Here at #56 we don’t seem to see as many moths as we used to. Do other folk have the same experience? With that background, it was a great pleasure to be visited for the first time by Milionia queenslandica, a medium-sized (approx 55mm) spectacular moth of the Family Geometridae; Subfamily Ennominae.
This group of day-flying moths is also found in New Guinea, but the Australian subspecies are not as strongly day-flying as their PNG cousins. The larvae feed on conifers. They are confined to rainforest and may be found from Cooktown to Mackay. Ours came to light at night and flew fast and furious in tight circles, giving flashes of the vivid colours before finally settling.
Look forward to another visit from this charmer….Description from A Guide to Australian Moths by Zborowski and Edwards).
The 1st of September 2026 is the official start of the Paluma & District Photo Exhibition 2026. Time to start uploading those photos you’ve been taking or digging up.
Image courtesy of Nano Banana
Just a reiteration of the photo exhibition ‘boundaries’ for participation.
Photos are to be taken in / or be from roughly, the area covering Bluewater to Jourama, and Mutarnee to Zig Zag (ie. Paluma & District).
Photos submitted can be of any age.
Entry of photos and voting is open to residents and their family and friends as well as former residents only.
The photo entrant must be either the copyright holder or be entering on behalf of the copyright holder whose name is entered for exhibition purposes.
Photos submitted should be of interest to the community.
All uploaded photos should conform to social norms as they are applied to most social media platforms. If an image would be banned from Facebook or Instagram it will be removed from the upload site.
We’d love to read some commentary about your photo as well if you’re keen to share, which can be done at the same time as uploading a photo. Note the photo upload period will close at midnight on 25th October 2026.
To upload a photo, comment on a photo, or vote for a photo, you will need to register once using your name and email address. Voting on the uploaded photos will commence on the 26th October 2026 and finish at midnight on 15th November 2026. When voting, you can assign 1-4 stars for each photo uploaded. The photo gallery is now open for commenting on any photo.
Should you have any questions about the photo exhibition, you can email Sonya Bryce on sonyab360@gmail.com.
For technical issues on the website functionality you can email or message Jamie on jamieo53@hotmail.com (0408 710 030)
Our next working bee will be held on Saturday, September 5th at 2pm at the Community Hall. If you have any tasks that you want done let Wilfred know on 0447 822 626.
Our next Friday night social drinks will be held on 4th September at 6pm. The bar will be open. Bring nibbles, catch up with your neighbours, play darts or just chill out…
Got a burning desire to show your mates an amazing photo that you took? Like an excuse to run off and take a bunch more photos? Do you simply enjoy a good social outing sharing a story with others over a photo or two? Then this event is for you!
I’m sure you’ll agree that we regularly travel in and out of our misty mountain climes, tall majestic forests, stunning woodlands and pristine coastal lowlands, not always having or making as much time as we’d like to truly stop and appreciate the amazing diversity, beauty and unique people of the region that we live in.
In the name of celebrating ourselves and where we live…………and to have some fun, a photo exhibition is to be held in September and October of this year with prizes awarded to the most popular photos voted by you, the community!
With no particular photo categories that need to be addressed as part of this exhibition, the subject matter of the photos to be submitted by you is…………completely up to you, but should be of interest to the community.
Whilst we aren’t particularly big on a lot of rules in this part of the world, a few loose ‘boundaries’ regarding entry and participation in the exhibition are as follows.
Photos are to be taken in / or be from roughly the area covering Bluewater to Jourama, and Mutarnee to Zig Zag (i.e. Paluma & District)
Photos submitted can be of any age.
Entry of photos and voting is open to residents and their family and friends, as well as former residents only.
The photo entrant must be either the copyright holder or be entering on behalf of the copyright holder whose name is entered for exhibition purposes.
No AI-generated images please.
All uploaded photos should conform to social norms as they are applied to most social media platforms. If an image would be banned from Facebook or Instagram it will be removed from the upload site.”
Photos are to be uploaded by you to a specific gallery page on paluma.org where they will be available for viewing, voting on and for making comments. A free scanning service will be available for those who are unable to digitise a hard copy photo for submission.
The most popular voted photos will have their entry printed, framed and hung in the Paluma & District community hall for a 12month period, where the winners will gain the people’s ovation and fame, before the print is given to the owner.
And last but not least, we have a couple of gripping socials lined up to celebrate the skill of our participants and to announce the winners of the exhibition.
Stay tuned for more details about the photo exhibition, which will start on 1st September 2026 and see you all snapping out there…………..
The date for the next PDCA Executive Committee Meeting has been brought forward to August 15th at 3.00pm at the Community Hall. The meeting is open to all Paluma and District residents, although voting will be restricted to Committee Members only.
Our next working bee will be held on Saturday, August 8th at 2pm at the Community Hall. Bring a wheel barrow and shovel if you have one, to shift the remaining mulch into the garden and under the Trees of Memory.
Our next Friday night social drinks will be held on 7th August at 6pm. The bar will be open. Bring nibbles, catch up with your neighbours, play darts or just chill out…
The Lesser Sooty Owl (Tyto tenabricosa multipunctata) is one of two owls that are residents in Paluma (3 others are occasional visitors). It is not as commonly heard or seen as the other resident, the Babook owl, but its cry is unforgettable and quite un-owl-like. It sounds like the whistling of a descending WWII bomb.
Lesser Sooty Owl call. Recording by Andree Griffin
It is not that common around the village, but a few years ago I was walking along the track from McClelands lookout and hoping I might catch a glimpse of an individual that had been calling when I felt the whisper-soft touch of wings on my head as a bird dive-bombed me and then settled in a tree 5m away. With a shaky hand, I tried to simultaneously illuminate the bird with my head torch and frame it with my iPhone. The result was one of the blurriest, overexposed bird shots in my collection, but it was enough to convince me it was indeed a Lesser Sooty Owl.
Lesser Sooty Owl near McClellands Lookout Photo by Jamie Oliver
Here is what it might have looked like if I had the right equipment and steadier hands …..
Lesser Sooty Owl, Atherton Tablelands Photo by Bruce Wedderbun (Ebird)
The Lesser Sooty Owl can be found in rainforest and adjacent wet Eucalypt habitats from Cooktown to Bluewater. It has been considered a separate species in the past but it is now one of three subspecies. The other two ( T.t. tenebricosa and T.t. arfaki) are larger and found in southeastern wet forests of Australia, and mainland New Guinea, respectively.
Lesser Sooty Owls are mainly sedentary and have permanent territories. They breed throughout the year but mainly from March to May. They are monogamous and form lifelong pairs. As with other species of Tyto, males provide food to the female, who feeds the young nestlings. Later, both parents hunt and feed the young. The young fledge and leave their nest at about 3 months, but remain dependent on their parents for food for several weeks to months.
Like most owls, the Lesser Sooty hunts at night and can capture prey in complete darkness using the sound of rustling leaves. The diet of owls is fairly easily studied. They eat their prey whole or in large chunks and then regurgitate the undigested parts (bones, teeth, fur, feathers, and even small whole skulls) as compacted pellets at its roosts. Researchers can easily collect pellets on the forest floor below known roosts and then identify the body parts down to species.
Based on a study of pellets near Lake Tinaroo in the Atherton Tablelands, the diet of the Lesser Sooty Owl was found to be composed primarily of small mammals, with the Bush Rat, Melomys species and the marsupial mouse Antechinus godmani making up 75% of prey items. Overall, the owls’ diets ranged from Ringtail possums and small gliders to microbats and small lizards.
Studies of owl pellets can also inform conservation management of rare species. The above study included the bones of a near-threatened species of tree mouse. Apart from 3 museum specimens, the existence and ongoing presence of an isolated population from this locality has only been detected from owl pellets.
Text by Jamie Oliver, photos as indicated
Further reading
Dhillon, J., M.D. Bruce, J. S. Marks, and G. M. Kirwan (2022). Sooty Owl (Tyto tenebricosa), version 2.0. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.sooowl1.02
McDonald et al. (2013). Utility of owl pellets for monitoring threatened mammal communities: An Australian case study. Wildl Res (2014) 40 (8): 685–697.
Last Saturday saw several hundred people come up to Paluma to join (or support) the 2026 Paluma Push. The event was back in Paluma this year with around 400 competitors participating in all standard event distances. Overall, the Push was a great success. There was strong Community support with about 32 residents from Paluma to Hidden Valley turning up to man the various checkpoints and to help run the Bar at Hidden Valley. The time and effort contributed by these volunteers contributed greatly to the overall success of the event.
The Community also benefited significantly. A total of $3,500 will be donated by Outer Limits jointly to the SES, RFS and PDCA for our support with volunteers and logistic assistance. In addition, the bar, run by Wifred Karnoll and others at the Hidden Valley campground, reported a profit of $2,000 for the PDCA coffers.
Thanks to everyone who turned up, and to Outer Limits and Sam Stedman for his ongoing support for the Community and for helping to promote Paluma as a destination.
The early morning sun on riders crossing the dam wall provided some interesting perspectives from an overhead drone.Checkpoint 1
The PDCA bar (left) at Hidden Valley was well patronised.
