The village of Paluma remains isolated with the Range Road still closed following the unprecedented rainfall . Locals report today that there are numerous landslides and trees blocking the Range Road and it appears it may be some time before the road will open. Paluma continues to receive astounding rainfall totals.
Don Battersby has been recording rainfall at his place on Hussey Road and has logged the following readings:-
Rainfall overnight (4-5 February 2019) was 344 mm.
Rainfall between 1 to 5 February 2019 is 1294 mm.
Rainfall total for January 2019 is 1206 mm.
Jennie Robinson from the Rainforest Inn reports that there are currently about 23 people in the village and surrounds. Everyone seems to be doing well. The community spirit is certainly alive and well. Yesterday (4 February) was Neil Appleton’s birthday and everyone gathered together at ‘Cloud Cottage’ to celebrate with afternoon tea. Happy Birthday Neil!
The Chowchilla (Orthonyx spaldingii) is one of my favourite birds inhabiting the upland rainforest in the Paluma area. It is not a particularly large bird, nor does it have striking plumage. It does not build an elaborate bower like the numerous local bowerbirds and it does not have the impressive dance moves of the riflebird.
BUT, the Chowchilla has a loud and unmistakeable call that echoes throughout the forest, usually at dawn and dusk. Any bird with a call like the Chowchilla demands your attention and admiration. Scientists report that their complex vocalisations vary quite markedly from place to place and there are identifiable local dialects. Imagine that – a unique Paluma Chowchilla language!
Chowchillas are also known as ‘logrunners’. They are ground dwelling birds, living and foraging in small family groups of between 3 to 8 birds. Each flock has their own permanent territory. Chowchillas spend most of their time foraging for invertebrates on the forest floor. They have strong legs for scratching in the leaf litter and their tail is used to support their body whilst they vigorously throw leaf litter aside.
Chowchillas are common in and around the village of Paluma. I see them regularly (or at least flashing glimpses of them) in the forest adjacent to the walking track to McClellands Lookout and along Lennox Crescent. They are regular visitors to the forest margins in my back garden.
I find them absolutely endearing for their elaborate songs and their lively and gregarious nature. When foraging as a family group they happily chatter away, enthusiastically intent on their search for food. They are oblivious that they are excavating precious garden beds and pot plants.
But, I have to admit that Chowchillas are the cause of considerable consternation and ongoing frustration for me!
For about two and a half years I have been trying to ‘capture’ a half decent photograph of a Chowchilla. Dozens and dozens of attempts and not one decent photograph!. Blurry, dark and unfocused images of Chowchillas are my speciality!
If I manage to find a bird within photographic range, it will rarely sit still for more than a split second and will surely move just at that moment when I press the shutter. Because the birds inhabit the forest floor, the light is usually poor and it is hard to see the bird clearly, let alone focus the camera.
I am well aware my frustration is shared by many fellow birdwatchers and photographers. ‘Photographing a Chowchilla’ is high on the wish list of many bird enthusiasts who visit Paluma, but it seems not many people actually achieve their goal.
So, after two and a half (long) years, this is my best effort at a Chowchilla photograph. Blurry, too dark, not centred and the bird is obscured by vegetation. And I am sure that Chowchilla is grinning at me, just before it darts back into the cover of the rainforest foliage. I’ll keep trying……….!
Please let me know if you have had better success in capturing images of these beautiful, but very elusive birds in and around the Paluma area!
Elaeocarpus grandis, synonymous with Elaeocarpus angustifolius
Most of you will be familiar with the Quandong’s moss-covered buttressed roots projecting out from the forest onto the edges of walking tracks. Many of these magnificent trees may be seen in the Paluma rainforest with some especially good specimens along the Witt’s Lookout track. The Quandong, a tree emblematic of tropical rainforest is also known as Blue Quandong, Silver Quandong, Blueberry Ash and Blueberry Fig.
A pioneering tree, the Quandong can grow to five or six metres high in just a few years, eventually reaching a height of up to 35 metres. A strong identifying feature are the buttresses with vertically flat, visible roots, so large in some instances that they are capable of sheltering a cassowary. Moss usually covers the trunk and roots so it is difficult to readily see the nature of the bark, but the cut timber is hard and white and highly regarded as a cabinet timber.
Flowering occurs between October and March, the softly fragranced flowers, growing in racemes from axils or on branches are usually high in the tree and difficult to see. They can be green, white or cream with tiny petals about 5 mm long.
Fruiting can occur at any month. You can sometimes find the blue to purple fruit lying among the fallen leaves on the rainforest tracks. Their colour is often enhanced with a metallic sheen. The fruit is a drupe (fleshy with one or more seeds inside) and can be anything from the size of a small grape to that of a golf ball. The fruit is edible and has a higher Vitamin C content than oranges. It is best eaten when slightly over-ripe or it can taste bitter. It can be used in jams or pickles. Many bird species eat the fruit which is also eaten by Bush Rats, Spectacled Flying Foxes and Musky Rat Kangaroos.
The leaves of the Quandong are glossy and about 80 to 150 mm long. As it ages the leaf turns a bright red before dropping. Many can be seen at any time along the walking tracks.
The Quandong was highly valued by rainforest Aboriginal people. The fruit was recognised for its medicinal properties and as a food source. They would also make an edible paste from the ripe fruit. Shields were made from the large buttress roots.
Look for these spectacular trees next time you take a walk along one of the rainforest tracks.
On New Year’s morning, there were a few million animals hanging out together on a decaying log on the forest floor on ‘H Track’, doing their thing. This is a Slime Mould, and most likely to be Physarum polycephalum, the Many Headed Slime Mould, and some of the things they do are quite funky.
Slime moulds are thought to be approximately 600 million years old, although some think they could be as old as a billion. They arrived on land as soon as there was land, making them hundreds of millions of years older than other animals or plants. So, okay, they have been around for a long time, but what are they?
Slime moulds are Protists, or single celled organisms, which like moist, humid, dark environments, such as the rainforest floor. They favour rotting and decaying vegetation, where they feed on micro-organisms, including fungi, algae and bacteria. A single slime mould cell, in favourable conditions exists as an Amoeba, basically a nucleous surrounded by cell fluid, contained within a membrane. Amoeba travel by moving this fluid within the flexible cell membrane in a process known as cytoplasmic streaming, which is handy when you need to hunt down your prey, before engulfing it with your body. But what about when food is scarce, and too difficult to find when you’re a microscopic bag of fluid?
Slime moulds form a plasmodium, which is the part of the life cycle shown in the photo. Huge numbers of single celled amoebae find each other in the environment using chemical signals, and join together, losing individual cell membranes to form a complex organism. This organism is also able to move to search for food, which it surrounds, before secreting enzymes to digest it. This is also the primary reproductive stage for slime moulds; if food runs out, conditions become too dry or receive too much light, the plasmodium begins to make spores. This is the stage the photographs show, with the bumpy bits (the many heads of our slime mould) containing the spores.
The spores are able to survive unfavourable environmental conditions for long periods of time. When conditions improve, the spores rupture, producing a single cell amoeba. However, if things get too wet, this amoeba is able to rapidly transform into a flagellated organism (a flagellum is a long, whip-like structure which helps the animal move in water, similar to swimming). This shape is also reversible when conditions are not quite so wet, and being an amoeba is more convenient.
But you don’t get to be nearly a billion years old without having a few more tricks up your sleeve. If life becomes uncomfortable at the plasmodium stage, the organism can become dormant, and it can survive like this for many years. Amoeba can also transform into cysts to survive when conditions are unfavourable. It’s kind of like being able to go into suspended animation whenever it’s too hot, too dry or too bright. Amoeba can also fuse with other single amoeba to form a reproductive organism, or a single amoeba can reproduce by just splitting. Plasmodia can also fragment or enter another dormant phase called a spherule which can survive indefinitely. So, Slime Moulds have lots of options, including shape shifting, mind (and body) melding and suspended animation to enable them to survive in this unpredictable and changeable world. And that’s why they’ve been around so long!
These amazing creatures have fascinated scientists, and provided many opportunities for research. They are easy to culture in laboratories, and provide a model organism to study amoeboid movement, cell motility, and other anatomical and physiological processes. The real surprise however is that slime moulds also provide opportunity for behavioural research. They have been observed finding food in mazes and forming networks between food sources to provide efficient nutrient transport that rivals our own transport design systems. These adaptable and resilient organisms will probably be around for the next billion years!
It is with great sadness that the PDCA Executive Committee posts the following notice as received from James Jackson today (21 January 2019).
RE: The Passing of John Tubman
As most would know, John has been fighting an aggressive form of cancer for over two years. He was admitted to TGH early last week (14th) with complications arising from the condition and despite intense treatment and care failed to recover.
John passed away about 11.00 am on Friday 18th with family by his side. It will take quite some time for Junita and John’s siblings and family to reach acceptance of his passing, but all have been buoyed by, and are very grateful for the kind words, thoughts and condolences offered from many of John’s friends and colleagues.
A service for John will be held at Morley’s Funeral Home commencing at 1.00pm this Friday January 25th.Notice to appear in Townsville Bulletin on Wednesday 23rd.
On behalf of Junita and John’s Family, I would like to convey their appreciation for your kind messages and thoughts of sympathy.
Anyone visiting the Village Green in recent days will have noticed the amazing fungi that has sprung from the ground in the wood-chip mulch at the Trees In Memory. This fungi is commonly known as ‘Stinkhorn Fungi’ – distinctive for both its foul odour and phallic shape when mature.
Stinkhorn fungi are widespread throughout Europe and North America having been introduced into Australia. My research would suggest the specimens at the Village Green are the species Phallus impudicus. Stinkhorns occur in moist habitats rich in wood debris, such as the forest floor and gardens. This would explain why they are growing so happily in the wood chips at the Village Green.
The fungi emerges from an egg-shaped fruiting body in the ground. The fruiting structure (stalk) grows tall, up to 25cm, and it is white with a slimy white to brownish conical head. The head tends to darken in colour as the fungi matures. The head exudes a gelatinous slime which contains the spores. Insects such as flies are attracted by the foul smell of this spore-laden slime. Unlike many other fungi, the spores of stinkhorns are not distributed in the air, but by their insect visitors.
Make a point of visiting the Village Green in the near future to check out these amazing fungi. They may not last long, so don’t miss out on these fascinating and very smelly phallic fungi!
One of Paluma’s most popular and well-loved residents, Don Battersby will celebrate his 69th birthday this week. To mark the occasion, Colwyn Campbell hosted a birthday party for Don on Saturday night (19th January) at her residence. The house and verandas were bursting at the seams with the event well-attended by many of Don’s long-time friends and his Paluma family. As usual, there was food aplenty with an array of Indian-inspired dishes and other cuisine, as well as a tropical passionfruit birthday cake. There was good food, great company, many laughs and the usual warm community spirit that exists uniquely in our village of Paluma.
Happy Birthday Don from all your friends and family at Paluma!
Walkers on the short ‘Paluma Rainforest Walk’ opposite the Community Hall last week came across a legless Paluma resident slowly heading home after a large Christmas feast in the village.
When this sizeable amethystine python (Morelia amethistina, aka scrub python) was first noticed the Saturday before Christmas not far from the start of the walking track (off Mount Spec Road) it had already finished Christmas dinner. By the size and shape of the bulge in its belly it seems most likely the festive feed was an unwary scrub turkey (Alectura lathami). It wasn’t until well after Christmas on the Thursday that the 3 metre-plus serpent slithered down the slope and stopped for a breather just beside the track.
The amethystine python is one of the six largest snakes in the world, as measured either by length or weight, and is the largest native snake in Australia and Papua New Guinea. It can be found throughout Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Australia. The largest known recorded specimen was 8.5 metres in length. The scrub python is non-venomous, but comes with with an awesome set of fangs and very quick reflexes.
It’s not unusual to find a scrub python stretched out across the road in and around the village of Paluma, enjoying the warmth of the bitumen and other times just on its way somewhere at its own slow pace. So motorists please take care!. If you can’t drive around, pull up and have a good look at one of the jungle’s most outstanding creatures while it crosses the road.
The Paluma & District Community Association (PDCA) Executive Committee would like to wish all Members and Paluma residents (past and present) a very happy, safe and enjoyable festive season.
We look forward to working with you in 2019 for the benefit of our special village in the mist at Paluma.
Warm Regards from Jamie Oliver, Wilfred Karnoll, Colwyn Campbell, Lynn Hyland, Michele Bird and Juanita Poletto.
