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.
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.
Taking a walk through the village of Paluma and surrounds often leads to encounters with the local wildlife. Last Sunday (21 October) during a stroll through the village on a beautiful sunny morning, we were lucky enough to come across a superb Amethystine Python (Morelia amethistina).
From a distance, we noticed what appeared to be a rather large tree branch extending onto Mt Spec Road at the eastern end of the cutting. Before long it became obvious that the ‘large branch’ was moving and that it was a snake that had settled quite comfortably on the road for a spot of sun baking. This sizeable snake extended across the entire width of the road and more. Fearing a vehicle might soon come along, we swiftly encouraged the snake to move off the road and it ascended a nearby tree. It was not too pleased about being disturbed from its lazy Sunday morning warm-up!
The Amethystine Python, or Scrub Python as it is also known, is Australia’s longest snake. The specimen we saw was about 3 metres in length, and probably quite a young snake. Specimens have been recorded at over 8.5 metres in length. These snakes are slender, graceful creatures with stunning markings of fawn to olive-brown, with variegated zig-zag patterning in dark-brown to black. These pythons live in tropical open forest, rainforest and mangrove habitats. They are usually nocturnal, but can sometimes be found during the day, basking in the sun in a forest clearing, or as we found, on the road.
Amethystine pythons are non-venomous and their prey usually includes small birds and mammals, but can include larger animals such as agile wallabies.
After settling in the tree, this very handsome python was happy to pose for a few photographs.
In ‘Meet A Villager’ for the month of October we introduce you to long-time Paluma residents John & Junita Tubman.
Following the recent opening of the new community hall extension and the ‘John Tubman Room’, it seems fitting to highlight the dedicated and tireless work of John and Junita (Junie) Tubman to the village community of Paluma. This tribute to a very special couple has been compiled by James Jackson.
John and Junie started visiting Paluma regularly around 1986. They both loved the cool climate and the opportunity to get close to nature. Following a family Christmas in Paluma, they noticed a block of land for sale at 46 Mt Spec Road. According to the then neighbours, Don and Glad Parry, the property was previously owned and occupied by Mr Willowdean, one of the real characters of Paluma. The family decided to purchase the block and build a holiday house.
John was winning Housing Industry Association (HIA) awards for domestic construction and with his building expertise, the Tubman’s and the Jackson’s started construction of a house in 1990 with a modest budget.
Around this time, John and Junie became involved in the Paluma Progress Association, in conjunction with the neighbours on the other side, the McGoldrick’s. John and Junie were soon involved in the Paluma Rural Fire Service, then under the wing of Cec Carpenter.
In the mid to late 1990’s, John and Junie joined a strong force of local volunteers and began the Paluma Rainforest Festival. These were great times with the entire community actively involved. It was from these events that much of the money was raised for the reconstruction of a new ‘Town Hall’. Later, the then Thuringowa Shire Council deemed this hall unsafe and scheduled it’s demolition. It was after the ‘Demolition Fancy Dress Party’ held in the old hall the night before it was knocked down that an idea dawned to ‘just build another one’.
John and Junie were now members of the PDPA, SES and PRFB. John saw the opportunity to bring the three organisations together with a common goal and to build a combined facility. John recognised that by not duplicating facilities and services for the different organisations, there would be major advantages in making all three organisations economically viable. With funds from a grant, PDPA, SES and a donation from the Gleeson Family, John drew plans and started construction of a new Community Hall. He worked relentlessly in driving the project to its successful completion.
By then the Jackson/Tubman family house at 46 Mt Spec Rd was being extended to provide for longer stays in Paluma, now needed to discharge the now substantial local community duties. John and Junie have many SES and Rural Fire Brigade activations under their belt including ‘The Night of Noah’, the ‘Five Acre Block Fire’, many SES Road Crash Rescue activations, at least 10 Search and Rescues and several Helicopter Medivacs. Apart from all these duties, John and Junie still found time to support and volunteer for the Paluma Push Bike Race. In fact, they have volunteered for every Paluma Push to date, with the only exception being this years (2018) event.
With all the work and activities going on in the village, Junie decided we needed something special on the social calendar. As soon as the new community hall was opened with support from the entire community, she organised and delivered the ‘Federation Ball’. It was a sell-out event and and it was soon followed by the ‘Medieval Ball’. Both events were a resounding financial success, but better than that, it proved just what the small community of Paluma could achieve if everyone worked together.
More recently John stood up again and supported the extension to the current Community Hall. With persistence and dedication from Michael Drew and the members of the PDCA, this too has now come to fruition.
These days, John and Junie recognise that it’s time to pass the baton to the next generation of Paluma residents. John and Junie spend their time relaxing in Paluma, playing squash, caravanning and cruising. But, you can’t keep a good builder down and John is again back on the tools building a house.
John and Junie join the long line of dedicated ‘Palumarites’ who have worked hard to progress the village for the benefit of residents and visitors since the 1930’s.
Last Friday to Sunday (5-7 October) the annual three-day ‘Blankets of Love’ retreat was held at the Paluma Community Hall. Blankets of Love is a quilting group based in Townsville and the main prerequisite for membership is an absolute passion for making quilts. Last weekend’s retreat is the ninth year the event has been held at Paluma. There were 18 participants at this years event, travelling from Townsville, Bowen, Collinsville, Tully and Ravenswood.
For three days, the ladies stitched and sewed, piecing together some beautiful quilts for charity. This years theme was ‘children’s toys’ with each member of the group contributing a block or section of the various quilts. These ‘community quilts’ are then passed on to various charities and organisations such as the Royal Flying Doctor Service, Palliative Care, the Children’s Paediatric Emergency Unit and various nursing homes. The group recently donated 29 of their quilts to the Glendale Nursing Home in Townsville.
The Townsville Blankets of Love group formed in 2000 after a founding member suffered the devastating loss of a grandchild. Out of this hardship, was formed a truly dedicated and remarkable group of women. Their most important role is to make and provide small quilts which are passed on to social workers at hospitals. The quilts are given to parents suffering the loss of a baby and the hope is that the quilts will assist in the process of saying goodbye to the loved one.
The Townsville Blankets of Love group intends to return to Paluma next year (2019) to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their annual retreat. They are a truly remarkable group of women – every stitch a measure of their charity, kindness, compassion and love for others.
Blankets of Love is a charity and welcomes donations of fabric to produce their beautiful quilts. Anyone with fabric or materials to donate can contact Merle Prince on 0438 164 770.
Sunday September 30 was a beautiful fine sunny day at Paluma with a breeze keeping temperatures to about 26 degrees. There were 8 stallholders set up before opening time at 09.00 hrs and thanks to Don Battersby, Ross Hyne and Sonya Bryce, the barbeque was operational before 08.30 hrs.
After a slowish start there was a steady stream of customers in the hall and most also patronised the sausage sizzle. For the first time we were able to take advantage of the community hall extension, with two stalls set up in the new meeting room and people making use of the now extended square verandah.
The steady flow of customers continued until the sausages ran out at 12.40 hrs and about the same time the crowd in the hall diminished. Nevertheless, the feedback from the stallholders was very positive many, including newcomers, declaring their intention to return with their stalls at Easter. Altogether, a highly satisfactory day which will yield a modest profit that the Paluma & District Community Association needs.
This week has seen the annual Buddhist’s Retreat held at the Paluma Community Hall. This is the thirteenth year this event has been held at Paluma. The course is organised by Buddhist Chaplain Phil Heang.
The teachings are provided by Lama Choedak, a Tibetan-born Buddhist. Lama Choedak trained as a monk for nine years, spending three and a half years in solitary retreat sponsored by The Dalia Lama.
The three day course focuses on ‘Calm Abiding Meditation’ which is the most fundamental of all Buddhist meditation practices. The teachings focus on using the tool of mindfulness to bring a sense of stability and clarity to the mind. Calm Abiding Meditation can assist in understanding the origins of stress and mental confusion and it can assist in coping with life’s problems.
Some 15 participants took part in this week’s course, some traveling from as far afield as Hervey Bay and Melbourne. Lama Choedak is based in Canberra and enjoys his annual visit to Paluma. Lama Choedak and Phil Heang would welcome Paluma residents to join the course next year. The course is usually held in early September.
Paluma gardeners are quite accustomed to regular visits from the local wildlife, be it birdlife, bandicoots, wallabies, lizards and snakes. However, over the past two weeks an echidna or spiny ant-eater (Tachyglossus aculeatus) has been spotted in several gardens along the eastern end of Mt Spec Road. This spiky character has been seen digging for termites, ants and other invertebrate goodies to eat.
Echidna’s occur over most of Australia from cool temperate climes to tropical forests and desert. Mating occurs in July and August which might account for this individual being very active at present. It seems to be particularly fond of the gardens at No’s 15, 16, 17 and 18 Mt Spec Road. Keep an eye out for this welcome garden visitor next time you take a walk through the eastern end of the village.
A very successful Working Bee was held on Saturday (25 August) at the Village Green at Paluma. Fifteen very enthusiastic volunteers congregated at the Green to spread some mulch and topsoil around the Green and at the Trees In Memory. A very big ‘THANK YOU’ to all those attended to lend a hand and make light work of the tasks to be done.
The band of volunteers included:- Don Battersby, Graham & Judy Malpass, Len Cook, Wilfred and Suzanne Karnoll, Graham Pope, Jamie Oliver, Juanita Poletto, Peter Klumpp, Beth Snewin, Colwyn Campbell, Roy Mackay, Wayne Pellow and Michele Bird.
Special mention goes to Graham Pope for bringing along his tractor!. Roy Mackay kept a close eye on operations and thanks to Suzanne for the tasty sausage rolls. The generosity and community spirit that exists in Paluma makes this village a very special place indeed!
With the superb winter weather at Paluma, every week sees a ‘flock’ of birdwatchers visiting the village and surrounds to search out and photograph our birdlife. Last week, Murray and Dawn Frick spent time at Paluma and were hosted by Don Battersby at Hussey Road. Don provided some free mealworms and the birds arrived.
Murray and Dawn are sugarcane farmers from Bundaberg and this is their fourth trip to Paluma for birdwatching. When they are not working on the farm they love to travel around Australia. They are on their way home after seven weeks on the road, traveling some 10,000 kilometres throughout Queensland and the Northern Territory.
They first came to Paluma some years ago in search of the golden bowerbird. This trip they have photographed the golden whistler, satin bowerbird, rifle bird and many other species. Murray and Dawn say they are never disappointed when they come to Paluma as they know “we will always get good birds here”. We wish Murray and Dawn a safe trip home to Bundaberg and we hope to see you next year!