A reminder that there is a Free Workout on offer this Saturday afternoon 8th April – otherwise known as a Paluma Working Bee. Many hands make light work and there are always plenty of jobs to do around the village to keep things maintained and looking beautiful.
If you have a couple of hours to spare this Saturday afternoon, please meet at the Community Hall at 2 pm. Everyone is welcome.
It will be a great opportunity to work-off those extra Easter calories from chocolates and hot-cross buns and working outside in the fresh Paluma mountain air is always good for the mind and body.
A free beverage is on offer after the work is completed.
Did you know that Koalas can be found in the open forests west of Paluma and much of the sclerophyll forests in the eastern Queensland coastal area of north Queensland? If you would like to know more about koalas or share any sightings you have made in the region, The Australian Wildlife Conservancy is hosting a community workshop leading up to some targeted Koala monitoring later this year.
Felicity L’Hotellier, Senior Field Ecologist for the AWC is inviting Paluma residents to attend the workshop on Wednesday, April 19th. The workshop will be hosted on site at Mount Zero-Taravale’s bush camp. The day will kick off at 9am, and wrap up by 3:30pm, with informal discussions throughout the day including a round-table with those in attendance.
Attendees are invited to camp on site (would need to supply their own tents/sleeping gear), with AWC to provide basic catering from the evening of the 18th through until the morning of the 20th. For anyone interested, an evening spotlight drive and a visit to our new feral predator-free exclosure fence is also planned.
This invitation is restricted to Paluma residents and you are asked to register for the workshop before April 10th. To register or obtain further information contact Felicity on 0408084 617 or 4770 8025.
April is shaping up as a busy month in the village of Paluma. Here’s a reminder about some dates to put in the diary.
Firstly, Wilfred would like to advise everyone that the next Working Bee has been rescheduled to Saturday 8th April (Easter Saturday) at 2 pm. The change of date is to avoid double-bookings with other community events. Meet as usual outside the Community Hall and then teams of volunteers will be deployed for various jobs and projects such as continuing work on the Rainforest Walking Track steps, pruning and tree removal at the Hall and maintenance jobs at the Hall, etc.
The PDCA AGM will be held on Saturday 1st April. The event commences with a FREE BBQ for residents at 12 noon, followed by the meeting at 1 pm. Come along to have your say and/or to nominate for a position on the PDCA Executive Committee. Everyone is welcome.
The Paluma Easter Market will be held on Sunday 9th April from 9 am to 1 pm. We have already put the call-out for cooks and bakers to donate goods for sale, but as always other volunteers are needed for the bbq sausage sizzle, tea/coffee stall and other jobs on the day. If you can spare a few hours to volunteer at the Market please advise one of your friendly PDCA committee members.
The Paluma Easter Market is fast approaching on Sunday 9th April and so this is a call-out for Paluma’s amazing cooks to donate some baked goods to sell for community (PDCA) fund raising.
If you are interested in doing some baking and donating your goods for sale at the Easter Market then please read on…..
Here’s what to do:-
Please divide your baked goods into small batches for sale. We suggest batches of 2, 4 or 6 individual pieces as this has worked well at previous markets.
Please plate the goods (in batches) and secure with glad wrap or suitable packaging. (We have previously used paper plates and glad wrap and this works well).
Please add a sticker or other suitable label outlining the contents of your baked goods. You will need to add this label to EVERY individual batch of goods. This is required for health & safety reasons.
Please add a price sticker to your goods, with what you think is a fair and reasonable price for your baked delights.
Please deliver your goods to the Community Hall on Sunday morning 9th April at 8.30 AM (for a 9 am market start).
If you have any questions or need any further information, please contact Lynn Hyland by phone or email:- leshyland@icloud.com
Previous cake stalls have been a roaring success, so please contribute if you can for the upcoming Easter Market.
One thing we do pretty well at Paluma is celebrate our multiculturalism, what with our themed Chinese New Year, International Nights and last Saturday night (18 March), the St. Patricks Day celebrations of all things Irish.
A good crowd attended the evening and the Community Hall was a sea of green with everyone enthusiastically embracing the theme of the night and dressing in green – of all shades. As always, the food produced by residents for the community dinner was astounding. There was soup, freshly baked breads, Irish stew, colcannon, barbecue meats and many other delicious dishes too numerous to mention. Of course, there were plenty of dishes featuring ‘tatties’ – the most favourite of all Irish foods.
The dessert table on Saturday night was something to behold. There was Guinness cake, savoiardi cake, Irish green chocolate cake, mango pudding, Shamrock biscuits, Irish pavlova, bread and butter pudding, green cupcakes, and the list goes on. Of course, Guinness was the choice of beverage for the evening.
The Irish quiz was hotly contested and there was a fair bit of conferring (and cheating?) going on over the course of the quiz. Google searches were strictly banned on the night. Les told a few Irish jokes to entertain the crowd. A couple of visitors to Paluma joined us on the night and were impressed by the community spirit and the very warm welcome they received from everyone.
The PDCA held an auction of several historic Paluma prints after dinner and the bidding was lively. Jamie and Juanita were the auctioneers. Several lucky patrons scored a bargain in acquiring a unique historical print for their Paluma homes. The PDCA was the big winner with the auction and sale of prints raising some $300.00 for the community.
Anyone hoping to catch Len Cook’s ‘Fire and Rain’ pottery exhibition at the Perc Tucker Regional Gallery this month will be sorely disappointed.
Len has advised that due to unforeseen circumstances at the Gallery, his exhibition has been postponed (all other scheduled events at the Gallery are also postponed for the time being).
In the mean time, ‘Len Cook Ceramics’ is open for business and you can visit the ‘gallery in the clouds’ to pick up unique pieces from our own award-winning Paluma potter.
STOP PRESS – Len has just advised that his exhibition is now rescheduled to open on 12 May 2023.
The ‘Fire and Rain Exhibition’ is a retrospective exhibition featuring work going back to the 1980’s. It features pieces from the collections of regional galleries and also private collections.
A reminder to everyone that next Saturday night, 18th March we will gather to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a social at the Community Hall.
Celebrations kick off at 6.30 pm. Bring a plate of food to share with your friends and neighbours. Bring your good humour and good spirits – and if you don’t have any of the latter, you can buy some at the Bar!
Wear green in honour of St. Patrick, the Patron Saint of Ireland.
Did you know that St. Patrick is also a patron Saint of Australia, Nigeria and Montserrat? He was born in Roman Britain in the 5th century and at the age of 16 he was kidnapped and taken to Ireland as a slave. After some years, he escaped and returned to his family. He entered the Catholic Church, just as his father and grandfather had done before him. He eventually returned to Ireland as a missionary where he worked in the west and north of the country. He died in 461 AD and is said to be buried at Down Cathedral in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland.
The most common symbol of St. Patrick’s Day is the SHAMROCK. The shamrock is the leaf of the clover plant and symbolises the Holy Trinity.
GREEN is also a common symbol that many people choose to wear in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day.
Now that you know all about St. Patrick, see you next Saturday night !
Put the date in your diary…..On Saturday night the 18th March, Paluma will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a Social at the Community Hall commencing at 6.30 pm.
St. Patrick’s Day actually falls on Friday 17th March, but we will hold off on celebrating until Saturday evening.
Please bring a plate of food to share – Irish inspired if you wish – the more tatties the better as far as I am concerned!
The Bar will be open for low cost beverages.
And don’t forget to embrace the theme and wear emerald GREEN.
