On Friday 21 August, TCC announced the winners of the 2020 Senior of the Year Award. Unfortunately Paluma’s own Leslie Hyland did not win the award this year, but he was included in a short list of nominees.
The deserving winners are: Dr. Ernie Hoolihan (male) and Mrs. Patricia Carr (female). We extend our sincere congratulations to the 2020 winners.
And of course, Leslie Hyland will always be considered as a winner in the village of Paluma!
Lynn Hyland celebrated her birthday this past week and the occasion was marked with a birthday cake at morning tea on Saturday at the Rainforest Inn. Jennie baked an amazing layered rainbow cake and it was decorated by Lynda with colourful blooms from her garden, including pansies, violas and snapdragons. The cake not only looked spectacular, but it was delicious too.
Happy birthday to you Lynn!
When Townsville City Council (TCC) called for nominations for their annual Senior of the Year Award 2020 some us got to thinking about the many worthy potential nominees at Paluma who would aptly qualify for this award. In the end there was a collaborative effort (and a conspiracy of sorts) amongst three of us to nominate Leslie Hyland.
It was initially Colwyn’s suggestion that we nominate Les for his long-term volunteer work and his ongoing contribution to our village community. Michele then set about to do some research. Lynn was our main co-conspirator and she compiled a comprehensive dossier on Les’ various roles at Paluma over the past 30 years. Drawing on this information, Michele wrote a nomination and it was submitted to TCC last Friday. It was all rather ‘secret-squirrel’ (from Les that is) until Saturday morning when we told him of the nomination. He was quite surprised, but thankfully, well pleased.
TCC will announce the winners of the Senior of the Year Award (male and female) on 21 August 2020. We wish Les all the best and we hope he wins. Even if he doesn’t, he will always be a winner at Paluma.
Special thanks go to Lynn Hyland for her great assistance in preparing information for the nomination for Les. Of course, Lynn could very easily be nominated in her own right for this award and we acknowledge that she is an essential part of this dynamic duo of community volunteering. However, the main impetus for nominating Les at this time was motivated by the fact that he will be 90 years young in June 2021 and we felt that the time was nigh for this nomination and acknowledgement.
The nomination for Les Hyland is reproduced below, along with some photographs submitted with the nomination, showing Les Hyland in action in his various roles in the village.
Les Hyland is 89 years young and this year and indeed for more than 30 years he has been an active and enthusiastic community volunteer in the village of Paluma. Around here we view Les Hyland as our esteemed Elder. He works tirelessly for our community with the vigour of someone half his age. He is ever reliable, selfless and a stalwart of this community. His achievements are many. It is for his long-standing and dedicated service to our village community that we nominate Les Hyland for the Townsville City Council Senior of the Year Award for 2020.
Les was born in Dublin, Ireland and emigrated to Australian in 1974. He and wife Lynn became residents at Paluma in 1986 when they purchased their acreage block on the western outskirts of the village.
Soon after his arrival, Les joined the Paluma Rural Fire Brigade in 1986. His service with the RFB is current to this day. He also joined the Mt Spec SES as an inaugural member in 1989. Again, his service to the SES is current in 2020 and his resolve and determination to fulfil these roles has never wavered. Over some 33 years, Les has worked hard to protect and serve our village – be it fire, flood or other emergency. In a crisis he is the first to step up, providing logistical and other support when and wherever required.
Les has and continues to fulfil so many roles in this community and the list is endless. He is well known and much admired for his willingness to volunteer for just about anything!
Currently, he works with other community volunteers to run the Paluma History Display at the Community Hall. His wealth of knowledge about Paluma and the surrounding district has impressed many a tourist and traveller. He delights in sharing yarns about our village and he works hard to promote Paluma and the greater Townsville region. He has undertaken this role for over 7 years.
For some 18 years Les has undertaken the role of social coordinator and barman for just about every Paluma Social Event, including the annual Bush Dance. Perhaps his greatest work is in running the annual St. Patrick’s Day celebration at Paluma. His Irish jokes and quiz night are renowned throughout the village. At every social and function, Les is the first to arrive, setting up the Community Hall and facilities so that others can relax and enjoy themselves. He’s always the last to leave whatever the time of night, washing the dishes or taking out the rubbish in the wee small hours – with that ever-present good humour and a twinkle in his eye. Just last week Les could be spotted at the Community Hall on Saturday afternoon ‘deep cleaning’ the Hall (down to the very door knobs) so that it could be utilised by the community.
Les Hyland is the king of the sausage sizzle. Not a Paluma Community Market or event goes by without Les coordinating his band of volunteer workers at the BBQ. He works with complete determination and resolve to raise much needed funds for our community association. Indeed, Les’ tireless volunteer work in his many roles contributes a substantial proportion of the annual income for the association.
Les’ voluntary service extends to many other roles, both formal and informal. He undertook the role of Secretary on the Executive Committee of the Paluma & District Community Association (PDCA) for 5 years. He also acted as Secretary for the Community Hall Building Committee for a number of years. He was the Editor of our local newsletter ‘Turkey Talk’ for a remarkable 16 years, producing an impressive 82 issues! As technology evolved, so did Les. When the newsletter moved to digital format in more recent years, Les adapted, bought a computer and taught himself how to use it!
His voluntary service also includes the annual Paluma Push Mountain Bike Event. For 16 years Les has manned Check Point 1 as Radio Operator. He is ready to serve again at the event this year, scheduled to October 2020. He served as a committee member and volunteer for the Rainforest Festival for 6 years and he has been a volunteer worker for the Northern Beaches Festival (Art Exhibition at Paluma) for 8 years. Les’ service also extends beyond Paluma and he is a Life Member of Lions International – Cleveland Bay Club, contributing 45 years of dedicated service.
On the 14 of June 2021 Les Hyland will be 90 years of age. We don’t think that will slow him down at all, but in his 90th year of life we would like nothing more than to acknowledge and thank him for his long-term service to the community of Paluma with the TCC Senior of the Year Award 2020. It would be our chance to give something back to this giant of our community and a true national treasure.
Text & Photos by Michele Bird
Last weekend Paluma Village was host to Jason Taylor and the team from Category 5 Emergency Care based out of Cairns. Jason conducted an Emergency and First Aid Training Course over several days at the Paluma Community Hall with emphasis on survival training and rescue in wilderness and remote locations. The course was well attended with over 20 participants. The Category 5 Emergency Care group specialises in teaching first aid training, event medical coverage, lifeguard courses and sports trainer education.
The training course included both theory and practical sessions with the participants actively engaged in several ‘mock scenarios’ in which they get to practice and hone their newly learned rescue skills.
Practical sessions were held at the Village Green and one detailed ‘mock scenario’ on Sunday afternoon took place at the Paluma Weir. The emergency scenario as follows:-
A group of weary bush walkers was returning from several days of hiking in the wilderness. Upon nearing the Paluma settlement there was an unexpected bridge collapse at the Paluma Weir. There were numerous casualties with a range of injuries from potential spinal injuries, to broken and sprained limbs, possible concussion, cuts and abrasions. Medical assistance would be more than one hour in arriving at Paluma. Those who were injured and incapacitated were rendered first aid by those who were not injured and/or who were at the scene, using only the first aid supplies and materials from their hiking backpacks.
The life-like emergency scenario at the Paluma Weir was fascinating to observe. The photographs below show the practical training in action.
You can imagine the complete surprise of a couple of unsuspecting tourists who came upon the grisly scene at the weir on the Andre Griffin Walking Track on Sunday afternoon, with injured and bloodied bodies strewn along and adjacent to the walking track! Much to their relief, they were quickly reassured that emergency and rescue training was in session.
You can watch a slide show of all the photographs of the Paluma Weir training scenario, at the end of the post.
Text & Photos by Michele Bird
This Sunday one of Paluma’s long-time and much-loved residents celebrates turning 89 years young. A big happy birthday to our resident Irishman Les Hyland. A small group of Les’ friends celebrated the occasion (early) with a Saturday morning tea and delicious cake baked by Lynn.
Happy Birthday Les from your Paluma friends and family!
Article from Townsville Bulletin. Contributed by Les Hyland.
The Department of Transport and Main Roads would like to advise that pavement repair works will shortly occur on Mount Spec Road on the Paluma Range. Works to be completed include the removal of damaged pavement and back filling with new bitumen and surface seal.
Please see work details below.
Mount Spec Road pavement repair works
Work duration: Monday 20 April to Thursday 30 April
Workdays: Monday to Friday (excluding Saturday 25 April and Monday 27 April 2020)
Work hours: 6:30am to 5:30pm (road closure 9am to 4pm – long delays)
Impact on motorists:
Road users are advised to plan their journey ahead of time around the road closures to avoid long delays and travel times. Residents are encouraged to contact TMR on the details below should they have any further enquiries about the road works.
TMR would like to thank the local community and businesses in advance for their patience during these works.
Kind Regards
Meghan
Customer and Stakeholder Management (Northern) | North Queensland Region
Program Delivery And Operations | Infrastructure Management & Delivery Division |
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
The PDCA AGM was held last month (March 13) in conjunction with a well attended BBQ lunch. This year we decided to change the date away from Easter and to offer residents a free BBQ lunch prior to the meeting. We received some positive feedback on this initiative and were delighted to easily exceed the number of attendees required for a quorum (although this may also have been due to Wilfred’s door to door encouragement earlier in the morning).
The official minutes of the meeting will be completed soon, but if you are interested in reading the President’s Annual report, or the History Project report, they are both available in our Documents section on the website.
All current PDCA Executive Committee Members were elected for another year.
Many thanks to all those who attended and contributed to the meeting.
| Name | Position | ph | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jamie Oliver | President | J.K.Oliver@outlook.com | 0408 710030 |
| Anneshka Brown | 1st Vice President | anneshka@protonmail.com | 0472 768 227 |
| Ross Murray | 2nd Vice President | rossmurray23@gmail.com | 0438 015 342 |
| Juanita Poletto | Secretary | jpoletto@gmail.com | 0410 202 968 |
| Wilfred Karnoll | Treasurer | wilfred.suzanne@bigpond.com | 0447 822 626 |
| Kristy Harrison | Committee Member | KristylHarrison80@gmail.com | 0404 833760 |
| Rhett Harrison | Committee Member | RhettH83@hotmail.com | 0438 782 053 |
| Helen Gode | Committee Member | hdgode@hotmail.com | 0497 327 644 |
| Charlie Allen | Committee Member (SES) | c-t-a@activ8.net.au | 0487 840 197 |
| Ross Hyne | Committee Member (RFS) | ross.hyne@ergon.com | 0427 447 415 |
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.
The Basque Man of Paluma and District.
A long-time resident of both Paluma and Hidden Valley, Manuel Larrinaga, died on 10th May 2018, aged 69 years, after 3 months of acute cancer illness.
Manuel was born a Basque, within the spanish Francoist fascist State in 1949, into a family of long-established farmers just outside Guernica in the Basque Country, the site of the 26 April 1937 infamous Hitler/ Franco atrocity during the Spanish Civil War. (The subject of Picasso’s famous painting entitled “ Guernika” of the same year – see Wikipedia).
Manuel was one of 11 children, some of whom still live on the family farm, including Luciano, his elder brother with whom he fled to Australia, as a refugee, aged 16, to escape forced conscription into Franco’s army, which was yet another attempt by the The Fascist Dictator to suppress the Basque Culture which has a feisty independent democratic tradition going back several centuries!
Franco’s death in 1975 was marked in Guernica with great joy. Manuel, who covertly returned to Guernica for the expected occasion, would often recount how free refreshments flowed like water for days in Guernica in celebration of the Fascist Dictator’s demise, such was the not – forgotten Basque revulsion over his crimes. (google “ Guernika”)
Manuel himself passionately hated Franco, accusing him of thwarting his plans to become a Vet! Instead Manuel followed a life of very hard labour in the cane fields of NQ and construction work in Mt Isa and elsewhere in NQ from age 16 until he died 53 years later.
Manuel was a member of a cane- cutting gang established by Luciano in Ingham. He had to harden up from a wanna- be Vet student and despite weeping every night for two years from the painful consequences of manual cane cutting he became a very tough man excelling in Boxing and being a renowned hard manual worker , as well as a spell as a Pub bouncer keeping order among the thirsty cane cutters. Ingham Police dubbed him “The Bullfighter” while others called him “The Basque Terrorist”, titles Manuel proudly proclaimed!
The reality was that Manuel was a bit of a “softie” when it came to helping the less- fortunate. He also had strong views about injustice .
In 1976 he worked for Simon Carves Ltd in Mt. Isa in a multi-national gang constructing the famous smelter Smoke Stack during which time he was the macho man riding the crane loads as a rigger to the top of the stack as it rose to its 270 Metre height. His stories of pranks and escapades without safety harnesses on high were blood chilling and often led to acute anxiety attacks amongst the Health & Safety ground staff.
In 1978 he met Judy, his life partner of nearly 40 years and they ultimately moved to live firstly at Hidden Valley and subsequently to the Republic of Hussey Road where Manuel constructed a large “Yurt” for Judy (a large Decagon house of stringy bark slabs cut by Manuel) which he subsequently re-erected at Hidden Valley, near the Furber Homestead, after adding two wings…it is an impressive example of Australian Bush architecture which will some day end up in a glossy coffee table book on vernacular buildings of OZ.
Indeed, Many of his structures can be seen around our District. Manuel was an artiste with a chain saw and he could perform miracles with his “Skyhook” chain block and his trusty shovel severely worn down by the digging of numerous postholes over many years! Manuel produced a number of stringy bark slab tables which are memorials to his skill and labours in the forests around Paluma- Blackfriars – Mt Zero as a timber cutter and Mill worker with Mr. R. Brookes esq. (who can forget their red hair dye period?)
Manuel’s legacy is around us for all to see…including the Andree Griffin Walking Track sign and the “Trees in Memory ” slab both voluntarily erected by him.
No story about Manuel’s life is complete without mentioning his valiant attempts to conquer the English language! He could construct alleged English sentences and adapt words so that they were but a shadow of their intended meaning but still understandable with a little prodding, poking and requests for repetition from those of us who could not understand a single word of the truly ancient Basque Language. (Please note : not Spanish!)
Indeed, it has been suggested that Manuel communicated in Basque with an Australian accent! a very endearing aspect of his personality and perfectly understandable when one considers that his English language academy was the cane paddocks of Ingham where the tutors spoke only Basque, Spanish, Italian , Sicilian , Serbian , Croat and Irish!
His persona of a tough hard- working battler remain in the memories of those who knew him, especially the super-critical working people of The Valley who were in awe of his prodigious work ethic and physical toughness.
May his memory be long respected in this District as one of those many oppressed refugees who have made a huge contribution to our present day Australian Culture .
Michael Drew