Dr's Steve and Miriam Goosem were guest speakers at a recent C4 general meeting. Steve presented a fascinating power point presentation about cassowaries that took us as far back as the 1670's with a Cassowary painting by Francis Barlow in the Entrance Hall at Clandon Park, Surrey. (photo left) Steve, who is the principle scientist at Wet Tropics Management Authority, kindly sent me the presentation (with his notes) to share with you. Here is Steve's power point presentation Dr Miriam Goosem who is the Principal Research Fellow, Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science (TESS)at JCU, introduced the JCU Traffic management research report of which she is co-author. |
Community pride in re vegetation projects
The approval of an eight residential lot development within prime cassowary habitat has resuslted in the destruction of an important cassowary corridor at Mission Beach. It was approved on all levels of government, the outcome being totally contrary to the promises in the application referred to the federal government environment department. It highlights the lack of planning that allows this shocking, unacceptable practice to continue.
Award winning documentary team in town
Photo Jeff Larson On New Year’s Eve, a Giant Petaltail (Petalura ingentissima) visited our garden. She was the second we had ever seen – the first arrived in 2009 and hid behind a Livistona trunk so Jeff could only get partial photos of him. He was a “he” as he had the elegant oval appendages (or petals) at the tip of his tail. The petaltail that arrived on New Year’s Eve was a female dragonfly, without petals. Scuffling noises on the roof, like there was something in the ceiling woke me up early in the morning a couple of days ago. It was accompanied by a loud ruckus of butcher bird calls and on closer inspection a family of black butcher birds had killed a reasonable sized green tree snake which was now laying motionless on the ground surrounded by the family, all 'talking' about it. The snake must have been in the large sapling that has had an enormous growth spurt as part of the rejuvenation of the rainforest and is beginning to bend over the house under the weight of the vines proliferating since cyclone Yasi. The Bingil Bay community has been wathcing Bernie's progress since he was struck by a car trying to cross the Bingil Bay Road. QPWS have been overseeing his recovery within his environment and are now weaning him off supplementary food. Today he ventured south east across the gully. It is the second time I have seen him since the accident. He is beginning to get his adult colours. His foot is still swollen but he can walk without a limp now and the three claws he lost are starting to regrow. We are all very happy for Bernie surviving this round. The scramble to lodge development applications ahead of the deadline of the FNQ2031 Regional Plan in 2009 saw at one stage 35 proposals in the Mission Beach area referred to the Federal Environment agency to be assessed under the EPBC Act. To date, except for the then minister Peter Garrett's 'clearly unacceptable' decision on Lot 66, all developments assessed have been approved with various conditions and offsets. |
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