Posts – Page 71 – Paluma – our village in the mist

Famous Paluma structure goes up in flames!

Even the editors at Paluma.org can’t resist the odd attention grabbing headline (or click bait as it is now called) …….

Len Cook watches the smoke and flames emerging from the Anagama kiln

Last week saw the famous Anagama wood-fired kiln blaze into life at the Paluma Pottery on Lennox Crescent. Len Cook, our local award-winning Pottter, spent the last several months making hundreds of pots of various sizes and shapes, in preparation for the annual wood firing.

Len Cook at around 3am on the 4th day- still going strong

The process started last Monday evening (October 29) at 8pm and finished exactly 100 hours later at midnight on Friday. Prior to the start of the firing the lower part of the shelter that houses the kiln was chocked full of firewood, mostly pine and black wattle from the blocks at Hussey Road. By Friday most of the wood had been fed into the kiln, producing temperatures in excess of 2,000 degrees in the front part of the kiln. Continuous stoking of the fire was needed to maintain the temperatures that allow the wood ash that constantly flows over the pots to melt and form a wonderfully variable glaze on the pots. Len, together with Kelly Davis and Jamie Oliver worked shifts feeding the kiln, monitoring temperatures and making the odd adjustment to airflow vents and shutters.

The pots started to glow after the first day and by the end of the firing the entire inside was glowing red.

Each time new wood was added (about every 15 min, 24 hours a day) the chimney would produce billows of smoke and fire, which was particularly impressive at night.

The kiln is currently in cool-down mode and Len will not know what the results of this year’s efforts have been until later this week. But given the wonderful results from previous firings, there should be some spectacular pieces.

More pictures:

Rifle Bird Courtship at Paluma

The breeding season for the Victoria’s Rifle Bird is between September and January. Courtship behaviour and displaying by juvenile male birds is in full swing at Paluma during the peak of the breeding season in early November. The elaborate courtship rituals are something to see!

Over several days, numerous young male birds have been sighted on ‘perches’ high in the rainforest canopy, carrying out their elaborate dance displays to attract the females. At one location on a suitable tree stump I observed three birds displaying in quick succession, one after the other on the same perch. The displays were accompanied by the distinctive raucous, raspy calls which were quickly answered by other birds throughout the nearby forest. The distinctive clapping sound made by the male birds rapidly alternating their wings during displaying was also heard from the surrounding rainforest.

Cliff and Dawn Frith have spent many years studying the courtship display and mating habits of rifle birds. Much of their research was based at Paluma. They describe the courtship display as typically having three discrete components:

Calling – usually associated with the opening of the beak and exposure of the inside of the bright yellow mouth.

2. Circular wings and gape display

3. Alternate wing clap – this involves the rapid, alternating ‘clapping’ of the wings whereby the female is ’embraced’ within the male birds wings. The tempo of the wing clapping increases until copulation.

Just describing the remarkable courtship behaviour of the male rifle bird does not do it justice. The video below captures a short sequence of the typical display.

Text & Photos by Michele Bird. Video by Michele Bird & Jamie Oliver.

Bruce Highway Closure

Overnight closures of the Bruce Highway, north of Townsville 19 – 21 November 2018

Please see the attached flyer with information about the upcoming overnight closures of the Bruce Highway at Yabulu, north of Townsville between Monday 19 and Wednesday 21 November 2018.

Flyer_Bruce Highway closure-Yabulu

It is expected that the highway will be closed each night at 8pm and reopened to traffic each morning at 4am. Every effort will be made to ensure the highway will be reopened by 4am. However, should weather events or construction issues require a longer closure, then updates will be provided on the QLD Traffic website www.qldtraffic.qld.gov.au and App.

This is a significant closure of the Bruce Highway, with no alternative routes. Please review the information in the flyer and if you have any questions, contact the Customer and Stakeholder Management Team on 1800 625 648 or email engagement.northern@tmr.qld.gov.au.

Kind regards,

Erin

Customer and Stakeholder Management Team
North Queensland Region
Program Delivery and Operations Branch | Infrastructure Management and Delivery Division | Department of Transport and Main Roads

Platypus on the Village Weir

The Village Weir is a wonderful place to sit and contemplate nature, especially during a misty morning. You can even catch up on your emails while waiting for a platypus to appear.

Following the sighting of a platypus on the Village Weir in late September there have been 4 other confirmed sightings and it would seem that this individual has taken up residence (hopefully for the long term) in the weir.

Sightings have been primarily in the early morning (6-7am) and it appears to prefer the left side bank (looking up from the weir wall).

A list of all recent sightings can be found here. If you happen to see our new aquatic resident please contact Jamie Oliver with details so he can add this to the sightings record.

The video below shows the Platypus swimming across the weir from right to left early in the morning on October 28, 2018.

video by Juanita Poletto

Bird (Mis)behaviour – Pale Yellow Robin

For some months now we have had a Pale Yellow Robin resident close to our house on the five acre blocks. He [or very possibly, she] perches in the Murraya tree close to our kitchen window and mounts an attack on the window pane on the left hand side from our perspective looking out. His claws land on the glass and he drops down onto the lintel at the base of the window. He usually pauses for a few seconds before repeating the attack two panes to the right and again usually pauses looking quizzically at you if you happen to be at the sink, totally unfazed by the sight of humans. He then proceeds to circle the house, usually anti-clockwise but not invariably so, attacking windows randomly before returning to the tree and repeating the antics over and over for maybe an hour or more before going off duty for a period. We think he must be eating during this gap as he has an annoying habit of leaving a calling card on or below the windows in the kitchen.

More recently he has discovered that the car has mirrors and he is fascinated by the second bird and spits at the reflection in the mirror and leaves copious deposits on the curve above the door handle which have to be washed off frequently to avoid damage to the paintwork. You may deduce that we are a bit cheesed off with this behaviour and have taken to thwarting the car attacks with our car cover which is pretty successful as he can’t even get at the windows. He still looks for the now covered car windows but has more or less given them up as a lost cause.

But he still does the house daily – we don’t know if our presence engenders his behaviour as we can’t see what happens when we are not there ! He is extremely hard to photograph but the photograph below is at the kitchen window by the sink.

Text & Photo by Les Hyland

Remembrance Day, Sunday 11 November

LEST WE FORGET

REMEMBRANCE DAY SUNDAY 11 NOVEMBER

Remembrance Day Gathering, 11 AM on Sunday 11 November 2018 at the Paluma Community Hall.

Please meet at the Community Hall at approximately 10.45 AM in preparation for the raising of the flag and a minute of silence at 11 AM to commemorate Remembrance Day.

ALL PALUMA RESIDENTS AND VISITORS WELCOME

What’s Flowering In Paluma, Late October – Tree Waratah and Snow In Summer

Flowering Trees – Tree Waratah and Snow In Summer

Paluma gardens never cease to surprise and delight with the variety of spectacular blooms to be found here. In the garden of No. 15 Mount Spec Road, the brilliant red flowers of a Tree Waratah flame in the crown of this tall, slender tree. Higher than the house roof, the flowers can be easily missed unless you are scanning the tree-tops for birds.

Native to the North Queensland rainforest, the Tree Waratah and its natural habitat on the Atherton Tableland, have largely disappeared there due to clearing for grazing and agriculture. The tree is known for its beautiful pink timber.

Formerly known as Oreocallis wickhamii, it has undergone a name change and is now classified as genus Alloxylon in reference to its unique timber. There are two species within the Queensland tropical rainforest – Alloxylon flamelleum, (which I suspect is the species flowering in the Paluma garden), and Alloxylon wickhamii. The common names for these trees are Queensland Waratah, Pink Silky Oak and Red Silky Oak for A. flamelleum and Tree Waratah, Satin Silky Oak and Pink Silky Oak for A. wickhamii. All very confusing to a non-botanist: so much easier to identify it as ‘Tree Waratah’.

Take a short walk from Mount Spec Road along Lennox Crescent to the Townsville City Council Water Depot. Look up the driveway to see, rising behind the buildings and tower, a magnificent Melaleuca tree, its crown completely covered in dense white bloom. It gives the impression of being heavily snow-laden. This tree is Melaleuca linariifolia and not surprisingly, one of its common names is ‘Snow in Summer’.

This small evergreen tree grows to a height of 6m to 10m. It is from the myrtle family and is endemic to New South Wales and Queensland. This particular specimen was planted in the early 1990’s (in 1993 or 1994) by long-time Paluma resident Kelly Davis. The trunk of this tree has thick sheets of papery bark. The flowers are a major attractant for bees, butterflies and birds.Unfortunately, the spectacular display of the ‘Snow in Summer’ will not last long; already some of the blooms are browning in the tropical heat.

Text by Colwyn Campbell & Photos by Michele Bird

Jungle Huntsman Spider

Jungle Huntsman (Heteropoda jugulans)

One of the many benefits of residing in the village of Paluma is that we are living close to nature. Encounters with the local wildlife are common for those of us living with the rainforest and the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area literally at our back door. On my house verandah there are numerous spiders, of varying sizes and species, happy to cohabit with me. My favourite spider is a rather large, hairy-legged huntsman that I call ‘Harry’.

‘Harry the Huntsman’ lives in the kindling box by the back door. He takes refuge in the kindling box by day, but by night he stalks the verandah and house walls looking for prey. His favourite past time is to sit by the back door at night and jump towards me when I least expect it.

‘Harry’ is a Jungle Huntsman which are fast moving rainforest spiders (don’t I know it!). They are long-legged and mostly grey to brown in colour. They can grow to a body length of 30mm (Harry is approaching this size). Jungle Huntsman feed on a range of invertebrates including moths, crickets, cockroaches, flies and other spiders. Jungle Huntsman are covered in fine sensory hairs which are very sensitive to air movement. This helps them to detect the movement of prey and also the approach of predators.

These spiders lay eggs which are encased in a flat white silk egg sac. The female spider stays with the egg sac until the spiderlings hatch. The eggs hatch in 30 to 60 days (depending on the temperature) and several hundred spiderlings can emerge from one egg sac. (If ‘Harry’ is actually a ‘Harriet’ then I may have many more Jungle Huntsman on the verandah in the future).

Jungle Huntsman grow by shedding their exoskeleton, or moulting. The life span of most Huntsman species is 2 to 3 years. These spiders are non-venomous. Their predators include birds, geckoes and large wasps.

Text & Photo by Michele Bird

What’s Flowering In Paluma – Dendrobium Orchid

Dendrobium Species (King Orchid or Oak Orchid)

There is a spectacular orchid blooming at Paluma at present and it can be seen clinging to trees in many village gardens and high up in the canopy in rainforest trees surrounding the village. Most locals refer to it by a common name, the King Orchid. This beautiful orchid has thick green leathery leaves and showy flowers which are produced in long racemes on long stems. Each stem can have over 100 small flowers which range in colour from white to creamy yellow. The flowers have a sweet fragrance and usually appear from September to October.

As amateur botanists we have tried in vain to identify this orchid to species level. We suggest that it might be a variety of Dendrobium speciosum which grows over a vast area of Australia from Gippsland in Victoria to Cooktown in North Queensland. Dendrobium speciosum is described as a very variable orchid, forming a species complex. It can be found across a range of habitats in eastern Australia including rainforest and open forest, from sea level to mountain tops.

On the other hand, this orchid might well be Dendrobium jonesii. This species has a remarkably similar flower to D. speciosum and although it can grow at sea level, it tends to occur most commonly in upland rainforest in the moist mountain ranges. It is described as being locally abundant in tropical Queensland from Mount Elliot near Townsville to Cape York Peninsula.

If anyone can enlighten us as to the species of this beautiful Paluma orchid we would welcome your feedback.

Whatever the species, it is a special orchid and very worthy of our admiration wherever it grows – in local gardens or high in the rainforest canopy. The flowers tend to be short-lived only lasting a week or so. Make sure you check out this orchid before flowering ends, otherwise you will have to wait until next year!