Posts – Page 44 – Paluma – our village in the mist

November Rain At Paluma

Barry Smith, our weekday rainfall recorder has kindly provided the Paluma rainfall figures for November 2021. The records show that rain fell on 24 days of the month and the total was just short of 240 mm. That’s a decent drop of rain in the build up to the pending wet season.

The community thanks Barry for his ongoing work in recording the daily rainfall at our new BOM recorder at the Village Green. Peter Cooke has recently stepped up as the regular weekend recorder and this is also greatly appreciated. We look forward to some big rainfall totals now that December has arrived!

Reminder: Tropical BBQ, Saturday 11 December

A reminder that the final PDCA Social Event for 2021 will be the annual Tropical BBQ to be held at the Community Hall on Saturday 11 December at 6.30 pm.

Please bring your own meat for the BBQ and the PDCA will supply the salad.

The Bar will be open with the usual low cost beverages on sale.

Tropical attire is a must so please wear your most colourful tropical shirt, shorts, skirts, frocks or jocks. There will be a free drink for the most colourful and suitably dressed patron.

Come join your friends and neighbours to toast the silly season and the end of the year in our tropical paradise. See you there!

Paluma Garden Competition 2021

The judging for the Paluma Garden Competition will take place this coming Wednesday 1st December 2021.

Two staff members from Bunnings will be escorted by members of the PDCA and will be visiting the gardens of Paluma to decide on the winners in the Annual Garden Competition.

Should you not wish to have your property entered, please contact Lynn Hyland before Wednesday (Phone: 4770 8681).

The winners of the Competition will be announced at the PDCA ‘Tropical BBQ’ to be held on Saturday 11 December at the Community Hall.

Lynn Hyland

Paluma Dam Spillway Concrete Works – Project Update:

From Councillor Margie Ryder:

Townsville City Council is committed to providing and maintaining $5.4B worth of community assets consisting of water and wastewater networks, bridges, drainage, roads, waste management and spillway maintenance.

Paluma Dam spillway infrastructure maintenance works are ongoing that will see the delivery of protection barrier installed to the foundations of the dams spillways bridge.

Works are now at the stage for the construction of the new protective concrete barrier ‘slab’ that will be poured onto the existing surface. These works will require a convey of concrete trucks that will be using the Paluma Dam access road which will cause traffic delays.

Council will have traffic management in place; however, dependable on weather conditions the unsealed access road to the Dam including the Paluma Dam campgrounds may have considerable delays on the day of concrete pouring.

The Paluma Dam, Concrete Pouring works are scheduled to commence on Thursday, 02 December 2021 and are expected to take one day to complete.

Please be advised that the concrete trucks will be operational 7am through to 2pm. Normal traffic conditions will return post 2pm.

Townsville City Council Update on their Website

Rainforest Tree of the Month, November 2021 – Messmate (Eucalyptus cloeziana)

Although the rainforest around Paluma is extensive, covering over 42km², it forms a narrow north-south band that changes to eucalyptus dominated sclerophyll forest as one travels east down the range or west towards Hidden Valley. The border between rainforest and sclerophyll forest is not fixed, and some studies have shown that the rainforest is slowly expanding and encroaching on the ecologically important sclerophyll habitats that host a number of important species of plants and animals. Late last century there was concern that rainforest expansion might be an ecological threat to adjacent forests but more recent work shows that the rate of expansion is very low, and current climate predictions for destructive cyclones and increased bushfire severity in the region suggest that rainforests are the more threatened of the two habitats.

Some evidence of past rainforest encroachment can still be found along some walking tracks, where there are huge old Eucalyptus trees that would have germinated in open forest have survived the fierce competition for light that characterises rainforest habitats and now stand as anomalous reminders border dynamics. This series has already highlighted two sclerophyll trees that can be found near rainforest margins (Eucalyptus grandis and Syncarpia glomulifera). A third species is the Messmate (Eucalyptus cloeziana).

The track down to Triple Falls from the H-track has some magnificent old messmate trees in an area just adjacent to open forest at the crest of the escarpment. This tree is endemic to eastern Queensland and in ideal conditions can grow to 55m in height. The lower trunk has rough flakey or fibrous bark, but is smooth on the upper trunk and branches. Leaves are lanceolate to ovate 0.2-1.3cm long. Flowering occurs has been recorded in December and January. The mature gum nuts are globose to hemispherical, 0.4–0.7 cm long, 0.6–1.1 cm wide.

Messmate has been logged over most of its range and is now cultivated in plantations. It has been imported to Africa and is one of the more important general purpose hardwood plantation trees in Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The species name (cloeziana) was chosen in honour of Francois Cloez, a chemist who originally identified the chemical cineole as the major constituent of eucalyptus oil.

Text and photos (unless indicated) by Jamie Oliver

Congratulations Jack

Jack Appleton has had a big week!

Jack is one of Paluma’s youngest residents, but he is soon to spread his wings and move to the ‘big smoke’ at Ingham.

We recently posted that Jack was finishing his Year 12 studies at Ingham State High School and he had taken out two awards in his final year. Last Thursday night Jack celebrated his Valedictory Dinner with his colleagues and family at the Ingham Shire Hall. The red carpet was laid out for the students with the teachers welcoming each arrival by opening their car doors and posing for photographs. Some students arrived in flashy hot rods and one arrived on a tractor (of course, it’s Ingham!). There were speeches, a special dinner, dancing and lots of photo opportunities.

The morning after the Valedictory Dinner (last Friday) the school hosted a breakfast for the students and their family. There were more inspirational speeches and fun awards for students and teachers. The breakfast ended with an outdoor assembly where the rest of the school made a guard of honour as the Year 12 students left school for the final time.

Jack hasn’t wasted any time in gaining employment. He had several interviews even before he finished school and he was snapped up by Wilmar. He begins his Boilermaker Apprenticeship on 31 January 2022 and he will be based at Ingham for the four years of his training.

Jack has been celebrating ‘schoolies’ in Cairns with his friends over the past week. We wish Jack all good luck for his new career at Wilmar and we hope he comes home at every opportunity to Paluma. If you see Mum Jennie give her a hug, because she is trying to come to the realisation that her ‘Little Jack’ is all grown up. She misses him already…..!

Text by Michele Bird With Photos and Information Courtesy of Jennie Robinson

What’s Flowering at Paluma

We have previously posted on the beautiful Tibouchina’s growing in many of the village gardens, but it is hard not to mention the current spectacle of the Tibouchina Chameleon in gardens along Mount Spec Road.

The Venn’s large shrub at the eastern end of the village is a show-stopper and I saw many visitors stopping to photograph it over last weekend – just as I did!. It seems just about every second garden has a ‘Chameleon’ and why not, when they thrive with very little care in our mountain climate. Other good specimens are located towards the central and western end of the village at Nick and Glenda’s place and at Neil and Jennies at Cloud Cottage.

Tibouchina Chameleon is a dense and fast growing evergreen shrub. At Paluma it seems to flower at least twice a year. The flowers open white in colour and then change to mauve and pink as they age over several days. If you are looking for a hardy, colourful and rather special plant for your garden, you can’t go past one of these beauties.

Text & Photos by Michele Bird

Reminder: Paluma Rural Fire Brigade Meeting this Saturday

A reminder to all members of the Paluma Rural Fire Brigade (PRFB) that a meeting will be held at the Community Hall this Saturday 13th November, commencing at 9 am.

If you are not a member of the PRFB but you are interested in joining, please come along to learn more about this volunteer service and what is involved. New members are always welcome and it’s a great way to get involved in the community and support this important service in our village.

For more information on this week’s meeting or the PRFB in general, please contact Ross and Sonya on email: sonyab360@gmail.com

Monsters in the Mist

The ‘Mayhem and Monsters on the Mountain’ Social was held at the Community Hall on Saturday (6/11). This year it was great to see so many kids attend the function and all embraced the theme of the night. The kids costumes were impressive. We had a little green dragon, a karate kid, a rather woolly version of ‘Cousin It’ and an alien.

The ‘big kids’ also embraced the theme with gusto. There were witches, zombies, the ‘purple people eater’, Hannibal Lectors and just plain scary people. There really are a lot of creepy people at Paluma.

With five desserts to choose from on the night, all the kids had plenty of sugar and they were hyped up until late in the evening. A good time was had by all and we look forward to doing it all again this time next year!

Photos by Michele Bird & Jennie Robinson

Happy Birthday Wilfred!

This weekend (7 November) one of Paluma’s long-time residents – Wilfred Karnoll – will celebrate his 70th birthday.

2021 has been a somewhat challenging year for Wilfred, but like everything else he has taken the ‘bull by the horns’ and just got on with things. Wilfred is a long-serving member of the PDCA and he is a consistent volunteer for just about everything in and around the village. He undertakes an array of regular maintenance work at the Community Hall and Village Green and he has been instrumental over many years in keeping our rainforest walking tracks in good condition. In more recent times, he has led a team of dedicated volunteers to re-open and make safe the Paluma Village to Hussey Road walking track and he currently has his sights set on upgrading the Rainforest Walking Track (between the Community Hall and the western end of the Village). There is not much that Wilfred doesn’t know about the walking tracks and trails around Paluma and across the Southern Wet Tropics region!

Wilfred is always ready to lend a hand and he is pretty good with the chain-saw, whipper snipper and a spot of heavy lifting. He will be the first to offer assistance when needed and he is particularly handy during Working Bees at the Community Hall for everything at height and well above the reach of the rest of us. Who needs a ladder when Wilfred is around.

Wilfred is a great friend and neighbour to have – even if he doesn’t always appreciate the therapeutic benefits of listening to AC/DC on the stereo at volume 50 on a Saturday night (ooops)!!

Cheers Wilfred and Happy Birthday To You from your friends at Paluma.

Text & Photo by Michele Bird