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NATRAShield Mould Treatment Available

The Townsville City Council has delivered NATRAShield mould cleaner as promised. It appears to be a plant based product without the nasty chemicals present in earlier cleaners. This Saturday Peter Cooke and Lynda Radbone will be at the SES from 9am – 12pm, and this Sunday (9th) I’ll be at the Emergency Services depot between 9am & 12am to hand it out to anyone who is interested. Bring a 2L bottle. After that contact Peter Cook for any extra.

For Blackfriars contact Rhett or Kristy Harrison. For Hidden Valley see Tracy Armstrong.

Charlie Allen

Mt Spec SES

Paluma Bird of the Month, February 2025 – White -headed Pigeon

Pigeons are among the most broadly distributed and widely recognised bird groups. All pigeons belong to the family Columbidae, which has 42 genera and 316 species. Although the number of species of pigeon that can be found around Paluma is not particularly large (about 8 rainforest species in and around the village) we host some of the most striking and colourful species to be found in Australia. The white-headed pigeon (Columba leucomela) belongs to the former group, having a striking black and white plumage with just a dash of colour around the eyes and bill.

In Paluma it can be seen flying overhead in small groups, and foraging in the canopy of Bollygum (Neolitsea) and other local fruiting trees. It is found from Cooktown to Eden in NSW predominantly in rainforests and gallery forests along creeks and gullies. While not uncommon, it tends to feed quietly in the mid to upper canopy so it is not easily spotted along the village tracks.

Although it is not threatened if was previously a preferred target for hunters, which depressed populations along much of its range.

Photo by  J. Boettcher, FNQ Nature Tours [Peterson Creek, Yunguburra, QLD, March 2022]

The White-headed Pigeon is the only native member of genus Columba in Australia. The only other member in Australia is the ubiquitous and frequently maligned Rock Dove or Feral Pigeon (Columba livia) which occurs worldwide in areas of human habitation.

Photo by (c) lrathbone – some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Pigeons are monogamous with both parents helping to raise their young. There are almost exclusively seed eaters (granivores) or fruit eaters (frugivores). When feeding their young, many other vegetarian bird species switch to energy and protein rich insects to promote rapid nestling growth. Pigeons, however, feed their young on a highly nutritious “crop milk”, which is a secretion from the lining of the crop (a muscular pouch near the throat of many birds). This useful trait is analogous to lactation in mammals.

Crop milk (often called Pigeon milk) is produced only by pigeons, although flamingoes and penguins also feed their young from secretions from different parts of the gut.

The extinct Dodo and Solitaire (Genus Raphus) are also formally included in the pigeon family (Columbidae).

Australia Post published a series of 4 pigeon stamps in 2021. Three of these are to be found in Paluma, including the White-headed pigeon.

Text by Jamie Oliver, photos as indicated

Paluma in the Rain – by the numbers

It wasn’t just the rain that came down heavily earlier this month, several local records were also knocked off their pedestals. Thanks to the heroic efforts of Peter Cooke, who braved the downpour several times during some nights in order to empty the rapidly filling rain gauge before it overflowed, we have a very good record of how much actually came down during the worst of the rains. Here’s the raw data for the month of February up til the 19th.

Here’s how many records we set …

  • On February 2nd we toppled the record for highest daily rainfall since records began in 1969, only to beat it again the next day with a total of 745mm.
  • By February 4th we exceeded the highest rainfall ever recorded in February
  • By February 7th we exceeded the highest recorded rainfall for any month in Paluma

While I haven’t checked if this is a new record, during the first 12 days of February we got more rain than we get during an average year in Paluma.

The heaviest period of rain lasted 4 days (Feb 1-4). Our total for this period 2004.7 mm) exceeded those in Cardwell and Ingham by a good margin.

If we are thinking that this event broke any national records then we would probably be wrong. During the rain from ex-cyclone Jasper in December 2023, Cape Tribulation recorded a maximum daily rainfall of 861.2mm and it did not receive the heaviest falls – this happened around Helensvale/Mungumby south of Cooktown, but there are no official BOM records for this location and time. Unofficial records suggest that 12-hour falls of more than 1m occurred and that 24-hour falls probably reached or exceeded 1.5m. These falls, had they been officially recorded may well have challenged global records for short-term rain events. Still, it is safe to say that we have burnished Paluma’s reputation as one of the wettest places in Australia. But don’t forget that compared to the top of Bellenden Ker, with a highest monthly and annual rain of 5.37 m and 12.46m respectively, we are barely even wet! And this is dwarfed by Mawsynram in India whose average is 11.87 m and highest annual rainfall, in 1985, was 26 meters !!