Village news – Page 4 – Paluma – our village in the mist

Community Hall Goes Green

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.

Well done Paluma – it’s all about community!

Text & Photos by Michele Bird

Len Cook Exhibition Rescheduled

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.

Reminder: St. Patricks Day Social, Saturday 18 March

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 !

A Wet Working Bee

Come rain, hail or shine, nothing stops a working bee at Paluma.

A very successful working bee was held last Saturday (4 March) to carry out some much needed maintenance and clean up work round the village. The planned track repair works along the Rainforest Walking Track was postponed for the time being due to the wet weather, but there were plenty of other jobs to complete. The targeted works included installation of new signage at Whalley Crescent and the H-Track, pruning of vegetation along the road verge at the western end of the village and removal of wattle clippings near the tennis courts.

The seven very keen volunteers were: – Wilfred, Ian, Julie, Rob, Annesheke, John and Michele. The crew worked through the persistent and sometimes heavy showers of rain and nothing could dampen the enthusiasm for the jobs at hand. Well done to all those who came along to lend a hand.

The (damp) volunteers at Saturday’s working bee.

New signage at the western end of the H-Track.

Pruning of vegetation from the road verge at the western end of the village.

On a walk around the village you might also have noticed some new signage at the western end of Lennox Crescent to alert visitors to the H-Track and Len Cook Ceramics.

A recent clean-up of vegetation encroaching over the signage at the entrance to the village has also been undertaken, this volunteer work by Jamie. Some new signage to welcome visitors to Paluma is planned for this area in the future. Stay tuned…

Tidy up around the signage at the village entrance (volunteer work by Jamie).

Text & Photos by Michele Bird & Roy

The Rooster’s Still on the Run….

The canny Rooster is still on the run on the Paluma Range Road. My latest siting was last evening (Sunday 5 March) at culvert 147 just above The Saddle. There he was perched high atop a boulder overlooking the road. He did look a bit worse for wear and somewhat bedraggled after the heavy rain during the afternoon.

Many have tried and failed to trap, net or snare this elusive fellow without success. Some have gotten close, but the feisty fowl has so far eluded capture. The intent is to try and capture him and relocate him to a better life – on a farm or in a nice hen house where he can live out his best life. It must be lonely for a solitary renegade rooster on the Range Road.

Text & Photos by Michele Bird.

February Rainfall Update

Here’s the latest rainfall figures for Paluma from the BOM recording site at the Village Green, courtesy of Barry Smith (weekday recorder) and Peter Cooke (weekend recorder). Ponder this….

561 mm of rain for the month of February

23 days of rain in the month of February

A total of 1,166.6 mm of rain since 1 January

Reminder: Working Bee at Paluma this Saturday 4th March

A timely reminder that there will be a Working Bee this coming Saturday 4th March to continue with repair and upgrading works on the Rainforest Walking Track (opposite the Community Hall).

Please meet at the Community Hall at 2 pm and bring your wheel barrow and shovel. Wilfred says there is a couple of hours of work to do and there will be refreshments afterwards!

The monthly Working Bee is now a regular event on the first Saturday of every month. So please mark your calendars as there are always plenty of jobs to carry out around the village. Many hands make light work…!

St. Patrick’s Day Community Social

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.

See you there!

Simply Red…..

The Paluma Community Hall was bathed in red on Saturday night for the Lunar New Year with a large crowd gathering to mark the event. Where else but Paluma could you spend your Saturday evening commemorating Chinese New Year, Water Rabbits, four birthdays and a Scottish poet. But celebrate we did!

There was a banquet of the most amazing food, many Chinese inspired dishes plus an array of other sumptuous treats. My vote for the dish of the night was Tony and Julie’s contribution of roast pork – cooked to perfection and a very generous contribution to the community dinner. Many were heard to comment that the pork crackling was the ‘best they have ever tasted’. Quite a few people tried to ply Tony for his secret in creating the perfect pork crackling, but I don’t think anyone was successful in extracting the secret recipe.

January is filled with Paluma birthdays and so we celebrated with black forest cake and other desserts. Don’s birthday was yesterday (Sunday) and Colwyn’s birthday was last week. Whilst Colwyn couldn’t join us on Saturday night she is ever-present in our thoughts. Mark and Leonie celebrate their birthday mid week – on the same day. A rowdy chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’ echoed from the Hall.

Speaking of singing, Leslie paid tribute to Scottish poet Robert Burns with a rendition of his own favourite Burns poem in song. He belted out a tune, helped along the way by Beth. Burns Night is this Wednesday evening, so a good excuse for a wee dram.

Lynda took over the duty of bar person for the event and ran everything like clockwork. Leslie was able to relax for a change and enjoy his dinner and conversation. Many thanks to Les for all his years of dedicated service as resident Barman at PDCA Socials, a role he has reluctantly decided to pass on to others due to his hearing difficulty. Lynn provided information on ‘Year of the Water Rabbit’ and it turned out there were a few ‘bunnies’ amongst the crowd. No one got rich on the Lucky Scratchies hidden under selected chairs, but that didn’t seem to matter on the night.

Paluma Socials are about fun, laughter, good spirit and community – and this one was no exception.

Reminder: Chinese New Year Social, Saturday 21 January

A reminder to Paluma residents that the first PDCA Social of 2023 will take place this coming Saturday at the Community Hall. Chinese New Year celebrations will kick off at 6.30 pm. Come along to mark the lunar new year and to catch up with your neighbours after what has been a soggy start to January.

The Bar will be open and please bring a dish to share. Red is the lucky colour to wear for Chinese New Year.

Rumour has it that quite a few people are celebrating birthdays at this time of year. Colwyn had a birthday last week, Don has a birthday this week (on Sunday) and Mark and Leonie both celebrate their birthdays next week (on Wednesday). There are no secrets in Paluma….. A little bird told me that there will be cake….!

Keeping with the multi-cultural theme, for those of us of Scottish ancestry it is an important time of the year in celebrating Rabbie Burns Night on 25th January. Without any bias, Rabbie Burns was the greatest poet that ever lived. I mention this just in case some people want to wear tartan in honour of Rabbie Burns birthday.

Whatever you wish to celebrate, come along and join in. It costs nothing to relax and enjoy the company of good friends. And the weather forecast is for sunshine on Saturday! Bring it on.