The Paluma Environmental Education Centre has an employment opportunity for a Permanent, Full-time Unit Support Officer to commence on 15 January 2024.
This month’s working be will be on November 4th. Meet up at 2 pm at the Community Centre, where we will start preparing the hall for a big paint job by washing down the walls and ceilings in the toilets and training room. If we have spare manpower we will do some vegetation clearing along the main street near the Rainforest Inn.
On Saturday 28th Outer Limits is hosting the very first Paluma Ultra, 52km trail run. Runners will tackle a challenge course from Paluma, past the DCK, over Mt Spec, down Benham’s track, past Forgotten Falls and back to Paluma.
They will quietly run out of Gumburu at 6am and finish at the village green between 12pm and 5pm. Everyone is welcome to come down to the village green to see them finish.
Sunday is the 11th Annual Paluma trail run. 6km, 10km and 20km course. We have 300 runners entered. This course takes in all the trails around the village as well as Blue Gum and Ethal Creek.
The PDCA is hosting the BBQ at the Village Green.
If anyone would like to volunteer we still need a few course marshals to direct runners at a few tricky junctions around the village.
If you own a QFES Dynamo torch please read the notice below. These torches have been distributed by both the Rural Fire Service and SES in Paluma in the past.
Around ten Paluma residents showed up last Saturday armed with shovels, rakes, wheelbarrows and enthusiasm to shift the large pile of mulch provdied by the Townsville City Council (facilitated by our local Councilor Margie Ryder). Despite the daunting size of the mulch pile it was all shifted onto the garden beds around the Community Hall, and under the “Trees in Memory” grove in just over an hour. Unfortunately we were all to focussed on our work to take any picures.
It is amazing how much work has been accomplished this year during our working bees and how positive the response for volunteers has been. This initiative, and its results are something we should all be proud of. Many thanks to Wilfred, who has been the driving force behind the working bees.
With no other activities planned, we convened on the village green with beers in hand and discussed an idea establish and disc golf. Ian and Julia Anderson brought out some discs and a possible short course was sketched out that they hope to take to Council in the near future.
Paluma’s annual garden competion will occur this Wednesday, October 11th. As ususal the Judges from Bunnings will be escorted around the gardens by a member of the PDCA. Any residents who do not want to participate this year, and who have not already notified us, please email or ring Jamie Oliver or Lynn Hyland.
The Paluma RFS brigade will have their second-hand book stall at the market this coming Sunday. We need to refresh our stock of second-hand books, especially good novels, fiction and non-fiction. We should be home all week so feel free to drop them at our place opposite the hall.
The NRL Grand final with the Brisbane Broncos vs the Penrith Panthers is on next Sunday (Oct 1st). If you will be up in Paluma and want to watch the game live on the big TV in the Paluma Community Hall then come along.
The Bar will be open from 5:30 pm til 8:30 pm. The game starts at 6:30 pm.
Our next Community Market is just over a week away. There will be a range of locally produced ornamental and edible items available for purchase as well as our sausage sizzle and cold drinks. If you forget to bring cash Wilfred of one of the PDCA executive will be able to take your credit card and provide small amounts of cash uisng our eftpos machine.
This is also a call-out for Paluma’s amazing cooks to donate some baked goods to sell for community (PDCA) fund raising.
If you are interested in doing some baking and donating your goods for sale at the Easter Market then please read on…..
Here’s what to do:-
Please divide your baked goods into small batches for sale. We suggest batches of 2, 4 or 6 individual pieces as this has worked well at previous markets.
Please plate the goods (in batches) and secure with glad wrap or suitable packaging. (We have previously used paper plates and glad wrap and this works well).
Please add a sticker or other suitable label outlining the contents of your baked goods. You will need to add this label to EVERY individual batch of goods. This is required for health & safety reasons.
Please add a price sticker to your goods, with what you think is a fair and reasonable price for your baked delights.
Please deliver your goods to the Community Hall on Sunday morning at 8.30 AM (for a 9 am market start).
If you have any questions or need any further information, please contact Lynn Hyland by phone or email:- leshyland@icloud.com
Trisha was born Patty McGahan on May 26th 1947 in GawlaSA. She was estranged from her father at a very early age and was raised in her Mum’s family clan Ramsay around Naracoorte and Kingstone in southeast SA. After leaving school Trish became a Medical Receptionist/Typist working in Doctor’s surgeries in Adelaide and sharing an apartment with two friends who she kept in touch with throughout her life.
Trisha was married at twenty-one and they spent the next seventeen years moving regularly. From Adelaide to Peterborough and on to Ballarat. Their two boys were born in that time. Trish owned and operated a Fashion Studio, a Photographic Studio and an Antique Store some of these at the same time. She was heavily pregnant when an errant antique wardrobe fell off a truck and pinned her to the ground. In true Trisha fashion she got up, dusted herself off and finished unloading the truck.
From Ballarat the family moved into Queensland buying a property at Laidley. From there on to Emerald and then Innisfail.
Trish arrived in Townsville in 1985 and was employed as an Admin Officer/PA at the same company as James where they met. Trish moved on and was employed by Commonwealth Pathology Laboratory where she met Doc (Ron) and Sue Rimmington. When Doc discovered that Trish and James spent most weekends camping around Paluma and PalumaDam he offered the Rimmington house at any time it was not being used.
Trish and James were married in 1989 when they both resigned from their respective positions and embarked on a shared but personal journey of self-discovery. With that out of the way and a stint at running a pub under their belt they moved to Paluma permanently, living in the Tubman/Jackson Family house that had been built of the site of the old Willowdean cottage. Trish worked around the village in different part time and full-time positions that her knowledge, experience and flexibility allowed. Her last trick before leaving Paluma was a multiple resignation and return from and to PEEC. I can remember Baz saying, ‘no more retirement cards for you’ They had a beautiful working relationship.
The Paluma community was very welcoming, and Trish made many ‘forever’ friends that she loved and kept in contact with. Cooking had always been a passion, no doubt inherited fromher Mum. Cooking for kids at the two Centers were some of the happiest times. Trish contributed to the community she loved, she worked hard for the Community Association, Mount Spec State Emergency Service and Paluma Rural Fire Brigade, earning a Australian National Service Medal and a QFES Diligent and Ethical Service Medal. She was humbled by the awards and would say ‘all I ever did was make the sandwiches. Mind you when you’ve been on the fire ground for six hours ad someone turns up with a sanga and a cold can of coke you’d bloody well give them a VC.
Trish and James moved on from Paluma after twenty-five or so years to build a retirement home and lifestyle at the foot of the Cardwell Range near Ingham. The family house changed hands and Tracy put the finishing touches to it that we had never gotten around to. (Looks fabulous Trace).
The owner-built house in Bemerside was completed in 2019 and by 2022 Trish had started her Hoogle Culture beds off with their first seedlings when she received the diagnosis. Trish and James left immediately for the Gold Coast where a specialist team (not available in North Queensland) began treatment. Unfortunately, a combination of factors including the fact that there is no early diagnosis currently available for Ovarian Cancer, hence most are not diagnosed until stage three or four, there are very few unusual or noteworthy symptoms and treatment options are very limited when compared with more common cancers. Trish passed away at home in Bemerside after a year of intense treatment, but she was wrapped in a cocoon of love by family, friends and even Doctors for that whole period. Trish was pretty easy to love.