tree with 6 in Australia.  The Dendrocnide moroides has the worst sting. The tree is often described as a shrub but can grow to a height of 4 to 5 meters.  It tends to grow in open, disturbed sites such as a cyclone damaged area or in a clearing where a tree has fallen.  They like sunny, but sheltered areas and are often found along walking tracks or the edges of streams.  The Gympi Gympi is found from Gympie in Southern Queensland to Cape York Peninsular and is very common in the Atherton Tablelands.  It is generally not common along any of the Paluma walking tracks that have a complete rainforest canopy, but small plants can spring up quite rapidly in damaged areas exposed to sunlight.

The leaves of the Gympi Gympi, carried on long, hairy stalks are finely serrated and heart-shaped.  They are covered in fine stinging hairs which give the leaves a furry appearance. The fine silica hairs break off when touched and embed in the skin.  They act like syringes and continue to inject venom for several days. Even dead leaves are capable of inflicting a sting.  The pain experience depends on the amount of contact with the leaves but also varies between people. A brief brush with a leaf can lead to significant but bearable localized (surface) pain, but extensive contact (especially in sensitive areas of thin skin) can be excruciating, often with extreme reactions like swelling and profuse sweating. The pain reduces over time but can linger for over a month.  Rubbing the skin exacerbates the situation as it breaks the hairs, leaving the points embedded in the skin. Also, contact with cool water leads to recurrence of pain days or weeks after the event. Unfortunately for those stung, there is no truly effective treatment although shaving the affected area and then daubing it with a weak solution of hydrochloric acid or  full strength house-hold vinegar can help to alleviate the worst of the pain. This treatment is only for the strong-minded since it causes the pain to significantly increase for several minutes before acting to reduce it.

The chemicals contained in the venom are not completely understood but it is suggested that a peptide called moroidin could be responsible for the pain.  Some birds, mammals and insects appear to be immune to the venom as many eat the fruit and leaves without harm.  The fruit is edible to humans brave enough to sample them and are quite pleasant in flavor – just be careful not to touch the leaves or stem when picking the berries!

The fruit of the Gympi Gympi is actually a small nut enclosed within a fleshy sac.  Several sacs are clustered together to form a mulberry-like fruit which hangs from a stem.  The stems and fruit are also covered in fine hair.

Looking for Spotted-tailed Quoll scat

Alberto Vale, from the Australian Quoll Conservancy (www.quolls.org.au) is looking for help in determining if the Spotted-tailed Quoll, which was once fairly common in Paluma, is still in the area. Sadly, quolls were hunted as pests by the original settlers.

For the past 9 months, the Australian Quoll Conservancy has been  surveying the Paluma area in search of Spotted-tailed Quolls, presumed extinct in the area since the 1930’s however confirmed sighting reports have floated in the 60’s as well in 1984.

While direct sightings of the animal would be most exciting, a more likely observation (if they are here) would be scat (Quoll poo) on the walking tracks or on top of adjacent rocks and bolders around the Dam or even near the village. If you see anything resembling the images below please take a picture as close-up as possible (or even collect a specimen) and contact Alberto on 0412 632 328 or aqc@quolls.org.au

Feedback requested on future night-time closure of Bruce Highway

Do you use the Bruce Highway through Yabulu (north of Townsville) at night?

The Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) is seeking feedback from people who regularly travel the Bruce Highway through Yabulu at night, about upcoming temporary highway closures.

The feedback will be used to inform when these closures occur, so as to have the least impact on motorists. We will provide two weeks notice once the closure dates have been determined, so that road users can plan their journeys accordingly.

Further information about the closures and how you can have your say, is outlined in the attached flyer.

We encourage you to circulate this notice to others who regularly travel this section of the highway at night.

Feedback should be directed to TMR’s Customer and Stakeholder Management team by telephone on 1800 625 648, or by email at engagement.northern@tmr.qld.gov.au no later than close of business Friday 3 August 2018. Thank you for your assistance.

 

Kind regards,

Customer and Stakeholder Management Team
North Queensland Region

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

____________________________________________

Floor 5 | Townsville Government Office Building | 445 Flinders Street | Townsville Qld 4810
PO Box 1089 | Townsville Qld 4810
1800 625 648 
engagement.northern@tmr.qld.gov.au
www.tmr.qld.gov.au

Flyer_Seeking feedback_Bruce Highway closure_yabulu

 

 

Bird of the Month – Satin Bowerbird

The satin bowerbird is common at Paluma and quite easy to spot around many of the village gardens and along the numerous walking tracks.

The population of satin bowerbirds at Paluma is quite unique in that it is reported to be an isolated population in the Wet Tropics of North Queensland.

The male birds are black in colour, but the rich dark gloss of their feathers gives the birds an almost metallic sheen, so that they appear to be a deep shiny blue colour. They are quite breathtaking to see in the varying shades of light in the rainforest.


Satin Bowerbird male (top) and female (bottom). Photos by Jamie Oliver

The female birds are green and brown in colour, but with a distinctive scalloped pattern down the body. Both male and female birds have striking blue eyes.

If these birds are not spectacular enough, like most bowerbirds they have a very complex courtship behaviour that involves the male birds building elaborately woven stick structures, or ‘bowers’.

 

 

 

The intention of the bower is to lure females for mating. The female birds will visit the bowers and based on their inspection, will then choose which male they will allow to mate with them.

Male satin bowerbirds go to great lengths to decorate their bower with shiny and coloured objects to impress the ladies. As the males mature they favour blue objects in particular.

Satin Bowerbird bower. Photos by Michele Bird

Some lucky Paluma locals have a resident satin bowerbird and bower in their garden, or on their bush block. The bower here was recently sighted in the Hussey Road area.

This bower is decorated with an array of natural objects. This bird has collected blue bird feathers (probably from a crimson rosella), land snails, brightly coloured pebbles and bright-green moss or lichen. However, the majority of the items are non-natural materials including fragments of plastic, surveyor’s tape, pieces of tarpaulin, pegs, bottle lids, the rings from milk bottles and pieces of aluminium foil.

To me, this bower shows how remarkably innovative and adaptive these birds are to the modern world, in sourcing and using a vast array of treasured blue finds. But, it also shows that even in a small village such as Paluma, which is nestled on the very margins of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, the birds are able to find a great deal of plastic material. For me it serves as a timely reminder that we could all do a little bit better in managing our waste and taking care of our environment and native fauna.

Text by Michele Bird

What’s Flowering in Paluma – Madonna Orchid

Pink Madonna orchid (Cattleya trianaei)

This superb specimen of Cattleya orchid belongs to Paluma residents Michael and Donna Drew. The beautiful mauve, deep purple and yellow blooms are long lasting and Michael says that these flowers first opened in early July.

The orchid is about 10 years old and was purchased by Donna at an Orchid Society Show in Townsville. The plant is happily growing in shaded conditions in the fork of a small tree with rough, corky bark. Michael feeds the plant regularly with a spray of liquid fish emulsion and the odd banana skin (as a source of potassium).

Michael has named the orchid ‘Pink Madonna’ after his lovely wife, Donna.

Did you know that the genus of Cattleya orchids was first named in 1824 in tribute to William Cattley of England who was a keen cultivator of tropical plants.  These orchids originate from the Central and South Americas.

Text and Photos by Michele Bird

What’s Flowering in Paluma – Peach Blossom

Several gardens in Paluma have peach trees which are at present coming into bloom. Buds are swelling along the slender branchlets, with many flowers already open. Another week, (it is 12 July at the time of writing), should see the trees densely covered in delicate pink blossoms. Unless heavy rain washes the blossom off, the tree will display its beauty for up to three weeks. Tiny fruit will begin forming which will swell and ripen in the summer months but Bush Rats and White-tailed Rats will have eaten most of them well before then.

The peach is a deciduous tree and looks bare and straggly for a few months during the year, until mid- winter, but is worth growing for its sheer beauty during the flowering period.

 

Paluma must be one of the few places in the tropics where a tree more suited to a temperate climate can thrive.

Text and photos by Colwyn Campbell

Rainforest Tree of the Month – July 2018 Paperbark Satinash

Paperbark Satin-ash    –    Syzygium papyraceum

This is one rainforest tree that can be unmistakably recognised by its bark.  The bright red/orange papery bark stands out like a glowing beacon in the surrounding greens of the forest.  The flakes of bark are thin, soft and translucent.

The tree grows to a height of 20 to 30 metres and often has buttresses.  The small, filamentous flowers are out of sight, high in the canopy but their faint citron scent wafts in the air.  The fleshy fruits when they drop to the ground from December to February, are readily identifiable.

These are purple, round to obovoid in shape, and about 30 mm long, holding one seed.    Cassowaries, Bush Rats, White-tailed Rats and Musky Rat Kangaroos eat the fruit.

Leaves are glossy dark green obovate, 60 to 130 mm long.

These beautiful trees can be seen along the walking tracks in Paluma and particularly along the Andre Griffin track you will see several at close hand.

Text and photos by Colwyn Campbell

What’s Flowering in Paluma? Iris tectorum

What’s Flowering at Paluma in July?  Roof Iris (Iris tectorum)

This species of clumping iris is known as Iris tectorum. It is a perennial plant native to China and Burma. It is called the Roof Iris because in Japan it is grown on the ridges of the roofs of thatched houses. The plants grow from a thick rhizome which forms spreading clumps. These plants thrive in Paluma as they prefer dry and cold winters, with warm and wet summers. The plants prefer partial shade as opposed to full sun. The remarkable flowers range in colour from lavender-blue to bluish-violet shades.

The leaves are light-green in colour and sword-shaped. The flowers attract bees and other insects which are important for pollination. Iris plants flower between June and August and after flowering they produce an ellipsoid seed capsule with black-brown seeds.

As you walk through the village of Paluma during the winter months, keep an eye out for some spectacular iris flowers, especially in the gardens along Mount Spec Road.

Text and photos by Michele Bird