Last Saturday, Sept 2nd, three keen workers joined Wilfred and did a lot of hard work cutting back the vegetation at Star Valley lookout to ensure it wasn’t getting too overgrown. Visitors (and locals) can now enjoy the view over the ranges. When was the last time you stopped for a look out over Star Valley?
Our community working bees are usually held on the first Saturday of the month.
Text: Wilfred Karnoll and Juanita Poletto. Image: Wilfred Karnoll
You are invited to attend a public meeting on Saturday the 30th September at 10:00 am at the Paluma Community Centre.
The meeting is being held to discuss the setting of the Fire Levy for 2024.
Come along for chat and also find out what the brigade is up to over a cuppa and piece of cake.
If there are any queries in the lead up to the meeting, please contact:
Sonya Bryce – Treasurer/Secretary of Paluma Rural Fire Brigade on email: sonyab360@gmail.com
Welcome Spring in Paluma by participating in our monthly working bee organised by Wilfred Karnoll. Meet at the Rotunda next to the Community Hall at 2PM and he will let you know what the plans for the afternoon are. Contact Wilfred if you wish to know what you may need to bring along, eg: gardening equipment.
Last Sunday, on August 20th was our first Community Meeting with Cr Margie Ryder for this year. It was very productive with some rigorous discussion around several issues. There was also an earlier briefing with Nick Dametto, our Hinchinbrook electorate representative in Qld Parliament, regarding the village entrance signage. The issues raised at the community meeting included:
Participation in this meeting by local residents was most appreciated and we are grateful for having a local councillor who is willing to drive up our range road regardless of feeling quite unwell let alone having to manage car sickness with doses of ginger. Appreciation also for Nick Dametto meeting with Margie and the PDCA president at 9am to discuss improving the Paluma Village entry signage. Nick is one ‘ever-ready bunny’ and doesn’t suffer car sickness as he truly enjoyed his motorbike ride up the range road to meet with us.
Margie has noted the tropical BBQ on December 9th in her calendar and our next community meeting will be around this time, if not earlier.
Text: Juanita Poletto. Images: Juanita Poletto unless otherwise noted
On Sunday, August 20th at 10 am the PDCA is hosting a community meeting with our Townsville City Council representative, Margie Ryder. This will provide an opportunity for Margie to report on what the Council has been doing and to listen to any concerns that Paluma residents may have relating to council facilities and initiatives. Items that we will be inviting Margie to comment on include:
The meeting is open to all Paluma Residents. Please come along to have your say.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, the owners of Misthaven Units are desperately seeking a cleaner for the next 8 weeks. If you or anyone you know are interested, please contact Renae Ross at the Markwell Group on 4774 7300 or email: Accounts@markwellgroup.com.au
There were a lot of winners at our recent “Game On!” night at the community hall enjoyed by a rowdy crowd of enthusiastic participants, not least, our SES and RFS groups.
Sam Steadman of Outer Limits Adventure Fitness at the start of the evening, presented $2, 323 cheques to EACH of our local SES and RFS (Paluma and Waterfall Creek) branches in recognition of their support of the recent Mike Carney Paluma Push event. In his speech, Sam said he was happy to give back to our community that provides such a fabulous location and support for this annual event. Having this kind of event that promotes our location nationwide as one to enjoy healthy outdoor activities in a beautiful environment and which helps to grow our essential services at the same time, is definitely a winner!
The games were officially opened by Peter Klump (who seemed to be channeling Bjorn Borg) as names were drawn out of the “boy and girl buckets” to find out who our games partner was going to be. He gave us a rundown on rules and a rousing pep talk and then we were off to our first 15 minute round of foozball, table tennis, indoor bowls, darts, knock-em-downs or hole-in-one golf. It was a lot of fun, a lot of laughs and a great event that encouraged locals to mix it up and get to know each other a little better.
Scoring was monitored to ensure all was fair by Les as recorded by Peter. After some heated and very close competition and triple checking of scores, the champion pair of the night was announced. Mark Crisp and Julia Anderson very happily received their gold trophy and chocolates as their just reward as champions of Game On! for 2023. Great sporting spirit was shown throughout the games including the young accomplished golfer, Kian, who coached his opponents on form to help achieve their hole in one.
Not to be forgotten, our wonderful volunteers including Lyn Hyland who capably organised the sausage sizzle enjoyed prior to the games whilst Lynda Radbone once again had the bar in hand with the delicious addition of spiced mulled wine. The many helping hands on the night cleaning up was appreciated in addition to Wilfred, Colin and Jill Mead as well as Peter and John Klump who were seen by this author in the clean up the day after.
We are lucky to have Peter and Dorothy Klump who have successfully organised this community event for the past three years and we are all very much looking forward to the 2024 games!
Text and Photos by Juanita Poletto
Meet at the Rotunda next to the Community Hall at 2PM where Wilfred will let us know what the plans for the afternoon are.
Although Cassowaries have been seen very occasionally by many of us on the roads and tracks near the village, the only one we can be guaranteed to see in Paluma is the barbed-wire sculpture of “Wary the Cassowary” in front of Wilfred Karnoll’s house. Cassowaries are an iconic and charismatic resident of the Wet Tropics, but due to multiple human-related threats, they are listed as endangered. As many of us can attest Cassowaries are not easy to spot, even when there are nearby, and getting information on population numbers in different areas is very difficult. A new project to fill in this gap has recently commenced and the researchers are looking for volunteers to assist them in their work, or to provide any additional local knowledge that could help their assessments. This project is being conducted in conjunction with BirdlifeAustralia’s “Birds with Altitude” program, that is monitoring a range of Endangered and Vulnerable species in the Wet Tropics.
If you would like to volunteer for these projects, or would like to learn more about the issues they are addressing, please come along to the Launch event at the Paluma Community Hall on August 25th. There will be a catered dinner (donations accepted to defray costs) at 6pm and presentations at 7pm and organising volunteer teams at 8pm. For catering purposes please register if you intend to come to the dinner and think you want to volunteer. Any residents just wanting to learn more are welcome come to the presentations. Surveys and training for both the Cassowary and Birds with Altitude citizen science programs will then be held over the 26th and 27th.
To register follow this LINK. Further information below:
Join with researchers, locals, BirdLife Townsville & BirdLife North Queensland and bushwalking clubs to help contribute to our knowledge of Cassowaries at the southern extent of their global distribution and high altitude birds vulnerable to climate change in Paluma Range National Park.RSVP
25 Aug, 1:00 pm AEST – 28 Aug, 10:00 am AEST
Lake Paluma – Magar Yamba Group Area, Lake Paluma, Crystal Creek QLD 4816, Australia
Paluma Range Citizen Science Program Launch & Birds With Altitude Camp Out
25 – 28 August 2023
Join with researchers, locals, BirdLife Townsville and BirdLife North Queensland and bushwalking clubs to help contribute to our knowledge of Cassowaries at the southern extent of their global distribution and high altitude birds vulnerable to climate change in Paluma Range National Park.
The only targeted surveys for cassowaries on the Paluma Range were for the faecal DNA wet tropics populaton analysis (Westcott et al 2014). No scats, signs or sightings were recorded during that study however, the extrapolated population estimate for the area was 16 adult birds. The Paluma Range however contains 22,050 ha of potential habitat and birds are sighted here semi-frequently. So let’s track them down to add to our body of knowledge about the distribution, abundance, habitat condition and threats to Cassowaries here. Please download the Birdata App on your phone.
Camping @ Lake Paluma – Magar Yamba group camping area or self-arranged B&B accommodation at Paluma Village.
Friday evening welcome, presentation and dinner @ Paluma Community Centre, 65 Mount Spec Road, Paluma.
Friday, 25 August
1:00 pm campsite open @ Paluma Community Centre – Nywaigi Welcome to Country.
6:00 pm catered dinner.
7:00 pm presentations on Cassowary and Birds with Altitude programs. Organise survey teams and locations.
Saturday, 26 August
AM survey designated routes.
PM review camera trap data. Self-catered.
Sunday, 27 August
AM survey designated routes.
PM review findings & camera trap data. Sunday night camping optional. Self-catered.
Monday, 28 August
AM survey optional.
Checkout by 10:00 am.
Funded by a Qld Government CSA – Threatened Species Grant and Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens. Supported by BirdLife Townsville, BirdLife Australia, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, NQ Dry Tropics NRM and Girringun Aboriginal Corporation and thank you to the Paluma Community Centre for gifting in-kind support of the community centre for the Friday evening.Read moreRSVP
The dust ( or rather mud) has well and truly settled for those who recently participated in the Mike Carney Toyota Paluma Push on the weekend of July 15th and 16th. Muscles have recovered and the joy of crossing the finish line is a fond memory along with many formed around the warmth of the bonfire at the Hidden Valley Cricket Oval.
Paluma village was inundated with rubber, spokes and lycra but mostly smiles and laughter as people prepared for the start of their race. The beauty of the rainforest trails and bush land makes for a truly unique cross country mountain bike race which even had some of our local residents registered as participants including Rob, Sandi and Jamie. All of whom finished their designated distances hale and hearty!
The RFS and SES volunteers plus a few ‘local’ volunteers assisted with registration and monitoring various checkpoints along the routes and were able to enjoy viewing and encouraging the participants going hell for leather along the trails.
Seeing the youngsters set on doing their best in their very own race is possibly my fondest memory of Paluma Push 2023.
Paluma Push is such a great event for our village and a credit to Outer Limits Adventure for again bringing life to our sleepy little misty village on the mountain.
Text and photos (except where indicated) by Juanita Poletto