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Mission Beach Community calls for culture of 'Caring for Cassowaries'

10/7/2020

Community representatives meet with Crs Jeff Baines and Trudy Tschui (Photo Trudy Tschui)

Media release
July 9 2020
Mission Beach Community calls for Culture of Caring for Cassowaries

A road closure, increased traffic management and developing a ‘culture of caring for cassowaries’ were some of the solutions suggested to protect cassowaries at a meeting held last week with Cassowary Coast Councillors Jeff Baines and Trudy Tschui.

The road death of much loved South Mission Beach cassowary ‘Mrs C’ prompts community meeting
Call for councillors to help develop 'Caring for Cassowaries' culture

Amongst those present to discuss ways the local council and community can work together to find effective solutions to address threats to cassowaries were representatives from; Mission Beach Cassowaries, Cassowary Coast Alliance, C4, Djiru Traditional Owners, Mission Arts, Terrain Natural Resource Management, Mission Beach Wildcare, Mission Beach Lions, Mission Beach Community Association (MBCA) Mission Beach State School,(MBSS) Mission Beach Rainforest School, Tropical Coast Tourism (TCT) Mission Beach Community Association (MBCA), Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) and local vet Graham Lauridsen.

Mrs C’s death was one of a spike in cassowary road deaths in recent weeks and came just days before Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey visited the region to announce the beginning of works on a world first dedicated cassowary land bridge being built into a major upgrade to the Bruce highway at Smiths Gap north of Tully.

Tully Vet Graham Lauridsen, who performed an autopsy on Mrs C. said “She was a very large, healthy female cassowary. Although he could not give an exact age, Graham said she was at least 25 to 30 years old.

“With the speed of some of the vehicles it’s like a racetrack”

South Mission Beach residents are calling for a road closure of Mission Drive, the small suburban street where Mrs C was killed. Mission Drive resident, Helen Vincent, said the road is used as a shortcut through to other residential areas. “With the speed of some of the vehicles it’s like a racetrack” said Helen. “It is very dangerous”. “It could easily have been a child trying to cross the street”.

There was strong support for the El Arish Mission Beach Road to be recognised as a tourist scenic route with appropriate signage alerting visitors to points of interest.

Mission Beach Cassowaries spokesperson, Liz Gallie said discussions with the TMR Minister and local councilors have been encouraging.” “There won’t be a single solution." said Liz. “While there could be a combination of different traffic calming measures incorporating, new technology, signs and enforcement, effective solutions will rely on education and community participation.”

Much loved South Mission Beach cassowary 'Mrs C'

Artist impression of possible 'cassowary crossing zone'

A consistent message must be rolled out from top down through governments and reinforced by all community groups”, said Liz. "It can be fun and creative".

Jeff Baines agreed, adding “We need to give the cassowary “hero’ status”.

Cr Tschui was enthusiastic about road entrance signs alerting drivers they are entering Cassowary Country and said “A ‘No Feeding, No Speeding campaign had a good ring to it”.

"The death of Mrs C on a quiet suburban road highlights the high risk to cassowaries attempting to cross roads throughout the region".

“A question that could be asked ahead of local planning decisions and when any activities or events are being proposed, is, “How will this action impact on cassowaries”? said Liz, “We are, after all, the Cassowary Coast and the cassowary is so important to tourism in our area.”

Liz said “We want to develop a strong culture of ‘Caring for Cassowaries” “It is the only way to address an issue that is placing our community under stress and constant heartbreak each time there is news of yet another cassowary dying on our roads”.

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Contact
Liz Gallie; Mission Beach Cassowaries Inc 0414402315
Cr Trudy Tschui; CCRC Division 3 (Community and Culture)
Cr Jeff Baines CCRC Division 5 (Governance, Environment & Finance)

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Babinda Community celebrates Flora and Fauna

13/10/2019

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'Cassowaries' Dinella Cross and Nicki Read with the local constabulary at the Babinda Harvest Festival parade.

Judging by the numbers lining the main street for the Harvest Festival parade there would have been very few sitting at home in Babinda yesterday (Saturday 12th).

This year the festival's theme was 'Flora and Fauna' so it was without hesitation Mission Beach Cassowaries responded to the invitation to join in the celebrations.

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All in fun and a good cause

7/10/2019

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2019-10-07
Media Release
All in fun and a Good Cause!
Last Saturday, Baden (Chappy) and Angela Chapman once again opened their home for an afternoon of rollicking fun activities. Each year their large garden with rainforest backdrop is set up with marquees, a stage and a number of tables set for teams of four. Chappy becomes his alter ego ‘the Quizmaster’ complete with a showman costume, entertaining from the stage all day trying to stump the guests with questions on music from the 60’s, and 70’s and 80’s.

The day rolls along at a fast pace with the quiz interspersed with competitions, raffles and auctions, all carried out with lots of humour and penalties.

Highlights of the day are the mime and air guitar competitions.

With twelve months planning, the attention to detail is obvious from the list of questions, the design of each year’s T Shirts to the catering.

Funds raised on the day through the sale of merchandise, ‘fines’ and fees to compete in activities, are donated to help a local cause.

For the past 6 years the funds have been donated to Mission Beach Cassowaries. On announcing the funds would once again go to help the cassowary, the Quizmaster said “They are such beautiful birds, we don’t want to see them go the same way as the Thylacine (Tassmanian Tiger)”.

Mission Beach Cassowaries spokesperson Liz Gallie said “We are so grateful for the donations. They have enabled our group to develop the ‘Mission Beach Naturally’ branding, letting people coming to our area know why it is so special and to contribute to awareness raising projects such as the Mission Beach School kids roadside signs and establishing the Mission Beach Community Cassowary Festival which will be in its fourth year in 2020.”

The private event has been running for 13 years and has a dedicated band of followers, some of whom travel as far away as Victoria, Northern Territory and South Australia.

Local businesses sponsor the event with donations for raffles. Community minded Chappy and Angela encourage their guests to go out while they are in town to support and enjoy locally owned and operated businesses.

Next year’s event is already in the planning. The number of tables is limited so if you know your 60’s, 70’s and 80’s music, and would like to be part of the quiz fest being held on August 29th, 2020, call or email Chappy to find out more. 0418 898 940 quizmequick@iinet.net.au
Ends.
Photos by Liz Gallie
For more information;
Baden Chapman 0418 898 940
Liz Gallie 0414402315

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Damning report - Qld Gov has no strategy for threatened species

14/1/2019

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Listen to podcast
Download podcast transcript

The following was recently posted on facebook by a former employee of the Queensland Government Threatened Species Unit bringing attention to the damning report from the Government's audit office.

"A few years ago I resigned from my job in the Threatened Species Unit of the Queensland Government out of sheer frustration. I felt like I was hitting my head against a wall, and achieving very little for conservation.

Today the Queensland Audit Office have released a report into Conserving Threatened Species in our state which summarises many of the reasons that I left. In particular:
"The department has no strategy or framework for conserving or managing threatened species.

"

"The department has no strategy or framework for conserving or managing threatened species. ..."

... Because it has no strategy, its efforts in managing threatened species lack purpose, direction and coordination.
...The department does not systematically plan where to deploy its available resources to achieve the most effective balance of actions to protect habitats, mitigate threats and reduce species decline. It is not clear how much the department spends each year in total on threatened species management as it does not effectively track and account for funding used on specific activities...

"... Because it has no strategy, its (Qld Gov) efforts in managing threatened species lack purpose, direction and coordination..."

...With few exceptions, the department does not currently know how threatened species are faring and whether management actions are having the desired impact.
...The department’s decisions about which species receive its greatest conservation efforts are often determined by iconic value, individual interests, departmental knowledge and advocacy, rather than by objective assessments of appropriate priorities...

...Despite, managing land with over 1 000 threatened species and having a total 2017–18 budget of $111.3 million, the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) does not identify specific allocations of funding for the protection and recovery of threatened species on the land it manages."

Sadly, the main recommendation is more 'plans'.

We don't need another plan. We know that many species are in decline, but we also know - in great detail - what needs to be done.

We need the government to actually support and implement actions on the ground, to DO SOMETHING.
Now".

See Paula Peeter's original blog post here

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The New Bulletin Issue #1

9/12/2018

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The New Bulletin Issue 1 Dec 2018

A new newsletter is being produced by the Cassowary Coast Alliance to give a voice in support of an ecologically sustainable future. The New Bulletin is a collation of articles provided by individuals or groups who share the ethos of the Cassowary Coast Alliance.

The Cassowary Coast Alliance (CCA) is a collaborative hub for entities and individuals who are actively seeking good quality and long term public interest outcomes for the World Heritage listed Cassowary Coast in Far North Queensland.

For further information email cassowarycoastbulletin@gmail.com

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Corridors Essential for Cassowaries

6/12/2018

CASSOWARIES CAUGHT COOLING OFF IN JUNGLE POND
Source Cairns Post 5 Dec 2018
Peter Carruthers

A CASSOWARY dad and his brood of three chicks have been caught on camera beating the heat by taking the plunge in the refreshing waters of a Mission Beach pool.

The video was captured by award winning conservationist, Liz Gallie on her iPhone at the junction of two all year round creeks in the Bingil Bay reserve near Mission Beach.

The adult male known to Mission Beach Cassowaries as Joov and can be seen in the clip with three chicks, estimated to be about four months old.

"They absolutely love water. They make noises like you when taking a dip in cool water on a really hot day," she said.
"It's obviously a very pleasurable thing to do, especially on a hot day."

Not an uncommon sight, Ms Gallie explained proximity to bodies of water was critical to the survival of the species.

"Cassowaries have to be near water and access water to drink about 20 times a day, so they are never far from water and in this hot weather we don't see them moving around at all during the middle of the day," she said.

Ms Gallie said Joov has struggled in the past to raise a successful brood.

"We are really pleased as it is the best family he has raised so far, he has had a hard time keeping them (alive)," she said.

Ms Gallie said the mother of previous chicks had been very intolerant of the chicks making their survival difficult to ensure.Ms Gallie said the preservation of wildlife corridors in the Mission Beach area was critical to the ongoing preservation of the cassowary.

"A lot of the corridors left around Mission Beach are only there because they are waterways and are really important for them to be able to move around the landscape, without them they have nowhere to go," she said
.
Mapping of the habitat by Terrain NRM was started but never completed in the northern parts of Mission Beach, Ms Gallie said.

"So when councils make decisions, they look on their maps and it does not exist and yet the cassowaries are there," she said.

Ms Gallie has been the recipient of the Cassowary Award presented by the Wet Tropics Management Authority and Mission Beach Cassowaries won an Australia Day Award in 2 016 .

LAWS INCREASE CONSERVATION/DEVELOPMENT CONFLICTS

15/11/2018

Starting about 10 years ago, successive governments have been making changes to legislation that has systematically reduced environmental protection. The changes are allowing development that will have unacceptable, consequential, combined and cumulative impacts on our natural and cultural values.

The Bligh government kicked it off by taking away the detailed coastal management plans, replacing them with the Qld Coastal Plan. Gone are Areas of State Significance (ASS) and its trigger 'no adverse impact' which protected places like Clump Point/Boat Bay from the type of development that has now been approved.

Next came the Newman government's onslaught against environmental protective legislation sounding the death knell to the Nature Conservation Act (NCA), and the public's democratic right to be consulted. The introduction of 'Major Projects' gave developments a status that allowed them to proceed without requiring environmental impacts studies or public consultation. (You may remember Mr Newman and Mr Abbott's constant reference to 'Green Tape).

The Palaszczuk government has joined the attack by breaking an election promise to reinstate the environment protecting clauses in the NCA. We are seeing the result of that broken promise as our National Parks, particularly wilderness areas now being targeted for 'high end' development with governments offering financial incentives to corporate investors. The Thorsborne Track being the one on our doorstep.

A Mask Sounds the Death Knell by Odilon Redon 1882

You can sign the petition against privatisation of the Throsborne Trail here

Along with the destruction of environmental laws came the restructuring of Federal and State development assessment processes. The Federal Government handed over EPBC Act assessment to the states and the state in turn has devolved ultimate decision making powers not just to local government, but to one person, the Mayor.

The crippling of environmental protection and the reluctance of the state to intervene in local council decisions is escalating development/conservation conflicts at an alarming rate.

The changes are rapidly becoming apparent in the Cassowary Coast with the local council taking a 'new broom' approach to determining the future of the region.

Important planning documents, being developed 'in house' are rewriting the regions vision for the future without reference to the consistent message from the community in feedback over decades of public consultation guiding the development of plans and strategies. The latest of these 'new vision' documents is the Cassowary Coast Tourism Strategy. The word indigenous only appears three times in the document and the

cassowary is only mentioned once in relation to being the namesake of the shire. Descriptions of some of our iconic wildlife ",..It’s not unusual to sight turtles and dugongs playing freely in the waterways ..." as if they are tourists on holiday, The public and important stakeholders have not been engaged for meaningful consultation.

Our serious concerns are highlighted in the presentation (see below) which was shown to the Cassowary Recovery Team in Cairns on Tuesday 13th Nov. It finishes with a question.

What are we going to do?

A recent tourism promotion released by Rockhampton council was quickly withdrawn after public outrage that it was "...obvious that there has been a real shortage or a dearth of inclusive material, anything that really represents what our community is really made of..."
A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald highlights the trend is widespread. Perth council has dealt with years of protests from community groups over town planning scheme amendments. A newly recently drafted strategy caused so much unrest the council went back to the drawing board. Other councils are copping public revolt at "..being consulted at the end of the process, instead of at the outset..." "... in a process nicknamed ‘Design, Advise and Defend..."

Public consultation is the cornerstone of democracy.

The community can stand up against this erosion of their democratic rights and gain back meaningful consultation to start turning around this runaway train of environmental destruction.

See presentation

CELEBRATION AS Lot 66 PROTECTED WITH NATURE REFUGE

26/10/2018

Mission Beach celebrates new nature refuge
Terrain NRM Media release
October 25, 2018

The Mission Beach community will celebrate next week when a long-running campaign to save a critical patch of cassowary habitat culminates in a new nature refuge.

Community members are gathering on Tuesday (30 October) at Lot 66 – a section of remnant rainforest that grabbed national headlines 10 years ago when former Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett pre-empted state and local government decision-making processes to rule out plans for a sub-division.

Queensland Trust for Nature and local conservation group C4 will unveil the nature refuge sign at the event, which is open to the public. The two organisations bought Lot 66 in 2011 after a major fundraising effort.

Queensland Trust for Nature’s Tanya Pritchard said the recent change in tenure, to a nature refuge, meant the Mission Beach community’s campaign to protect the 24ha site was now complete.

“It’s great to see Lot 66 join the 500 other nature refuges that have been gazetted in Queensland,” she said.

C4 president Peter Rowles said ongoing protection on strategic private land was critical to connecting large areas of publicly-owned habitat. He said Lot 66, also known as Garrett’s Corridor, gave cassowaries access to seasonal coastal food supplies.

Mission Beach Cassowaries’ Liz Gallie, a major player in the campaign to save the land, paid tribute to decades of community commitment and cassowary-focused partnerships. She said other important cassowary corridors at Mission Beach also needed protection.

Terrain NRM’s Tony O’Malley said Lot 66 was a critical link in the longest and widest east-west rainforest corridor in Australia, a stretch of land along Walter Hill Range from Mission Beach to Ravenshoe.
Terrain commissioned a report that identified cassowary corridors at Mission Beach and contributed to Mr Garrett protecting Lot 66 from residential subdivision, and helped with the partnership between Queensland Trust for Nature and C4.

“These groups have made an amazing contribution to the Cassowary Coast environmental landscape,’’ Mr O’Malley said. “We encourage governments to consider rates discounts for landowners with nature refuge agreements, as Douglas Shire does.”

Ms Pritchard called on landholders interested in conserving important habitats on their land to contact the Queensland Trust for Nature.

The Lot 66 celebration is on Tuesday 30 October at 4.30pm at the top of Mission Circle, off the Tully-Mission Beach Rd.

VALE MARGARET THORSBORNE AO 1927-2018

22/10/2018

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Obituaries

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Celebrating World Cassowary Day – Wednesday 26 September

25/9/2018

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Liz Gallie. Adult cassowaries at Mission Beach in the lead-up to World Cassowary Day.

MEDIA RELEASE | 24 Sept 2018

They are the second-heaviest bird in the world, they can sprint faster than Usain Bolt, and the bloke sits on the eggs. In the week of World Cassowary Day, there are plenty of quirky facts being shared about a bird that is struggling to survive in the region despite being a massive drawcard and a wonder to many.
The southern cassowary is listed as endangered and in Australia it is only found in North Queensland where it is most at home in lowland rainforests.
In the lead up to World Cassowary Day, on Wednesday 26 September, organisations are joining forces to raise awareness of the north’s ‘big bird’ - and its plight - across the nation and internationally.

“World Cassowary Day is going digital this year,’’ Bess Murphy from Cairns and Far North Environment Centre said.

“Cassowaries are well-known to people who live in the Wet Tropics and Cape York, or visitors to the region, but they remain unknown to those who aren’t familiar with this part of the world. To better protect cassowaries and their world-heritage home, we need the whole world to know about them.”

The Cassowary Recovery Team is encouraging people to visit a new website at www.worldcassowaryday.org and is asking social media users to like the World Cassowary Day Facebook page and to use the hashtag #LoveCassowaries with a special frame and filter.
They are also encouraging people to join or host an event.

World Cassowary Day 2018 is being supported by CAFNEC, C4, Kuranda Conservation, Mission Beach Cassowaries, Rainforest Reserves, Terrain NRM and the Wet Tropics Management Authority.

Terrain NRM’s Tony O’Malley said World Cassowary Day was also a way to celebrate the conservation efforts of those working to protect the southern cassowary, their home and the other unique and threatened animals of the region.
“The Wet Tropics cassowary population is estimated at just 4000 and vehicle strikes are the major recorded cause of death,’’ Mr O’Malley said. “Cassowaries use the world heritage area plus surrounding areas including private land, so we are working together to help cassowary populations recover, including through improving and extending habitat and reducing roadkill.

“Check out the website to find out how you can help make the cassowary famous and get involved in local events.”

--ENDS--

For further information, please contact:
Julie Lightfoot, Communications, Terrain NRM: julie.lightfoot@terrain.org.au, Ph.: 0427 039 117
Bess Murphy, Communications, CAFNEC: community@cafnec.org.au Ph.: 0409 696 399
Liz Gallie, President Mission Beach Cassowaries: missionbeachcassowaries@gmail.com Ph 0414 402315

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Mission Beach Community calls for culture of 'Caring for Cassowaries'

Babinda Community celebrates Flora and Fauna

All in fun and a good cause

Damning report - Qld Gov has no strategy for threatened species

"

"The department has no strategy or framework for conserving or managing threatened species. ..."

"... Because it has no strategy, its (Qld Gov) efforts in managing threatened species lack purpose, direction and coordination..."

The New Bulletin Issue #1

Corridors Essential for Cassowaries

LAWS INCREASE CONSERVATION/DEVELOPMENT CONFLICTS

CELEBRATION AS Lot 66 PROTECTED WITH NATURE REFUGE

VALE MARGARET THORSBORNE AO 1927-2018

Celebrating World Cassowary Day – Wednesday 26 September

Lot 66
a Mission Beach buyback success story

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