Hello from the mouth of the Johnstone River,

The development application for 27V Coquette Point has been rejected by the Federal Government as well as the Cassowary Coast Regional Council's, (CCRC) town planners.

The development application was referred to the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, (SEWPC), and was accessed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act of 1999. (EPBC act).  The development was deemed to be a controlled action and the project was sent for public environment referral (PER) on a cost recovery basis to the developer.

It is my understanding the PER found the development would impact adversely on listed threatened species like the Southern Cassowary. The development was refused by SEWPC under section 18 and 18A of the EPBC act.

CCRC Councillor, Mark Nolan advised me the development had also been adversely assessed by the CCRC town planners on the access, water and sewerage provisions.

I rang the developer Rick Gore for his reaction to these adverse assessment and he told me confidently. "The development will happen, I haven't got the energy at the moment, but all the issues can be addressed and we will eventually have it. It will happen. Its nothing like what people think it is. There is no problem with access. I am doing this to help the town out." Mr Gore told me.

The mouth of the Johnstone River, Coquette Point 27V is on the right side of photo.

 

"There is no problem with access" Gore said.

 

The little sun bird of north Queensland has learnt to prosper in the face of spreading suburbia. There are few houses in north Queensland without a sun bird nest or two. Sun birds take advantage of the protection given by Queensland's verandas and happily raise their young amidst the comings and goings of busy families.

The sunbird baby waits for a feed.

 

While the female is busy feeding the baby the male stand guard and alerts her if danger approaches.  This  male sun bird, below, proudly erects his pectoral tufts in a display of his virility.

 

Lurking nearby mother butcher birds hunts to feed her babies.

 

 

            While sun-birds have learnt to coexist with humans the shorebirds of the world have not and recent studies have found a dramatic fall in the numbers of migratory shorebirds around the world. Of the 836 species of birds protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act about a quarter are known to be in trouble according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service. They go on to say "The majority of the challenges faced by migratory birds are related to human activities.  The greatest threat to birds, and all wildlife, continues to be loss and degradation of habitat due to human development and disturbance. For migratory birds and other species that require multiple areas for wintering, breeding and stopovers points, the effects of habitat loss can be complex and far-reaching.'                              The spit at Coquette Point is both a stop over point and a breeding area for migratory birds. The extensive sand flats at the mouth of the Johnstone River at Coquette Point are important feeding grounds for both migratory and sedentary species of birds. In summer millions of soldier crabs emerge to run and feed on the sand flats at low tide. It is not unusual to find cassowaries, beach stone curlews and other resident birds competing for a feed of crabs on the sand banks with migratory shore birds like the endangered                                                                   little  tern.                                                                        Coquette Point is a special place where the rain forest join the tidal lagoons and melaleuca swamps of the  World Heritage Wet Tropics and link with the World Heritage Great Barrier Reef lagoon. 

 

 

              This week 12 juvenile crested terns arrived on the beach. It was a magical moment. Aboriginal elder Victor Cassidy was fishing on the beach and the terns flew around and around him. He dragged his bait net up from the river and a few fish fell out of the net onto the sand. At once the young crested terns swooped down, coming so close to me one brushed my arm with its wing. Victor gathered his bait and put it in a bucket with the lid fixed tightly, while the terns watched closely from the nearby rocks. As soon as one of us moved they were in the air naive to any danger from us. They allowed me to approach them and photograph them from  three metres distance.                                                         Victor decided not to continue fishing but to sit and enjoy the terns as they flew around and around him, inquisitive and playful. At the first sign of bait activity the terns dived into the river, emerging with a fish tightly grasped in their beaks.                          While we watched the terns a turtle surfaced and looked to see what all the fuss was about. The turtle surfaced again and again with  long deep sounding grasps as it gulped in air.  As hard as I tried I only managed to capture the turtle's shadow as it disappeared under the water.

One tern appeared very sleepy and continually dropped his beak to his chest. It was so amusing I called him Noddy.

 

                                                                               

Jumping spiders were very active in my garden this week and I photographed three species I had not seen before with my camera.

 

This spider has a good head of hair.

 

While the jumping spiders are busy eating moths, mosquitoes, and flies around the garden the praying

mantis are eating white fly, aphids and grasshoppers. The young praying mantis, below, is licking its lips after a feed of white fly in my garden.

Gertrude the green tree snake is on the move in the leaf litter. She is looking for mice and any little birds that might fall from a nest. Her beautiful yellow belly contrast with the blue flecks on her flank. She is a slim 1.5 metres in length and has been in the nursery for ten years. Green tree snakes are non venomous and play a beneficial role around the home and farm by eating feral mice.

The northern dwarf tree frog is only tiny

but she has a big voice and her mating call, a long 'wreek' has already begun to sing the rain.

Major skink is on the hunt for cockroaches,

they are his favourite food. Unless, of course, you put a little bit of cake down for him. One of these

skinks has moved into my house and he has eaten all the cockroaches but he wont go outside, so

I leave a few dog biscuits and some water for him and he seems quite happy.

 

Another major skink sleeps on the EFT machine in the shop. Perhaps the light attracts insects.

 

 

In the rain forest the beautiful Evodiella Muelleri is flowering.This little evodia is one of the host plants of the blue Ulysses butterfly.

 

 

Falling on the leaf litter and into streams the

spent flowers of hibiscus tiliaceus turn from yellow to crimson as they age. The flowers and the

young leaves of this tree can be added to salads for extra colour and flavour.

Driving home from town this week I 

stopped to take a photo of John Roach the curator of CCRC parks and gardens. John was photographing the very large fruits of this undiscribed pandanus species. According to Anton Van Der Schans, a landscape designer who is now working at the Singapore Gardens "This is probably an undescribed sp in the Pandanus gemmifer complex. It is one of the "Puppy" pandans that produces plantlets on the branches, independent of the fruit. It is very common at the Russell River Landing near Hervey Creek, again at East Russell, behind the beach at Etty Bay, along the low lying parts of the road down to Coquette Point and there is a small swamp full of it on the east side of the highway immediately north of Moresby village. This gemmifer type has normal big phalanges like the common P. solms-laubachii, which can grow side by side, the difference in foliage colour is distinctive, solms-laubachii tending to be a matt, dull green or slightly glaucous, whereas this species is a rich glossy dark green. The gemmifer populations in Barron Gorge, on the tablelands at Lake Eacham and in the Tully Gorge are all slightly different.

The pandanus in the picture above, is growing beside the Coquette Point road at Ninds Creek. It can be propagated from the 'pups' which it drops from its trunk and also from the seed which take about three months to germinate. Cassowary scats containing the fruits were beside and on the road close to the tree.  John Roach has some plants from this tree growing in the Council nursery.

 

Visitors from Finland, this week, came to north Queensland to see the

flora and fauna of the Wet Tropics Rainforests. I photographed them standing under

 the giant strangler fig in my front yard.    The trees of the Wet Tropics are wonderfully strange.

 

cheers for now,

Yvonne.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                

 

 

                                                                      

                                                        

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ron Berry, a north Queensland gardener, died this week. Ron was born in Gordonvale in 1931 and was buried at his birthplace this week. He always boasted he never lived more than 50 miles from where he was born.

During Ron's time as Deputy Chairman for the Douglas Shire he was the driving force to convert the 'Bloomfield Trail' to an all weather road. Later, Ron told me he came to think the road was a costly mistake.

To the very last weeks of his life Ron was a popular presence at community markets with his grafted eggplants, tomatoes and his wise advise to anyone who wanted help to grow food in the Wet Tropics.

Rhonda and family we share your sorrow and we honour Ron for his contribution to horticulture, echo tourism and the arts in Far North Queensland.

There is a link in the right hand tab to two articles I wrote about Ron in my 'Growing' blog. If you wish to read about Ron click on January 2011; 'Why they built a road through the Daintree rainforest' and in the same issue 'Ron Berry'.

An unusual weather pattern over the last few weeks has brought strong, cool winds to coastal Queensland. While October is normally quite hot, this year we are experiencing night time temperatures around 18degrees and daytime just under 30degrees. Combined with very low humidity we are enjoying the mildest of October weather.

The strong winds have kept the fishers in the river and all week fishing mates in small boats have been darting around the mangroves looking to catch a feed of fish.

This looks like a good spot!

 

In the rain forest the black bean, castanospermum australe, are in full bloom. The bright yellow flowers and orange bracts attract rainbow lorikeets, flying foxes, spangled drongos and other nectar eating birds. While drinking the nectar the birds and bats pollinate the flowers and within a few months the large seed pods develop.

 

Can you find the rainbow lorikeets in the tree?

Breakfast in the rain forest.

 

On Thursday when the lorikeets finished feeding in the black bean tree they flew to a nearby candle nut, aleurites rockinghamensis, where a nutmeg pigeon was warming herself in the early morning sun. This is her preferred sunning spot and almost every morning I see her in this candle nut. Nutmeg sat fixed on her perch as the lorikeets harassed and screeched loudly at her.  Eventually, tied of the game they flew off.

Nutmeg held her cool and in the end owned the tree.

 

Contrasting against the deep green of the rain forest's canopy, and also flowering this week, is the white-apple tree, syzygium forte.  Large clusters of white-apple flowers attract moths and butterflies to feast on their nectar. Soon clusters of white fruits will develop, a favourite food of nutmeg pigeons, cassowaries, flying foxes and the pig-nosed turtle.

 The canopy of the wet tropics rain forest is an ever changing mosaic of coloured leaves,flowers and fruits.

White apple tree in flower at the Coconuts, Innisfail.

 

On the northern side of the Johnstone River, in the area called The Coconuts, several white-apple trees have been planted in a small park. In one of these trees near the boat-ramp metallic starlings have built their nests.

Metallic starling nests are woven around the flower heads.

Metallic starling nests hang over the Johnstone River.      

Flocks of metallic starlings cross the Johnstone River, from their tree at The Coconuts, to feed in the rain forest and collect nest building material from Coquette Point.

 

A large male metallic starling rests on a mangrove at Coquette Point while

the rays of the setting sun create a rainbow on its shiny breast feathers.                                                       

 

 

In the warm spring sunshine butterflies are busy laying eggs for the next generation. Above a female Cairns Bird-wing rest from the wind.

 

 

Orange migrants cluster in large numbers.

 

Pale green triangle rest on a windy day.

 

Red-bodied Swallowtail, just hatched, dries

her wings in the early morning sunshine.                                                                                  

 

Fluttering hither and thither across the canopy of the rain forest and only occasionally stopping for a rest the tailed-green-banded-blue butterfly lays her eggs on the match-box bean vine. The distinctive caterpillars are bright green with a pale brown head.

 

Spring of course is the month when moths especially are active laying their eggs, much to every gardeners distress, often on cabbages and tomato plants.

A spray containing 5mls of eucalyptus oil and 5 mls of detergent in one litre of water and sprayed on vegetables and fruit once a week will deter the mother moth from laying her eggs on plants and fruits.

The scaly patterns of moths is every bit as remarkable as those of butterflies and many day flying species of moths can be observed around the rain forest canopy and in the protected understory. However, to appreciate their diversity you need to observe the huge variety of nocturnal moths active in the night time. Below are a few moths I have seen, active during the day, this week.

 

Here is a close up of the wing!!!!!!!!!!

Insects of the Wet Tropic's rain forest are

weird and diverse and none more so than the spiny leaf insect. What does a bitten leaf matter when you have a spectacular creature like this in your garden? 

 

The Indian koels have been very vocal

all week with the male and female (above) calling excitedly from their roosting trees. The metallic starlings and the pheasant coucals should watch out as Mrs Indian koel is looking for a surrogate parent for her eggs.

With the dry weather the cassowaries are

looking for water and Dot is again coming into the nursery regularly for a drink.

I was busy weeding when Dot came up behind me and looked right in my weed bucket, it gave me quite a start.

I found Dad 1's second chick, unnamed, sleeping under a tree at the top of the Moresby Range. Any suggestions for his name? 

 

Subadult cassowary 'Q' turned up this week. Q

is one of the two surviving chicks from 'Little Dad's clutch born around October 2010, the other chick I calle 'Don'. 'Q' is almost fully coloured and is developing very long wattles even though his casque has not formed. He walked twice around my vegetable garden hungrily looking at the red tomatoes and chillies growing behind the fence.

The sub adult of unknown parents also turned up again this week. He was skittish and soon ran off.

 

Diana O'Brian sent me some photos of 'Little Dad' with only one chick now surviving.

We had all hoped that this was another new cassowary with just one chick but a careful comparisions of the two photos showing watles and casque appear to show it is 'Little Dad' with 'Cheeky'.

Diana O reported that on Wednesday afternoon she saw a large male cassowary with two very small chicks crossing the Coquette Point road near the old foresty track. It could be 'Brown Cone' or 'Dad 1' with the chicks, no doubt I will see them soon and be able to confirm the Dad; its wonderful news.

 

Coquette Point was well represented at a function in the Shire Hall to support the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Clive Strickland was Master of Ceremonies, John O'Brien entertained us.

 

 In the photo below John is in the 'zone' for a his wonderful rendition of' 'Mak the Knife'. Very well done John.

Bill Farmsworth did all the heavy lifting to take plants in to decorate the hall and the Nursery was happy to be a sponser and support the event; my Irish eyes are still smiling.

Cheers for now,

 

Yvonne C.