Village news – Page 20 – Paluma – our village in the mist

Vale Jean Garrett

It is with sorrow that we report the passing of former Paluma resident, Jean Garrett on Christmas Day, 2019 after a long illness.

Jean had a long association with Paluma, visiting the village regularly from the time she was a teenager, coming on a motor cycle with her then boyfriend, Graham. They married in Perth, when Jean was 16, returning to Townsville soon after, and had a long and happy marriage.

Jean supported her husband’s enthusiasm for Speedway Side-car racing and over many years they travelled to many destinations to speedway meetings around the country with their children. They were a popular couple around the speedway, with many long-term friends.

Jean was a very capable woman with numerous other interests, especially within the Arts. She and Graham owned The Palms Art Gallery in Townsville, from which they also ran a framing business. Jean had a fine collection of porcelain, sculpture and prints. Jean was also a keen gardener. An absorbing interest was jewellery-making, at which she was very talented, creating unique and lovely pieces in her studio at their home. Jean’sjewellery was in demand at craft shops and markets.

Graham and Jean bought Mist Haven units from Cec and Lois Carpenter, and later the brick house in Lennox Crescent where Jean and Graham lived until Graham’s death in 2008. Jean was devastated by his death but remained here for several years. However, with declining health and missing Graham deeply, she sold the house and moved to Patterson in NSW to be nearer to her children and grand-children. Here, she quickly made friends and helped regularly in an art and craft shop until failing health forced her to retire.

Jean is remembered very fondly by her friends in Paluma and our sympathy is extended to her family in their sad loss.

A celebration of the lives of Graham and Jean and spreading of their mingled ashes, will be held by the family on 6^th June in Paluma, where Graham and Jean had been so happy.

Townsville Sketchers visit Paluma

Today the Paluma Pottery hosted a group of artists from the Urban Sketchers Townsville Group for lunch.

The group made a day of it, stopping at little Crystal Creek to sketch the only functional stone arch bridge in Queensland, and then visiting Len Cook in Paluma. Its great that Len is continuing to encourage artists working with various media to come up to the village and enjoy the mountain air, although today was not a good example of our normally cool temperatures!

A sample of one of the sketches by Alison McDonald is shown here. More examples of the results of their visit can be seen on their facebook page.

Paluma Rainfall (2019)

Over many years Don Battersby has been vigilant in recording the annual rainfall statistics at his property on Hussey Road on the western outskirts of Paluma Village.

Don has kindly contributed the following rainfall statistics for Hussey Road for 2019. The total rainfall recorded by Don for 2019 was 4205.5 mm with rain falling on 99 days of the year.

The stand-out months for rainfall were January and February with a total of 3069 mm of rain falling in these two months (equivalent to 73% of the total rainfall for 2019). In the latter part of 2019, the stand-out month for the lack of rainfall was September with not a drop of rain recorded at Hussey Road!

Are there other rainfall recordings for Paluma and surrounds?. If you have been recording rainfall at your property we would love to have your statistics!

Rainfall recordings by Don Battersby. Text by Michele Bird.

Vale Stafford Browne

We are deeply saddened to report the recent passing of Stafford Browne, long-time resident of Hussey Road, Paluma. Stafford, best known to his Paluma friends and family as ‘Staff’ passed away on 11 December 2019. He will be fondly remembered this week at a private ‘Celebration of Life’ in Townsville. Our loving thoughts and sincere condolences are extended to Merle and the family in their great loss.

Paluma Garden Competition – The Winners

The annual Paluma Garden Competition was held in late November this year and the results were announced at the last social of the year (Tropical BBQ on 7th December). Lynn Hyland reports that the event was most successful and she has provided the following feedback:-

“We had four Bunnings staff as the judging panel this year. On Tuesday 26th November the judges walked their little feet off for nearly five hours. I escorted them around the Acreage Gardens and Jamie Oliver did likewise around the Village Gardens. We provided lunch at the Community Hall“.

The Bunnings judging panel for the 2019 Paluma Garden Competition.

“Even though the gardens and lawns were very dry at this time, the judges were most impressed with the gardens of Paluma. They stated that they will be back next year and will stay longer on the job without being so rushed. They took a lot of photos of the gardens and interesting plants. I even got introduced to some new plant names. It was great to have a horticulturist to refer to for information about species. There really are a lot of ‘hidden treasures’ in our Paluma gardens. The ladies really enjoyed the experience and would like to see the gardens of Paluma at an earlier time of the year when the camellias and azaleas are in bloom – maybe after Easter next year“.

“I also had the Memorial Trophy refitted with new ornaments as it was looking a little sad about the gilt work. It now looks smashing. The trophy is now in the custody of the winners”.

The Alison Evans Memorial Trophy for the Paluma Garden Competition.

The Trophy with names of the previous winners of the Paluma Garden Competition.

The overall winner this year and the trophy holder for the 2019 Paluma Garden Competition goes to Glenda and Nick Van Rynswoud. These are truly award winning gardeners having won the competition a total of four times.

Hearty congratulations to all the winners and for contributing to the ongoing success of this Paluma event. Sincere thanks to Bunnings for their ongoing support for our competition, the judging panel from Bunnings and to Lynn and Jamie for volunteering their time to escort the judges around the village and acreage blocks.

The Winners of the 2019 Paluma Garden Competition are:-

Best Residential Garden in the Village: Glenda and Nick Van Rynswoud Memorial Trophy winner. $50

Highly Commended Residential Garden in the Village: Graham and Judith Malpass. $30

Best Commercial Property Garden in the Village: ‘Manali’ Bill and Linda Venn. $50

Best Acreage Garden on the Blocks: Anne Bruyeres. $50

Best Novelty/Unusual Garden: Rainforest Novelty Trail and Garden, Don Battersby. $20

Text by Lynn Hyland and Michele Bird. Photos by Michele Bird and Jamie Oliver.

Paluma Tropical BBQ and new Hall lights mark the start of the Christmas season

On Saturday we had very good attendance at our Tropical BBQ including a couple from Townsville who happened to be up for the weekend. There was a variety of salad, and deserts and plenty of meat to go round. Les the barman made sure there was plenty of social lubricant available to add to the enjoyment of the evening. Photographic evidence of the event is unfortunately scarce. Yours truly was too busy catching up with people and providing his usual inept services as a relief barman and totally forgot to take pictures. We did manage to get a shot of the last of the crowd at the end of the evening.

This year, for the first time, the exterior of the hall and the gazebo were decorated with Christmas lights that definitely provided a festive look to the area that could be seen from the Mt Spec Rd as well as Smith Crescent. Many thanks to the Townsville City Council’s “Christmas Together ” initiative which provided funds for the purchase of the external lights as well as eskies to ensure we could keep our meat and drinks cool.

New Christmas lights provided a festive look to the Community Hall courtesy of the Townsville City Council.

History Display Closes for the Holiday Season

The History Project will close for the holiday season and the wet season after the session on Tuesday 26th November 2019. It will re-open in 2020 on St Patrick’s Day, Tuesday 17th March at the usual time of 11.00 to 13.00 hrs.

The Paluma community thanks the dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers who make the History Project an ongoing success year after year. Thank you to all those who have assisted in running the Project in 2019, especially Les Hyland, Lynn Hyland and Colwyn Campbell.

Gardeners Get Ready!

The annual Paluma Garden Competition is just around the corner with the judging to take place between Monday 25th November and Wednesday 27th November. The judging will be done by Bunnings staff, with Bunnings also kindly donating some vouchers for the winners.

The judges will be accompanied by a member of the PDCA or a local Paluma resident during the judging. If you do not want your garden included in the competition and/or you do not wish the judging team to enter your property, please send an email to Lynn Hyland at:- lhyland@optusnet.com.au

The winners of the Garden Competition will be announced at the last social for 2019 at the Tropical BBQ on Saturday 7th December at the Community Hall.

The Garden Competition is hotly contested every year, so now is the time to get out in the fresh air and spruce up your patch of paradise ready for the judging. Despite the recent hot and dry weather, a short stroll around the village on Sunday morning (10/11/19) revealed many beautiful blooms amongst the village gardens (and some stiff competition from the neighbours!).

Gardeners, start your mowers and get your secateurs ready………! Here’s a few photographs of current blooms to give you some inspiration.

A stunning mass planting of Asiatic liliums on Lennox Crescent.

Clivia hybrid in a shady spot in the garden.

Agapanthus varieties are just starting to bloom. Purple & white varieties are common in the village.

One of many mass plantings of hippeastrum lillies around the village.

The Chameleon variety of Tibouchina is bursting into flower and should be at its blooming best in a week or so.

A stunning Gladioli in the prize winning Gumburu garden.

Paluma Goes International

A small but very enthusiastic crowd gathered at the Community Hall on Saturday evening (2 November 2019) for the latest event on the Paluma social calendar with an International theme.

Continents and countries the world over were represented as many of the attendees donned their finest (and not so-finest) international costumes to celebrate multiculturalism, Paluma-style. There were Mexicans, an Egyptian, two Fijians (fresh off the cruise boat), North Americans and European nations all represented. There were a few Aussies, a Scotsman and even a Drop Bear (of uncertain nationality and with a strange rear appendage) made an appearance on the night.

A wide selection of dishes from around the world meant that there was plenty of good food to enjoy. Some patrons told their best and very worst jokes on the night. The group was pleasantly surprised by the return that very afternoon of the Cooke’s (Peter & Jan) who have just made their annual migration south (from NT) for the summer. Great company of friends and neighbours ensured a good time and many laughs were had by all.

The Sky is the (Outer) Limit at Paluma

It was a very busy weekend in Paluma for the crew from Outer Limits Adventure Fitness. They had over 50 people for the open day at the high ropes course on Saturday, before turning it all into ‘Dinner Under The Stars’ (actually in the clouds with fairy lights) on Saturday night for over 100 guests. The dinner was catered by the Feel Good Foodie truck. It was a great social evening with locals and runners enjoying the evening.

On Sunday all the attention turned to the Trail Run as 350 runners lined up to tackle the challenging trails around Paluma. The 20 km run took the participants across Cloudy Creek, Ethel Creek, then back via the road and down to Blue Gum Creek and then back to the village via Witt’s lookout.

The 10 km event went straight down the Blue Gum trail and back via Witt’s Lookout. The 6 km course included all the village trails – Rainforest Loop, H-Track, Witt’s Lookout and the Andree Griffin Track. The weather turned it on for the runners with clear blue skies and a perfect Paluma day. It was a magic day on the trails!

Article & Photo provided by Sam Stedman