Hello from sunny Coquette Point,

The suspense leading up to the solar eclipse on the 14/11/12 could have been written by Alfred Hitchcock. Dark clouds gathered on the days before the event and the weather gurus held very little hope that we, on the far northern coast, would have clear skies to see the sun. Thousands left the coast and travelled hundreds of miles inland to find clear skies.  However, that was no excuse for us to miss out on a neighbourhood get together and breakfast-party.

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Hello from Jungguy country,

Coastal wetlands are some of the most threatened habitats on the planet. The Melaleuca leucadendren swamps of Coquette Point are included in the World Heritage Wet Tropics and extended from the mouth of the Johnstone River to the Moresby Range, an area three kilometres long by ½ kilometre wide.

This swamp is a major fish spawning habitat and consists of large deep lagoons and shallow swamps of melaleuca, pandanus and tidal mangrove: this is the Johnstone River’s ‘everglades’.

Hello from windy and wet Coquette Point,

What a difference a week makes! From warm balmy days under cloudless skies the weather has turned into windy, wet misery. Or at least miserable for sun lovers like me.

The strong wind warning sent Martin in the ‘Sig’ running for port and he came in Monday night and is  now waiting for the wind to ease.

Hello from Coquette Point,

At long last Cassowary matriarch ‘Jessie’ has succumbed to the wooing of ‘Snout’.  For the last six weeks ‘Snout’ has been displaying and preening his feathers, vocalizing with low, low drumming  sounds while doing his best to approach ‘Jessie’. Until Monday his attentions had been rejected and  always ended with an aggressive chase.

Hello from Coquette Point,

After three weeks of cool, dry and sunny weather 5mls of rain fell last night and more is expected in the coming days. A large high is moving into the ‘Bight’, and it will signal a strong wind warning along the coast and the return of the inevitable rain. Early this week strong winds brought breaking waves across the Johnstone River bar reminding me yet again of Lieutenant  Johnstone’s report in 1872 of this ‘breaking bar across Gladys Inlet’.

Hello from Coquette Point,

Another week of perfect weather, hot dry days, clear cool nights, what wonderful conditions for growing food.  In the vegetable garden lettuce and cabbage are forming hearts and tomatoes are swelling.  In the orchard the harvest of citrus has been particularly good with trees laden with sweet, juicy mandarins, lemonades, oranges and more, all providing a good dose of vitamin C to chase away winter colds. In the rainforest the seeds of the black bean trees are falling to the ground.

Aboriginal rainforest people made flour from the seeds but only after a long process of leaching the alkaloid from the poisonous seed. The flour was made into bread, hearty and warming on cold nights.  What good timing when nature delivered an abundance of these meaty seeds at the onset of the winter months.

Hello from sunny Coquette Point,

The week opened with ‘dial up weather’ which has remained; days reaching 23/24 and nights around 14/15; bright blue sunny skies with hardly a cloud to be seen.

Great excitement on Wednesday with the transit of Venus across the sun. Laurie and Anne visited from Cardwell and Ruth joined us for a ‘Venus’ party. We had great views of the transit through a modern welding helmet.

WILDWATCH:  by  ANNE WILKINSON.

Wandering the Cassowary Coast beaches, bird watching is always a pleasure. It is a family rule always to carry a light pair of binoculars and, for me, a sketchbook.

There are so many different kinds of birds for which the beach and the sea are focuses.

Hello from Coquette Point,

A very wet, windy and cold week has at last broken into sunshine but only very late this afternoon.

This morning I accepted an invitation from Mandubarra elder Nellie Epong to be present at a turtle release at Cowley Beach. Although overcast the day was warm with a gentle wind blowing: a perfect day for a turtle release.