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Notice of PDCA Annual General Meeting

Members (and prospective members) are advised that the Annual General Meeting of the Paluma & District Community Association Inc. will be held on:

Saturday, April 1, 2023, at 12pm for a BBQ lunch followed by the AGM at 1:15pm in the Community Hall

Nominations are open for all Executive Committee positions. Nominations should be forwarded to any member of the Executive Committee or by email to PalumaPDCA@gmail.com. Please use the nomination forms, which can be downloaded here.

Positions are:

  • President, 
  • 1 or 2 Vice-Presidents
  • Secretary
  • Treasurer
  • General Committee members (numbers flexible)  

Members are reminded that Annual Subscriptions are now due and should be paid prior to the commencement of the AGM.   Membership is $45.00 Please use the subscription form here to submit your dues. New members are more than welcome and should use the same form.

Please note that you must be a PDCA member to nominate someone to the Committee or vote for any Committee member.

The AGM will be followed immediately by a normal General Meeting with the new Committee.

AGM AGENDA

  1. Opening – circulation of attendance sheet
  2. Apologies
  3. Minutes of previous AGM April 24th, 2021
  4. President’s Report
  5. Treasurer’s report
  6. Election of Officers for 2021-2022
  7. Election of Auditor for 2021-2022
  8. Close of Annual General Meeting

Normal General Meeting Agenda

Normal General Meeting Agenda

  1. Open General Meeting
  2. Proposed Events/Fund-raising for the coming year
  3. Any other business
  4. Close of General Meeting

More Wet Season Mushrooms……

Inspired by Jamie’s recent post on ‘Wet Season Mushrooms’ (9 February 2023) I kept my eyes peeled last weekend for interesting specimens whilst walking around the village. I didn’t have far to go to find an array of amazing fungi after the recent rain. Right there in my own garden was a rotting log flushed with small, delicate creamy-brown mushrooms in large numbers. I haven’t attempted to identify these as yet, but someone with more knowledge of tropical fungi may be able to do so quite readily? I did check at night for fluorescence and fairies under the mushroom caps, but neither were found!

Text & Photos by Michele Bird

More nocturnal fun with UV torches

A couple of weeks ago, Juanita and I decided to go out for a quick night walk around Lennox Cr. The rain put a bit of a dampener on our plans, so we just walked around the house shining our UV torches. We weren’t expecting to see much wildlife but the visual display just from shining torches on our house walls and doors was still amazing. Here’s a sample that looks like it could be on display in a museum of abstract art …

The black squiggly lines on both images are the feeding trails of our Paluma semi-slug which love eating the algae and lichen off our wall.

or a display of images from the Hubble or Webb telescope.

Spider webs add an extra dimension to these images.

After rounding the corner to the other side of the house, we encountered a house gecko, which would normally not be much to get excited about. But the combination of this lizard’s nearly transparent skin, and the fact that bones fluoresce under UV meant that we were treated to an eerie but fascinating x-ray view.

Never a dull moment in Paluma at night if you have a UV torch!

Text and Photos by Jamie Oliver

Wet Season Mushrooms 2023

After several seasons of reporting (by various authors) on interesting mushrooms that pop up around Paluma each season, I would have thought there would be fewer new varieties to report on this year, but so far my mushrooming efforts have not suffered the fate of diminishing returns.

Here is a selection of some of my new finds this year.

Hygrocybe cf miniata

Every year with out fail one of the more common mushrooms along the rainforest tracks is the small Vermillion waxcaps (Hygrocybe sp – possibly H. miniata). I have published pictures of these before. But there are other beautiful red species that can be found if you look carefully. One of my favourites is the tiny Redbonnet, with a delicate shiny viscous cap and slender stem. Often overlooked because of its size, it is common in many gardens as well as along the tracks.

Top:Ruby Bonnet (Crentomycena viscidocruenta). Bottom Blackening Waxcap (Hygrocybe astatogala). Bottom right photo by Ray Palmer on Flickr

Another less common but striking red mushroom is the Blackening waxcap (Hygrocybe astatogala). It gets its common name from the fact that it turns increasingly black with age. The bottom left hand photo is a fairly fresh specimen found by Juanita at McClelland’s lookout, with a stem showing faint black streaks. After a few days it can turn entirely jet black as shown in the adjacent image by Ray Palmer from a specimen near Cairns. Both phases are strikingly beautiful.

Some other classic gilled mushrooms (Agarics) I’ve found in the last few weeks are shown below. The orange Gymnopilis was growing on a log in my garden, while the unusual burnt yellow mushroom (Oudemansiella flavo-olivacea) was growing on the roadside next to the High Ropes Course. The last mushroom in this group is an Amanita found in the Banksi/Casuarina forest near Witts Lookout.

Top Row: Gymnopilus sp.
Middle row: Oudemansiella flavo-olivacea.
Bottom Row: Amanita sp. (section Roanokenses)

The last two fungi for this article both share the common name coral fungi based on their shape, which is similar to some corals, but they are not in any way related. The large white bushy specimen is Artomyces sp growing on a log behind Potters Park. It belongs to the order Russulales along with the very different False Turkey tail (Stereum ostrea) that I have previously written about in the 5 easy species series. The red club-shaped fungi is Clavulinopsis sp (probably the sulcata group) which is in the family Clavariaceae in the order Agaricales, which is the group that contains mostly gilled fungi.

Two very different and totally unrelated coral fungi. Left: Artomyces sp. Right Clavulinopsis sp (probably in the sucata group); photo by Juanita Poletto.

If you come across any interesting Fungi that you would like to identify I would be happy to give it a try, or refer it back to some of the facebook experts that have helped me for this article. Just take a picture from the top and side, as well as one of the underside of the cap. I am sure that there are dozens more spectacular fungi to be found around Paluma and it would be great to share them with others through this website.

Text and photos (unless indicated) by Jamie Oliver

Recycling in Paluma

When Townsville City Council decided years ago to introduce a recycling system,  outlying suburbs such as Paluma and Alligator Creek were not included as it was considered that community support in these areas was not sufficient to warrant their trucks to travel that far.

The Paluma Environmental Education Centre, therefore, decided to set up and incorporate a recycling system into their environmental education curriculum, organizing a recycling station at the Catholic Education Centre (Gumbaroo) with yellow-lidded bins provided by the Townsville City Council. A council truck would travel to Paluma to empty these eight bins, with the cost for this service being charged to PEEC. Over the years the charge for this service has risen annually and last stood at $400, making it very expensive with council indicating another increase on the way. This also caused occasions where all the bins were full and recyclables were left on the ground.

Part-time resident, Wilfred Karnoll volunteered in mid 2022 to transport any full bins to and empty them at the council-operated recycling depot at the Stuart dump free of charge on his way home to his other residence at Alligator Creek. As the bins are the large 300 liter type they have to be emptied manually at the site and the recycled material has to be placed into the standard 200liter yellow lid bins and paper/cardboard containers. The Paluma bins are regularly monitored to ensure there is always space available, all bins full to overflowing should therefore be a thing of the past. He’s asking all residents to read and adhere to the list of Do’s and Don’t’s outlined below to make his job as easy as possible.

DO’S and DON’T’S for PALUMA RECYCLING

  1. All recyclables are to be placed into bins loose, not bagged or in cartons.
  2. Fill bins completely in order from left to right, that way we don’t end up with 8 bins half full.
  3. Do not overfill bins, lids have to sit flat to keep rain out, any moisture in the bins causes soggy paper/cardboard, as well as mould, smell and rust.
  4. All food containers must be rinsed out and drained of any liquid.
  5. All lids must be removed from all bottles and plastic containers and discarded, as they are considered a contaminant.
  6. Place glass bottles into the bins gently, if dropped from height they may break any glass containers already in the bins.
  7. Paper should be a minimum size of A5, (half the size of a standard A4) and should be flat, not scrunched up. No small arts and crafts remnants, please.
  8. All cartons must be flattened by undoing the glued flaps at top and bottom or by removing the sticky tape, don’t try to flatten them by crushing them, as it doesn’t work and only creates a bulky mess.
  9. Any items smaller than a credit card or fist should not be recycled as they have very little recycling value but create a lot of extra work.

Happy recycling!

Working Bee on Saturday 4 February

Wilfred is again calling for volunteers to attend a Working Bee at the Rainforest Walking Track on Saturday 4th February at 2 pm. The work started in January will continue to repair and upgrade various sections of the track. Steps and drains will be the main works to be undertaken this Saturday.

Volunteers should bring a wheelbarrow and shovel if they have them, but the main requirement is enthusiasm and lots of energy. Please meet at the Community Hall at 2 pm. Refreshments will be provided after the working bee. If you can spare an hour or two, please come along to help out in undertaking this important work to maintain our village walking tracks.

Simply Red…..

The Paluma Community Hall was bathed in red on Saturday night for the Lunar New Year with a large crowd gathering to mark the event. Where else but Paluma could you spend your Saturday evening commemorating Chinese New Year, Water Rabbits, four birthdays and a Scottish poet. But celebrate we did!

There was a banquet of the most amazing food, many Chinese inspired dishes plus an array of other sumptuous treats. My vote for the dish of the night was Tony and Julie’s contribution of roast pork – cooked to perfection and a very generous contribution to the community dinner. Many were heard to comment that the pork crackling was the ‘best they have ever tasted’. Quite a few people tried to ply Tony for his secret in creating the perfect pork crackling, but I don’t think anyone was successful in extracting the secret recipe.

January is filled with Paluma birthdays and so we celebrated with black forest cake and other desserts. Don’s birthday was yesterday (Sunday) and Colwyn’s birthday was last week. Whilst Colwyn couldn’t join us on Saturday night she is ever-present in our thoughts. Mark and Leonie celebrate their birthday mid week – on the same day. A rowdy chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’ echoed from the Hall.

Speaking of singing, Leslie paid tribute to Scottish poet Robert Burns with a rendition of his own favourite Burns poem in song. He belted out a tune, helped along the way by Beth. Burns Night is this Wednesday evening, so a good excuse for a wee dram.

Lynda took over the duty of bar person for the event and ran everything like clockwork. Leslie was able to relax for a change and enjoy his dinner and conversation. Many thanks to Les for all his years of dedicated service as resident Barman at PDCA Socials, a role he has reluctantly decided to pass on to others due to his hearing difficulty. Lynn provided information on ‘Year of the Water Rabbit’ and it turned out there were a few ‘bunnies’ amongst the crowd. No one got rich on the Lucky Scratchies hidden under selected chairs, but that didn’t seem to matter on the night.

Paluma Socials are about fun, laughter, good spirit and community – and this one was no exception.

Reminder: Chinese New Year Social, Saturday 21 January

A reminder to Paluma residents that the first PDCA Social of 2023 will take place this coming Saturday at the Community Hall. Chinese New Year celebrations will kick off at 6.30 pm. Come along to mark the lunar new year and to catch up with your neighbours after what has been a soggy start to January.

The Bar will be open and please bring a dish to share. Red is the lucky colour to wear for Chinese New Year.

Rumour has it that quite a few people are celebrating birthdays at this time of year. Colwyn had a birthday last week, Don has a birthday this week (on Sunday) and Mark and Leonie both celebrate their birthdays next week (on Wednesday). There are no secrets in Paluma….. A little bird told me that there will be cake….!

Keeping with the multi-cultural theme, for those of us of Scottish ancestry it is an important time of the year in celebrating Rabbie Burns Night on 25th January. Without any bias, Rabbie Burns was the greatest poet that ever lived. I mention this just in case some people want to wear tartan in honour of Rabbie Burns birthday.

Whatever you wish to celebrate, come along and join in. It costs nothing to relax and enjoy the company of good friends. And the weather forecast is for sunshine on Saturday! Bring it on.

A gorgeous fluorescent scorpion at the Cooke’s

Paluma after dark is a riot of colour if you go rambling with a black light (UV) torch.

Fungi and lichen on a letter box and a clump of palms at the start of Lennox Crescent light up like a coral reef under black light and there’s plenty more to be seen (animal and vegetable) along the walking tracks.

Under the blacklight at #56 this week this scorpion from damp lumber in the front yard lit up brilliantly for the camera of Jay Deagon, Jan Cooke’s niece.

Photo by Jay Deagon.
(Canon EOSR7, with RF100 Macro, lighting from a Lumenshooter UV torch)

Jamie Oliver went online and found two possible species locally — Lychas variatus a species of marbled scorpions or another rainforest scorpion, perhaps Hormurus waigiensis.

Jay’s image seems to be the Lychas, much more gracile than the Hormurus.

Google tells us that all scorpions fluoresce under black light or even under strong natural moonlight. and no one is quite sure why.

“The blue-green glow comes from a substance found in the hyaline layer, a very thin but super tough coating in a part of the scorpion’s exoskeleton called the cuticle.

“Scientists have noticed that, right after a scorpion molts, or sheds its shell, it doesn’t glow until the new cuticle hardens. …

“Whatever its source, the glowing property is surprisingly long-lasting. When scorpions are preserved in alcohol, the liquid itself sometimes glows under UV light. And the hyaline layer is amazingly durable: It can survive millions of years … even fossilized hyaline fluoresces.

“Still, scientists don’t know what purpose the fluorescence serves. Some theories:

  • It protects scorpions from sunlight
  • It helps them find each other
  • It might confuse their prey

Text by Peter Cooke, photo by Jay Deagon

Chinese New Year Social, Saturday 21 January

The first PDCA Social for 2023 will be held at the Paluma Community Hall on Saturday night, 21 January at 6.30 pm when we celebrate Chinese New Year.

Chinese New Year actually falls on Sunday 22 January, but we will celebrate early the night before. 2023 is the ‘Year of the Water Rabbit’, symbolising longevity, peace and prosperity.

Wearing red is considered lucky at this time, so please raid your cupboards for your most resplendent red attire.

Please bring a dish to share – you can embrace the Chinese theme of the night if you wish. The Bar will be open for drinks as usual.

In case you were wondering just what are the personality traits of someone born in the year of the ‘Water Rabbit’, Google says……

They are very precise and like to do everything thoroughly. They also have a wonderful memory. The Water Rabbit tends to be quiet, calm, and sometimes keeps aloof. Water Rabbits have good ideas and are very respected and successful in many aspects of their lives by all their family, friends and colleagues.