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.

As we all know, the environment of the Cassowary Coast is very special but it is also very fragile. It is a cyclone adapted environment, but development, tourism and two severe cyclones in only 5 years have taken their toll and participating in the plant outs has shown me how fragile such an environment is.

A healthy foreshore vegetation is key to stable sand dunes, the most effective barrier against erosion.

Congratulations to all who have been involved in the many plant outs along the foreshores of our beaches.  It is an acknowledgement of how intrinsic the value of the natural environment is to our community, lifestyle and well being at Mission Beach.

Hundreds of volunteers have spent countless hours over many months planting thousands of native trees and shrubs to help repair the damage to our dunal system as a result of cyclone Yasi. 

The Cassowary Coast community as a whole deserves  acknowledgement for the exceptional effort that is being made. 

WILDWATCH by ANNE (WILKINSON) & LAWRIE MARTIN

At last green-winged pigeons are back in the Wildwatch garden.

Possibly we have simply not noticed them or were not there at the right time, but these beautiful birds, also known as emerald doves, enjoyed a fairly high profile here until Cyclone Yasi when they disappeared.

We had not seen them since.

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.

WILDWATCH: by ANNE WILKINSON.

The exquisite beaches of the Cassowary Coast are often in the news, both for good and, sadly, sometimes for bad reasons.

Whatever the cause, the fact remains this region can boast some of the most beautiful beaches, even after Cyclone Yasi, in Australia.

WILDWATCH   by LAWRIE MARTIN.

“We knew very little about the mahogany glider and finding one in a fallen tree on our club grounds brought home the reality of the plight facing this little Queenslander,” John Guyatt said.

Mr Guyatt, involved in the Cardwell Reconstruction programme, was speaking at the Cardwell Country Club last week when a group of concerned citizens gathered to discuss the allocation of Federal Government funding under the Caring for Country programme to improve habitat for mahogany gliders (Petaurus gracilis).

Myrtle Rust - Alert
"Last Friday (25 May )was the Cassowary Recovery Team meeting at the Wet Tropics Management Authority.   One topic of discussion was the rapid emergence of Myrtle Rust in the region. This destructive exotic fungal disease has now invaded Mossman Gorge, Smithfield Conservation park and has been detected North of the Daintree River"   It has been found to be particularly infectious on the soft fleshy fruited members of the Myrtaceae family (over 50 species).

These also happen to make up a large part of the diet of Cassowary putting this already endangered species under even greater threat".  Alan Sheather, Daintree Cassowary Group facebook.

Read the latest news from the southern region of the Cassowary Coast in the June edition of Phoenix published by ASH.

Hello from cold and very wet Coquette Point,

The weather systems combined to bring heavy rain to the Wet Tropics on Thursday night. Around 350 mm fell in the Innisfail, Mossman and Cairns’ hinterlands overnight and on Friday all the rivers ran red to the Coral Sea Lagoon.  A low over Victoria has pushed cold air up along the Queensland coast and it was winter woollies all day to-day with the temperature not getting over 18 - freezing for FNQ.

Lot 11 SP171882 Explorer Drive,
Sth Mission Beach

There is a lot of concern, or to be more correct, disbelief being expressed by community members as they watch a hillside lot at South Mission Beach being developed.