A deliciously sweet fragrance at the approach the Loop Road, and the humming of bees, draw attention to a stand of Brown Gardenias (Attractocarpus fitzalanii,) which are covered in small white, five-petalled star-shaped flowers. This is an unusually heavy flowering and the trees look spectacular.
Brown Gardenia (Attractocarpus fitzalanii)
In the nearby cutting and in several other roadside tangles, the Hibbertia scandens vines scramble to the tops of trees, scattering their bright yellow flowers over the foliage.
Hibbertia scandens (Golden Guinea Flower) (photo by J. Oliver)
Glochidion hylandii trees are laden with pin-cushion-like fruits nestling in the leaf axils along almost every branch. Recently, an unusually abundant flowering of Sloanea australis took place in the stand of trees outside PEEC. The spiny-covered fruits should soon be found ripening on the trees.
Glochidion hylandii (Hyland’s buttonwood)
On the forest floor among the dropped seeds and fruits are the dark red to black drupes of Bollywood, (Litsea connorsii) and the glossy, black 30 mm long drupes of the Ivory Walnut (Bielschmiedia recurva).
Bielschmiedia recruva (Ivory Boxwood). Photo on the right shows slightly fresher specimens from the Bluewater Track with glossy surface and ivory coloured inner seed flesh (photo J. Oliver)
Sarsaparillas (Alphitonia petriei), herald the approaching festive season, looking splendid with their tiered branches covered in white to cream flowers suggestive of snow-clad Christmas trees.
Literally, here today and gone tomorrow, are the various fungi which have popped up in response to recent rain. Notable was a brilliant red, star-like fungus: the anemone stinkhorn, (Aseroe rubra).
Some early fungi in the gardens include the Plantpot Dapperling (Leucocoprinus birnbaumii) obediently growing in a pot (above), and the much rarer and quite spectacular Anemone Stinkhorn (aseroe rubra) looking very much like its namesake.
There are many more little treasures to be found on your walks – just keep a wary eye out for snakes though!
Text and photos (unless indicated otherwise) by Colwyn Campbell
Thank you everyone for your patience whilst we work quickly towards the Mt Spec Road weekend closure next weekend from 7pm Friday 27 November to 6am Monday 30 November 2020.
We appreciate all of your feedback on what would be the most suitable one hour opening time on the Saturday and Sunday for the community.
As a result of this feedback, the one hour road opening times throughout the weekend closure will be:
10am – 11am, Saturday 28 November 2020
1pm – 2pm, Sunday 29 November 2020
I have already personally phoned those that requested specific times and explained why the time was chosen and they were kindly understanding of this if it wasn’t the time they had chosen.
Please note: If this weekend closure cannot occur due to wet weather, it will need to be pushed to the following weekend. We will advise you as soon as possible if this occurs. If you have any concerns regarding a potential closure on the following weekend please let us know as soon as you can so we can get an early understanding of any implications if this occurs.
Our next steps will be to inform the general public of the weekend road closure of Mt Spec Road. As a one hour road closure will not allow day trippers to get up and back in one day, and we don’t want them getting stuck overnight, all of our messaging to the general public will be that Mt Spec Road is closed for the entire weekend. This will include messaging on roadside VMS boards, QLDTraffic, radio announcements, media statements and so on. So please don’t be alarmed when you see this. The one hour openings will be happening as per the attached flyer, they are just primarily for yourselves as the community and your guests to take advantage of.
For those of you with guests staying at your accommodations/camping grounds can you please ensure you share this message with them.
Once again, please, if you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to reply email or give anyone of us in the Customer and Stakeholder Management team a call on 1800 625 648 and we’d be happy to help.
Have a lovely weekend everyone.
Kind Regards,
Jane Illin
Customer and Stakeholder Management Northern District | Department of Transport and Main Roads
Floor 6 | Townsville Government Office Building | 445 Flinders Street | Townsville Qld 4810 PO Box 1089 | Townsville Qld 4810 P: 1800 625 648 | F: (07) 4421 8711 E: engagement.northern@tmr.qld.gov.au W: www.tmr.qld.gov.au
– Publications considered to be classified (only non-restricted items may be placed kerbside)
– Tyres
– Other items that may present a safety risk
– General household waste
– Liquids including paints and oils
How much waste can I place out for collection?
Up to two cubic metres can be placed on your kerb for collection (approximately eight garbage bins in size). The maximum length of any item is two metres.
If you have any questions, call Customer Service on 13 48 10 or email enquiries@townsville.qld.gov.au. For more information, visit townsville.qld.gov.au.
The Mt Spec Road reconstruction works are progressing well, however due to the nature of the work and with varying ground conditions, the volume of work required is substantial. The continuous supply of materials during night shifts is also proving a challenge. On top of this, we are aware of the current predictions for the commencement of the 2020/21 wet season from mid-December 2020. The Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) and the contractor are working hard to get these works completed as quickly as possible to avoid the works being prolonged into the new year and wet season.
Considering all of this, and our commitment to work hard to get these works completed before the wet season commences, the contractor will require a full weekend road closure of Mt Spec Road next weekend.
The proposed closure will be:
From 7pm Friday 27 November to 6am Monday 30 November 2020
We understand that any closure has impacts on the community and we are working with the contractor to minimise any impacts. Drawing on your feedback previously provided, the contractor is able to arrange the weekend works to include a one hour road opening each day. There will be a one hour window of opportunity on Saturday morning and again on Sunday afternoon for the community or guests of accommodation services and camping grounds at Paluma to travel through the works.
We are seeking your feedback on the most preferred time slot for the one hour road opening on the Saturday and Sunday. The available options are:
Saturday
8am to 9am
9am to 10am
10am to 11am
11am to 12noon
Sunday
1pm to 2pm
2pm to 3pm
3pm to 4pm
4pm to 5pm
As we are running under tight timeframes we will need your response by 10am this Friday 20 November 2020 at the latest via email to engagement.northern@tmr.qld.gov.au (please note, there is no guarantee it will be the hour you have chosen as we will need to go with the majority preference).
As soon as the timeframes for the one hour opening on the Saturday and Sunday are known, we will communicate this with you this Friday afternoon (one week prior to the closure) so you can make any suitable arrangements you may need for yourself or your guests. TMR has already started speaking to some Paluma businesses on this matter and this email is to ensure we can seek a broad range of feedback before setting the road opening times.
The reason we can only allow a one hour closure each day is primarily due to the concrete pump that is required for the works. To allow for the road opening, the concrete pump must be shut down. An hour is the maximum amount of time the concrete pump can be shut down before the concrete hardens. If this happens it takes hours to get it ready for use again, essentially defeating the purpose to make some really good progress on the works over the weekend.
Whilst we understand some of you may be have to make some alternative arrangements for the weekend, we hope you can see the benefit the weekend closure will provide the community to get these works completed prior to Christmas.
Please, if you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to contact Meghan or Kelly in the Customer and Stakeholder Management team on 1800 625 648 or by email at engagement.northern@tmr.qld.gov.au.
We thank you for your ongoing patience during these works.
Kind regards,
Meghan Peters
Customer and Stakeholder Management Northern District | Department of Transport and Main Roads
Floor 6 | Townsville Government Office Building | 445 Flinders Street | Townsville Qld 4810 PO Box 1089 | Townsville Qld 4810 P: 1800 625 648 | F: (07) 4421 8711 engagement.northern@tmr.qld.gov.au www.tmr.qld.gov.au
The inaugural Monsters and Mayhem on the Mountain Social was held on Saturday night (7/11/20) and the event certainly lived up to its name. The Paluma Community Hall was transformed into a Hall of Horror as mummies, zombies, witches and other freaks and extremely creepy people came out of the woodwork to join the pandemonium.
Medusa made an appearance. So did the Grim Reaper, Herman Munster and a duo of Hannibal Lecters. A Pastor arrived, but was way too late to save the ‘souls of the damned’ at Paluma! A couple of Aliens joined the fray, so perhaps those UFO’s did land at Paluma after all?
The best/worst costume was won by ‘Kreepy Klumppy’ (Peter). The runner-up was Peter ‘The Mummy’ Cooke.
Jodie was the winner of the “Whose Sitting on a Big Black Spider Competition”. She was somewhat alarmed to find a large (plastic) arachnid fastened to the underside of her chair. Ironically, Jodie has a morbid fear of spiders (oops!). Her initial alarm and a few palpitations were consoled with her winning prize of a free drink from the bar.
The gathering of weirdos and whackos dined very well on a feast of dishes (none containing human flesh – that we know of!!). The bar did a lively trade with lots of thirsty patrons. Barman Les (Hannibal No. 1) reported good takings for the PDCA.
Sincere thanks to all those who attended the night in support of the PDCA and for embracing the theme of the night with gusto. Community spirit, good humour and good fun were the order of the evening. Special thanks to the band of volunteers who decorated the Hall of Horror on Saturday afternoon and then cleaned up on Sunday. What a great team!
Let the photographs of the night tell the rest of this (freaky) story……!!!!
Last Saturday (Oct 31) Len and Tania, with fingers crossed in anticipation, entered the still warm belly of the Anagama kiln to find out how successful this year’s wood firing had been. I think the photo below shows the general reaction: a smile on Len’s face as he surveys the assembled pots.
To recap the events leading up to this, the process was quite simple in the telling:
1. Insert unfired pots
2. Add a few tonnes of wood
3. Burn (m-f) Burn for 100 hrs
Voila! Beautifull smoke/ash glazed pots!
As Len tells it, the secret to this year’s success was getting sufficiently high temperatures in both the front and back of the kiln. While Len and Tania carefully monitored the digital temperature display throught the process, the final indicator that the heat was right was verified by the appearance of the “kiln cones”. Six cones were set up in the front and back of the kiln and the hope was that at least 5 of these would melt or soften enough to droop. The photo below shows the array of front cones from this year’s firing with the same front cones from a previous firing behind them. Clearly this year went better than previously with even the last cone drooping noticeably.
There was a huge range of pots that emerged from the kiln and each one had a unique glaze with rich colurs ranging from brown, to red, gold, green, cream and even swirls of black from carbon soot trapped beneath the glaze.
Some of the favourites individual pots of those who helped in the unpacking are shown below, but you will need to inspect them once they have been sorted and presented in Len’s studio to decide on your own personal favourite.
JLP
Congratulation to Len and Tania on the success of the Anagama firing for 2020 (Photo JLP)
Text by Jamie Oliver Photos by Juanita Poletto (JLP) & Jamie Oliver
The 19th edition of the Paluma Push was a great success. We had 420 mountain bike riders saddle up for the challenge to ride from Paluma Village to Hidden Valley across 3 distances: 42km, 53km and 70km.
This also included 30 E-bike riders for the 53km course. The E-bike category has doubled in size compared to last year. We are still in the early days when it comes to E-bikes, but it is a rapidly growing option for people to get out and about riding the trails.
This was the first year Outer Limits hosted the Paluma Push after taking the event over from the Rockwheelers. Townsville’s Mountain Bike Club and Outer Limits collaborated and came to an agreement which intends to keep the Push alive, continue the tradition of the event and have it professionally run and organised. We have goals to grow the event and make it, not the biggest, but the best (and most efficiently run) mountain bike race in NQ.
The Rockwheelers have received $4000 from the event, which will go toward the mountain biking community in Townsville and aid the trail maintenance on our local trails.
This year Outer Limits introduced the “Pre Push Dinner”, which was held at the Community Hall in Paluma (The event HQ and start of the race). We had 60 people attend and we hope to grow this dinner for 2021, which will be the 20th anniversary of the event.
All photos above by Juanita Poletto
We also added a perpetual trophy “The Hayden Tiley and Peter McLean Trophy”. This is to celebrate the history of the event as the years go by. This year the winners of the 70km competition course were Michael England in the Mens and Anita Narula in the Womens.
This year we learnt a lot about the event, and we have taken many notes for next year. Thank you to the team from Hidden Valley Cabins, Charlie Allen, Len Cook and Jamie Oliver for your assistance in the lead up and during the event and sharing your knowledge with us.
Thank you to Peter Mclean for all the guidance for the event and I hope we can continue the tradition you started 19 years ago.
Thank you to all the RFS and SES volunteers that helped make the event possible. The event has donated over $5000 for their services.
As part of a big thank you to all the volunteers, the Paluma Fire service put on a BBQ with funds from Outer limits for the checkpoint workers and other volunteers along the track and at headquarters. A great eveing was had by all!
Len Cook (RFS) and Jamie Oliver
Les and Lynn Hyland
A motley crew indeed – the community volunteers for the Paluma Push
Wendy, Judy, Graham and Mark
Photos by Michele Bird
Thank you to the Furber family to allow us to clear the trails and continue to ride the trails that lead through Hidden Valley Station.
Thank you to the event naming sponsors, Mike Carney Toyota, who has been sponsoring the event for many years. Outer Limits will continue the partnership to help bring professional events into our community. They also sponsored the new “Home of the Paluma Push”- sign, which is installed in Paluma Village.
Thank you to Ausfield Services who assisted us to clear the entire Push course. I am sure those who rode the course would agree that they did a mighty fine job.
Thank you also to Top Brand Cycles, GNM, Markwell Demolition for your support of the event.
2021 will see the 20th year of the Paluma Push. We have big plans to celebrate this special occasion, one of the ways might see the addition of a 100km course!
