Cherrypicker, Chainsaw & Chipper

Paluma residents might have thought that the village had been taken over by a Lumberjack’s Convention last weekend as the reverberating sound of chainsaws and mechanical chipper echoed around the village. It just so happens that some locals decided to take advantage of the fine weather to get some major pruning works underway. It all came about when locals Colin and Jill arranged for their son’s mate Jason, who is a professional arborist, to come to Paluma to prune some large rainforest trees on their block. 

There was movement in the village and the word was passed around……..!

As it often does around here, word was quickly passed on that an arborist was in town and here was an opportunity not to be missed. While Jason had originally planned to spend a couple of days pruning trees at Paluma, he was quickly snapped up by neighbours far and wide for additional pruning jobs. He now has a week’s worth of bookings and he will be staying on for a while. Paluma often has that effect on people…..!

Jason has an interesting career. When not pruning trees, his regular day job is working on movie sets. He moved from Townsville to the Gold Coast to pursue this work. Most of his time involves setting up stunts for film-makers. He happens to be in North Queensland at the moment due to Covid-19 and travel restrictions. He is taking advantage of the enforced stay in the North to do some extra pruning jobs, with Paluma residents happy to oblige.

Jason’s expertise in his work provided much entertainment for locals as he worked from dizzying heights in the cherrypicker and from harnesses. He often had a small audience watching his every move as he worked away, high amongst the tree-tops to trim and tame some rainforest giants and also the tall pine trees at The Guesthouse. 

Jason working high among the branches of the tall pines at The Guesthouse.

As always around this little village, the pruning became a community project with everyone ‘chipping in’ to lend a hand. It was all hands on deck at the chipper on Sunday afternoon. Not a branch or tree limb has gone to waste and the resultant mulch will be added to local gardens, flowerbeds and vegie patches. 

The frenetic mulching activity at the chipper on Sunday afternoon.
Paluma residents ‘chipping in’ during the pruning works.
Wilfred & Popey get serious at the chipper. Is mulch produced by Popey called ‘Paluma Pulch’??

Text by Michele Bird. Photos by Colwyn Campbell & Michele Bird

What’s Blooming in Paluma – Pagoda Flower

One of the shrubs in our garden that managed to survive a decade of neglect while we were working overseas, but which has sprung back to become a regular bloomer from about February to April is the Pagoda Flower (Clerodendrum paniculatum). The beautiful conical red flower head stands 1-1.5m up on the erect stem of the plant. It is originally from India and SE Asia and is now considered naturalised in NE Australia. The Pagoda Flower is a great butterfly attractor and I frequently see Cairns Birdwings hovering next to the flower cones. One species of Hawk Moth larva also uses it as a food plant.

Clerodendrum paniculatum is a member of the mint family and has a number of traditional medical uses. Laboratory experiments with rats indicate that it has anti-inflamatory and anti-oxidant properties but traditional beliefs in Malaysia suggest it has mystical spirit summoning properties, while in other areas it is used as an elephant medicine.

While this plant makes a nice feature flower, its enthusiasm for spreading via suckers does mean it can slowly take over parts of some gardens. While it is not a declared weed, in Cairns it is listed as an emerging weed while the Wet Tropics Management Authority has listed it as an “Undesirable Plant”. So we have a responsibility here in Paluma to make sure it does not escape our gardens if we already have this species, and to think twice before adding it. The PDCA has decided that we will not plant any species on the Undesirable List in any of its garden beds around the Community Hall. You can download the full list here.

Text and Photos by Jamie Oliver

A Sucker for Succulents

It’s no secret that there are some fanatical gardeners in the village of Paluma. At many a social gathering in ‘BC’ times (‘Before Coronavirus’), the main topic of conversation revolved around our passion for propagating, planting and growing our favourite plants, be they native or exotic species.

One such fanatic has to be Jennie at Cloud Cottage. Jennie has developed a serious addiction to succulents of many varieties, shapes, sizes and colours. Her collection is ever-growing and her dedication to growing these plants is very impressive.

Jennie’s addiction developed just over a year ago, with just a couple of plants. A friend, fellow gardener and neighbour (another Jenny), inspired Jennie to grow some of the different varieties of succulents.  Since then her collection has rapidly expanded and she now has over 250 individual plants. Her favourite varieties are the Crassula’s and the Echeveria’s. Combined, she has over 90 different species and sub-species of these types of succulents. 

Just some of the many varieties of succulents grown by Jennie.

Why grow succulents? Jennie says they are very easy to grow and easy to propagate. You can get free plants and expand your garden with very little effort. There are a huge variety of shapes and colours to collect. They are very adaptable and forgiving plants – if you forget to water them they will continue to thrive with neglect. 

Jennie has some tips for ensuring successful succulent growing at Paluma (try saying that three times really fast!). Most importantly, they need protection from our heavy and continuous rain, so shelter is very important. They require bright, indirect light and some varieties like full sun, for at least part of the day. Good drainage is essential and they don’t like wet feet. Don’t kill them with kindness by watering them too often!

Jennie has taken to propagating many of her parent plants and she is also growing several specialist and rare varieties. She is potting up plants to sell in the future at the Rainforest Inn and at the Paluma Market (in ‘AC’ times – ‘After Coronavirus’).  She continues to be creative in finding new and innovative ways to use succulents in the garden and in home displays and arrangements. Her latest creation is a ‘living clock’ made entirely from ‘baby’ succulents.

What time is it? Time to get into the garden!

As with most ‘fanatics’, Jennie is always happy to talk about her passion and to share her vast knowledge and expertise in growing succulents. Just be aware……if you happen to ask Jennie about her succulent collection, prepare to be informed and inspired! 

Text by Michele Bird. Photos by Michele Bird & Jennie Robinson

What Katydid…?

Katydids, also known as bush crickets, belong to the Tettigoniidae Family and are closely related to grasshoppers.  Around the world, apart from Antarctica, there are 6400 species known, of which 900 live in Australia.

This little critter is a Leafy Katydid that I found hanging on my bedroom curtains. It is the biggest katydid I have seen and I thought it may be unusual, however after consulting Google, I discovered that 6 cm is a normal adult size for this species, Paracaedicia serrata.  Their life span is a year or less, with most being eaten by birds and small mammals before they reach adulthood.  However in the tropics, some can live longer.

The wings are green and leaflike with a fine yellow streak along the edge.  The hind legs are finely serrated.  Leafy katydids inhabit rainforests and feed on leaves, grass, flower petals and sometimes fruit and aphids.  When disturbed, they will remain motionless and can barely be distinguished from the surrounding leaves.

Eggs, looking like tiny seeds, are laid along the edges of leaves or along stems and when hatched, the nymphs will go through 5 successive moults before reaching maturity.  The stridulous mating call is achieved by rubbing the front wings together. 

So, next time you are gardening, see if you can find one of these cleverly camouflaged critters.

Text & Photo by Colwyn Campbell

Community Hall Garden beds begin to take shape

Following a meeting in March on the establishment of gardens beds we now have a working group of residents who have made themselves available to help out with this new community project. The Townsville City Council has agreed to donate up to $900 worth of native plants to assist in the project.

After our first meeting a general plan of where beds would be located was agreed on and Graham Malpas immediately cleared out the rear side beds. It turns out there are some quite nice plants along that side but they were masked by a lot of weedy growth.

Following the PDCA Annual General Meeting some “muscle” was requisitioned to help collect some surplus logs from Anne Bruyeres block to the Hall to serve as garden borders. Colin Meads and Jamie Oliver, with assistance from Don Battersby, took two trailer loads of logs over to the hall where placement was overseen by Jill Meads and Anne. It all looked like so much fun that we even attracted a member of the public who was up with his family for a lunch at the picnic tables, volunteer to lend us a hand.

Tony Bligh’s ingenious creation, the “log dolly’, was invaluable in collecting and moving the logs, but one big one that we wanted as a feature piece was just too big to handle. However with the addition of a little brain to Colins’s and Jamie’s brawn, Tony showed us how it could be done.

The next step is to get a couple of truck-loads of topsoil to build up the new garden beds. The Townsville City Council (via Councillor Margie Ryder) has agreed to provide this, but with the new restrictions caused by COVID 19 the delivery has been postponed indefinitely.

Once the restrictions on gatherings has been lifted we will organize our third working bee to start planting! In the mean time Jamie has plans to lay out some irrigation hosing so that the beds can be provided with water during the dry season.

Bud Jones – The man of flowers

Paluma’s very long – term resident, Bud Jones, was a lover of flowers .

Bud resided on HusseyRoad from the 1940s until his death about 20 years ago. He owned three leasehold blocks totalling 15 acres on which he and his wife Nancy lived in a succession of dwellings with their two children before partially building a brick house at no 7 where he started a flower farm business featuring Gladioli of many hues.

He also planted many native flowering trees which still stand today as well as a number of exotics of which the Tibouchina Astonville pictured ( above/ below ) is a luminous example. Indeed , this tree is believed to be the progenitor of the many Tibouchinas around the Village. Whilst the naming of the Village Green after Bud was repealed some years ago his “budding”  legacy can be seen in the numerous gladioli and rain lillies  popping up around the District.

Well done Bud!

Text & Photo by Michael Drew

Wet Season Pop-ups

Fairy rings of pale, slightly frilled fungi have grown in a dark part of my garden overhung with coleus plants.  They formed a dense colony and looked quite magical.  Unfortunately, I was not able to get a good photograph of them.  However, their appearance prompted me to search for more of what I call ‘pop-ups’ – the little fungi that, encouraged by the warm, humid weather, pop up all over the lawns, in pot-plants and beneath shrubbery throughout the village.

I would need the help of a mycologist to identify the different species of fungus but am fairly sure that the lacy-cowled fungus collapsing over the mulch pile near PEEC, is a species of Phallus fungus. It is commonly known as a ‘stink-horn’ as it has an unpleasant smell of decaying flesh.

A small white toadstool on the Village Green had been tipped over, giving a good glimpse of the ‘gills’.  On the lawn outside No 24, and again on the opposite side of the road, several clusters of pale ‘mushrooms;’ have popped up.  They have the distinctive ‘mushroom brown’ gills and easily peeled skin that identifies an edible mushroom but I am not prepared to take the risk of sampling one.

A cluster of tiny orange coloured fungi is growing under the mint.  I wonder if it could be a species of Hypholoma.  

Over the next few weeks we should expect to see many more pop-ups erupting.  Have fun finding them – many will be more spectacular than these early samples.

Another pop-up we all know and welcome with the early rains, is the dainty, pink flowered Rain Lily, (Zephyranthes species) which blooms in little clumps throughout Paluma.

Text and photos by Colwyn Campbell

Nature Notes from Paluma

Many of you will have enjoyed reading the informative ‘Nature Notes’ contributed by Paluma’s resident naturalist Roy Mackay over a great many years. Roy’s passion was to educate people about the natural world and to foster interest and respect for our native flora and fauna. In the spirit of continuing Roy’s great work and his legacy of reporting on nature’s treasures in and around Paluma Village, we present the following notes, observations and musings contributed by long-time residents and fellow naturalists Linda Venn and Colwyn Campbell.

Linda Venn writes:-

You already know (from previous postings) about our Northern Leaf-Tailed Gecko which made an appearance at Summerhouse (No. 16) over Christmas. Well, in the same time period, we had a common Green Tree Frog trying to get in the pet flap on the back screen door. We can hear several Green Tree Frogs calling when it rains, which is unusual. When we first came to Paluma, conventional wisdom was that the only Green Tree Frogs here had been inadvertently imported in goods brought up the hill, as it was too cold for them. Well, now we have at least three just at our end of the Crescent. Maybe Paluma is warmer now than it was 30 years ago? It’s certainly drier.

Another unusual visitor is the Pallid Cuckoo. There’s been a pair around for the last few weeks. These are not often seen in Paluma, though Andree Griffin recorded one at the dam in 1971 and Roy Mackay saw one in Paluma more recently. Their flight is very falcon-like, but whether or not they are a bird of prey was not confirmed by the smaller birds – who couldn’t care less about their presence and gave no alarm calls. This is interesting, considering that the Pallids parasitise honeyeater nests.

Talking of the cuckoo group, I heard a Koel calling one night, but not since (Phew! Noisy buggers!). Must have been just passing through, as were the family group of Black Cockatoos. Also got a good look at a Shining Bronze-Cuckoo this morning; usually heard but not seen. They’re quite small and delicately barred on the chest.

Another interesting one is the Red-necked Rail/ Crake that was calling outside our bedroom window one morning, in the regrowth forest at the rear of Fatima Cottage. This lovely little “chook” was first seen in Paluma by my brother, in the backyard of Ivy Cottage in 1982. Seems to stay close to creeks and is more likely to be heard than seen. Its call is a maniacal laugh, quite disconcerting at close range before dawn!

Yesterday, we had a solitary Metallic Starling in our rusty fig (now fruiting, so we’ve had a Figbird or two as well). To see just one starling is unusual, as they usually travel in flocks. Well, this morning a small flock arrived and spent time in the fig and the regrowth between Summerhouse and Mt Spec Cottage. Their fluttering flight is distinctive. 

We also have a shy resident Tooth-billed Bowerbird who enjoys both the figs and the fruit of the walking-stick palm. He was giving his repertoire of mimicked bird calls the other evening, quite disconcerting until you realise that all those different birds are highly unlikely to be in the one tree at the same time!

Another bird that usually travels in a group is the Silvereye. We’d only seen a pair, then this morning a small flock arrived in the regrowth on the footpath.


Colwyn Campbell penned the following response:-

A few years ago, (I’d have to trawl through old diaries for the date), Linda Venn called me over to look at a bird feasting on the fruit of a rhodomyrtus in the front garden. It had been there all the previous day and it was the scolding of smaller birds that drew attention to it. It was unfazed by our presence and just kept eating, seeming determined to strip the tree.  We were puzzled because it had the distinctive markings of a cuckoo. Roy Mackay came up and identified it as a young Pallid Cuckoo. We were puzzled as its presence was unusual here; also Linda wondered what local bird would have a nest big enough to have hosted the cuckoo. 

The Red Necked Rail/Crake makes its way in the evenings along the creek area behind my house. Only twice in all the years I have been here have I seen one venture onto the back lawn. Last year I saw one at the edge of the shrubbery across from Manali. Coincidentally, that afternoon, two birdwatchers had the Rail/Crake on their ‘to see’ list and it emerged from the scrub long enough for them to take some good photos. Seven years ago near Roy Mackay’s house I found one dead on the road verge. It had evidently been hit by a car, but was almost unmarked and still warm. Roy stuffed it and it now is in the museum.

The Koel – yes, I was surprised to hear it too.

What’s Blooming at Paluma: White Bat Plant

White Bat Plant (Tacca integrifolia)

This weird flower is blooming in my garden, in a semi-shaded spot near the letter box. The bat flower is a member of the yam family. Species of Tacca are found in tropical regions of South America, Africa, Australia and South East Asia. Difficult to see in my photo is the cluster of tiny, dark flowers at the centre. The ‘whiskers’ are between 40 cm and 60 cm long.


Text & Photos by Colwyn Campbell

What’s Blooming at Paluma: Oriental Lily

Lilium ‘ Casa Blanca ‘ (Oriental Lily)

This young Lily is almost 1 metre tall and  boasting a 24 cm heavenly scented bloom. When she matures, she will produce 4-6 flowers on a single stem. Loved by the bees and butterflies, this beauty has won the prestigious ‘Award of Garden Merit ‘of the Royal Horticulture Society in 1993 for best White Oriental Lily ever. Reliable and easy to grow in any moist soil with good drainage. I’m hoping my thumbs stay green enough to bring her to full maturity and be rewarded with multiple blooms every Christmas.

Text & Photos by Lynda Radbone.