This year’s Garden Competition was held on November 14th. The competition was sponsored by Bunnings and judged by two experienced and enthusiastic garden-lovers from Bunnings (Ange, a trained horticulturalist and Kathleen, the local activities coordinator). Lynn and Jamie spent most of the day escorting judges around the village and 5 acre blocks, admiring the wonderful and varied landscapes and plantings created by Paluma residents. The judges commented on what a privilege it was to be able to see the spectacular displays of blooms and foliage that our misty, mountain climate can produce. Almost every garden had something that was striking and unique that caught the eyes and admiration of the judges. They left the village overwhelmed with the task of picking winners from such a range of beautiful gardens.
The Winners for this year (with comments from the judges) are:
1. Best Residential Garden in the Village (Allison Evens Trophy) Michele Bird.
From the front of the property to the back, everywhere we looked there was something interesting and beautiful to look at. The front was full of colour that was a delight to see. As you walked through the little paths it was like walking through a secret garden. The back was beautifully landscaped creating a lovely view from the balcony which also had an amazing array of plotted plants. We loved the eclectic style and she has done an amazing job with the space that she has.
2. Best Non-Residential Garden in the Village Djindal Bayanyu EcoRetreat (Mark Cubis and Leonie Crennan)
The place at the end of Mount Spec Rd/Loop Rd – The landscaping was very well done. It had different levels and points of interest such as the timber archway and water feature. The view from the deck down onto the garden was lovely and created such a relaxing space.
3. Best Acreage Garden Lynn and Les Hyland.
Out of all the acreage properties we saw, we felt this property used the space to its full potential. There were interesting paths to take you throughout the property, each one was a unique experience. We also loved that the forest itself was integrated as part of the garden. It created a beautiful balance of established gardens and the natural environment.
4. Highly Recommended Village Garden Julie and Tony Bligh
The Japanese style garden – It was such a surprise to see the beautiful little Japanese style garden amongst the Paluma rainforest. We loved the use of water which created an interesting and tranquil space and the black pine was a beautiful specimen. It was a unique little garden well worth seeing.
5. Most Unusual Feature or Plant Specimen Don Battersby
He had the most impressive collection of anthuriums we have seen and there were many interesting specimens but the poisonous pigtail anthurium was the most unusual garden specimen we had seen that day. Something we have never seen or heard of.
The winners…. (except the Blighs)
Congratulations to all the winners. We hope to post separate articles on recent winning gardens early next year.
A rowdy crowd of about 35 Paluma residents attended the Tropical BBQ as the last social event on the PDCA calendar for 2022. As always, Paluma’s great cooks outdid themselves with a banquet of dishes for all to enjoy. The dessert table alone was something to behold. Josh and Don on the BBQ did a splendid job in cooking everyone’s dinner. The tropical theme of the night was embraced with gusto, judging from the number of very loud shirts and other attire around the hall. Palm trees, pineapples and tropical flowers were definitely the fabric of choice on the night. A great night was had by all with lots of chatter and a good chance to catch up with friends and neighbours before the Christmas season.
Here’s a rainfall update from Barry Smith for November and the year to date….
We have had 145 mm of rain for November 2022 with 18 days of rain this month.
For 2022, we have cracked the 2 metre mark with 2,080.4 mm so far to 29 November. Judging from the forecast, it looks like plenty more rain to come before the year is out.
Paluma’s rainfall recorders are a dedicated bunch, never missing a day in checking the gauge and recording the rainfall figures.
Special thanks go to all the volunteers for their great work in 2022, including Barry Smith for recording the week day rainfall, with back-up assistance when required from Tracy Cooper and Rick Roveda. Peter Cooke and Michele Bird do the recording on the weekend. Other keen volunteers step in from time to time when called upon. Great work everyone in keeping these important records for our little village in the mist (and rain).
‘The Passage of Seasons’ Book Launch took place last Friday evening (18 November) at the Drill Hall Studio in North Ward, Townsville. Colwyn Campbell was joined by family and friends from all over North Queensland and beyond to celebrate the launch. Peter Cooke provided a splendid introduction and opening speech which is reproduced in full below (with permission).
We’re here tonight to launch a book in which long time friends Colwyn Campbell and Di Lucas generously share with us their experiences and thoughts generated by their deeply shared passion for the natural world.
Through the pages of “The Passage of the Seasons” we are privileged to join the life journeys of Di in the savannah of the NT’s Top End and Colwyn in the cloud forest of Paluma.
This is a book of many parts. It is a nature book, but a very special nature book in which people, particularly the authors’ families and friends, are centrally placed in the landscapes which inspire their conversations.
Alongside scientific observations and descriptions are embedded the feelings and experiences of the observers as the seasons turn month by month ….. whether against the background of wild nature or in the cultivated nature of their home gardens.
The letter-writing form of the book is also special and increasingly rare in the digital age. The inventor of email, Shiva Ayadurai, observes that texting, SMS, chat or Twitter have destroyed letter writing. In this not-so-brave new world, wise and elegant wordsmithing has been largely replaced by the five-second video grab headline or 140-characterd micro-blogging.
The establishment of a postal service in England in 1606 allowed anyone with price of a stamp to communicate with anyone with an address.
Women were quick to take advantage of the improved logistic advantages and the creation of a private space for two people to converse across slow time and far distant space.
Linguists credit women writers of the 17th and 18th centuries with inventing a more personal, private and introspective form of letter writing, using informal styles that were conversational and spontaneous, more like speech and just as lively, vibrant and at times as playful as speech, while addressing subjects from the mundane to the profound.
Di and Colwyn have built on that tradition of style and The Passage of Seasons confirms it still works just fine in the 21stcentury.
Another ancestral influence and inspiration for Passage of the Seasons was the emergence of the genre of nature diaries, a genre not exclusively female but one which continues to resonate strongly amongst biophile women writers and their audiences.
Both Colwyn and Di acknowledge the strong inspiration and influence of the English woman writer Edith Blackwell Holden, who fashioned her Nature Notes for 1906 as a model for her students’ work while teaching art at the Solihull School for girls in England.
Edith Holden’s collection of seasonal observations, poetry, and pictures of birds, plants, and insects wasn’t even considered for publication when it was composed and it wasn’t until 1977 that her nature notes were finally published and became a world best seller under the title The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady.
Other seminal sources of inspiration acknowledged by Di and Colwyn include
Earth, fire, air and water, an exchange of letters between two women artists Anne Dangars and Grace Crowley, edited by Helen Topliss.
Densey Cline’s formidable catalogue of nature books, especially the Garden Jungle
Jackie French’s ‘Seasons of content‘
’The 3,000 Mile Garden’, conversations between Leslie Land and Roger Phillips focused on their gardens on different continents
And finally ‘A Gardener’s Log’ and other books by Edna Walling which Di’s mother passed to her.
As well as these shared European influences, Di brings to The Passage of Seasons perspectives on nature and human relationships drawn from decades of interactions and friendships with the indigenous people of Western Arnhem Land.
For Colwyn, Pen Pal friendships with contemporaries in the US and the UK helped make her into a self-confessed life-long compulsive letter writer.
In the mid-20th century school children were encouraged to engage with pen friends in other countries.
Some of these formally encouraged pen-friendships were very long lasting.
In 2018 the record for a pen friendship was between Ruth Magee from Canada and Beryl Richmond in the UK who at that time had corresponded for 78 years and 160 days. They did manage to meet but only twice and only briefly.
For Di, going off to boarding school at 10 going on 11 ramped up a regular pattern of letter writing. Di and her dad exchanged letters on a weekly basis. Mum, she says, was just too busy in her garden and keeping house.
The conception and gestation of Seasons began back in Darwin some years after Colwyn and Di were introduced in Darwin in 2001 by a mutual friend, Leonie Norrington, at the launch of Leonie’s Tropical Food Gardens”, a book which Colwyn illustrated.
They found they shared lifelong interests in gardening, writing and art. They got to know one another better as Diane often called in at Colwyn’s husband’s book exchange in rural Darwin. Diane at that time was part-time teaching and already writing books for children.
Colwyn says: “I was rapt when Diane told me about a book that was germinating in her mind and asked if I would illustrate it.”
And so began their collaboration with Waterlilies, their first book together and self-published in 2007.
It was a great learning curve, says Colwyn and they were thrilled when Waterlilies received a “Notable Book” award. It has since had four reprints. This book, along with three others, are on the recommended reading list for Indigenous literacy and they have three other books in the pipeline, also for children.
So began five or six years of letter writing that has culminated in our being here tonight to launch The Passage of Seasons — a literary journey during which personal nature diaries have been folded in with intimate stories of family and friends, initally in private correspondence between Di and Colwyn across a great distance.
What the authors are sharing now is a sensory feast for all, from Colwyn’s lovingly created and charming illustrations to their mutual keen written observations and commentary on the sights, sounds, tastes, smells and touches of nature that await those who open their hearts and minds to the call of the wild.
As Colwyn says “what we hoped to achieve was something that would take the reader away from everyday worries to a peaceful mindset, not too taxing, requiring no serious level of concentration but rather to be conducive to contemplation of the natural world around us all”.
The Passage of Seasons achieves all those goals and is a magnificent celebration of nature, of friendship and lives well lived. Enjoy and share.
Text by Peter Cooke. Photos by Michele Bird and Juanita Poletto.
The annual Monsters and Mayhem Social was held at the Community Hall last Saturday night (12 November). Just under 20 people joined in the fun, many embracing the theme of the night with gusto. As always there was an amazing array of food to enjoy, including some very special ‘finger food’. A good time and lots of laughs was the order of the evening. Every picture tells a story……!
A reminder that Colwyn Campbell will launch her new book, Passage of Seasons this coming week in Townsville and at Paluma. The official book launch takes place on Friday 18 November at 6 pm at the Drill Hall Studio in North Ward, Townsville. Everyone is welcome to attend. Paluma’s very own Peter Cooke will be speaking at the launch. For further details please see the flyer in our previous post on 8 November.
If you can’t make it on Friday night, Colwyn will hold a second launch for her Paluma family and friends at the Rainforest Inn on Saturday 19 November at 1 pm. Again, all are welcome to attend.
Halloween might be over for 2022, but all the really creepy people will be out and about this Saturday night 12th November for the annual ‘Monsters and Mayhem on the Mountain’ Social at the Community Hall.
All the usual ‘Paluma Protocols’ will apply.
Start time is 6.30 pm.
Bring a plate of food to share – anything and everything goes.
Bar will be open for low-cost beverages.
Sense of community spirit and good humour are essential.
Come as you are, or come dressed to the theme as your favourite horror story. Everyone is welcome and let’s face it……some of us won’t even have to dress up!
The 26th Annual Paluma Garden Competition will again be sponsored by Bunnings in 2022. On Monday 14th November, the judges will be accompanied by a Paluma resident whilst on your property to view your garden. It is run on the basis that all properties are entered unless you email Lynn Hyland (lhyland@optusnet.com.au) by Saturday 12th November to advise that you do not wish to participate in the garden competition. The winners will be announced at the Tropical BBQ to be held at the Community Hall on Saturday 10th December.
The 2nd October Paluma Mountain Market was very successful with eleven stallholders including the Paluma Rural Fire Brigade’s Book Stall and the Community Cake Stall. The latter was a sell out and raised some record funding for the PDCA. Many thanks to all who cooked and donated cakes and baked goods and to Charlie Allen who managed the stall most efficiently. We were very thankful for the donated pineapples which sold fast under Jill’s watchful eye and was most enjoyable on the BBQ too. The ‘Coffee Man’ aka Colin was kept busy too.
The Sausage Sizzle did very well with Don Battersby and Lynda Radbone handling the super sausages and Les handling the till. We sold 144 sausages to hungry patrons with the ‘super-size’ version complete with onion, coleslaw and/or pipeapple proving very tasty and very popular.
We were lucky to have had a cool but dry day and it was noticeable how many family groups were present – the playground was kept busy ! Our advertising on the Bruce Highway, Bundock Street and on Bamford Lane was seen by many, plus the wider coverage through Facebook by Jill and advertising at the Rollingstone Pineapple Festival and Market all helped to swell the visitor numbers.
A grand little market for such a small community- well done all.
