WHAT’S COMING UP?
MONDAY 13 NOVEMBER 6-8pm: State Election Forum at the Old Court House, Sturt Street. Organised by NQCC this forum will quiz candidates on environmental issues and policy. Please try to come along! A good showing will impress candidates that the environment is an issue that voters care about.
SATURDAY 18 NOVEMBER: Call in to the Garbutt Grasslands from 3-5pm for an information session and BBQ and to support the Creekwatch Group’s proposal to have the area protected. Further details here.
SUNDAY 19TH NOVEMBER: This month’s field trip will be our last for the year and will see another attempt to explore the tracks on the far side of the Paluma Dam, which we were unable to access in August due to maintenance works, and in October due to rain!
FRIDAY 24 NOVEMBER – NQCC TRIVIA NIGHT: The (in)famous NQCC trivia night is coming up once more. It is always a fun event as teams vie for the honour of having their names inscribed on the perpetual trophy! It is also a great fundraising night for the conservation council. You can form your own teams from among your friends, family, work colleagues etc in which case you should register with the organisers, OR you can simply turn up on the night and join an existing team.
SATURDAY 25 NOVEMBER – QUEENSLAND ELECTION: The outcome could have huge consequences for our unique wildlife, our bushlands and forests, wetlands and soils, rivers, coasts and reefs. Now more than ever – please consider environmental issues when you vote.
WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING?
AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER TRIPS: If you don’t visit this site regularly or are not subscribed to the blog, you will have missed seeing the reports of these two field trips published in the last few weeks. You can read about our August walk along the Andree Griffin track here, and September’s ramble along the creek at Rollingstone here. In addition to notes on the fauna and flora, both accounts include observations of some rather strange bird behaviour and excellent photographs – thanks especially to Pam and Malcolm for the latter.
OCTOBER TRIP REPORT: We are most grateful to Leonie Mynott for agreeing to be our scribe for this outing. Her report has been received and will be posted here in due course. If you are subscribed to our blog you will receive automatic notification when it is published. This is a hint – see panel at left! Otherwise you will either have to check back periodically or wait until you receive our next e-update in February 2018.
The message is clear! Photo from #Stop Adani
STOPPING ADANI: It was great to see such a cross-section of the Townsville community turning out on the national day of action against the Adani mine. Thanks to the ingenuity of George Hirst and Cam Leitch (always good to have an engineer on side) and some careful “choreography” we certainly made a splash, spelling out the message with several hundred red and white squares. To keep up with news and action regarding this campaign visit this site. Despite the Premier’s recent announcement, while the NAIF $1bn loan remains on the table, especially if there is a change of State government, the prospect of this, or other mines in the Galilee, proceeding remains “live”.
REEF REFLECTIONS ~ FIFTY YEARS ON: Last month a large number of people travelled to Mission Beach for a day of remembering and reflecting on 50 years of the reef campaign – in the place where it all began. A morning trip to nearby Ellison Reef was followed by an afternoon of looking to the future. You can read more here, with links to photos and audio.
Baby Raff is doing well
WILDLIFE RESCUE! On her way to join our October trip one of our members noticed a recently deceased brush-tailed possum beside the road. She was able to pull over, inspect the animal and rescue its joey which was unharmed. At our rendez-vous baby possum was passed into the expert hands of a wildlife carer, who promptly abandoned the walk in order to give this little orphan the care he needed. Thankfully, he was already beyond the pinkie stage and at last report his fur is thickening up and he is starting to munch on pieces of fruit.
SURPRISE VISITOR Never be surprised at what can turn up in a humble suburban garden. In Cranbrook last week a glance out of the bedroom window caught a buff-breasted paradise kingfisher perched on my clothes hoist! These spectacular birds, with rich blue-black and orange plumage, red bill and (in the male) a very long trailing tail, migrate from PNG in spring to take up residence in mostly lowland rainforests where they nest in termite mounds. So presumably this bird was in passage to somewhere more suitable than my backyard. BirdLife Townsville tell me they have a few (very few) other isolated records of these birds passing through town.
COULD YOU BE A FROG-HUNTER? The Australian Museum has launched a citizen science project to encourage people to identify and record frog species using a new FrogID app. Frogs are one of Australia’s most endangered groups of animals and attempts to protect them are hampered by lack of knowledge which this project could significantly redress. Read more here [Link expired]