News

Dateline: April 2016

As the rainforest grows up, the invertebrate population at CCRRS is changing.Whereas our commonest butterfly used to be the ubiquitous Wanderer, in America the Monarch (Danaus plexippus), as we have eliminated its larval foodplants (Gomphocarpus spp. and Asclepias curassavica) it no longer breeds at CCRRS. In 2011 we planted a dozen or so Pararistolochia praevenosa vines, which thrived; when they produced fruits we planted more. This year the forest edges were a-flutter with the rare Richmond Birdwing Butterfly (Richmondia ornithoptera), which is definitely back again, for keeps, we hope.

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Dateline: 2 June 2014

The vegetation survey of the upper part of the property having been completed and report compiled, we have pleasure in presenting the table of the numbers of rare species recorded.

Species	Total	Common Name
Acacia orites	1	Mountain Wattle
Acronychia baeuerlenii	43	Byron Bay Acronychia
Actephila grandifolia	18	No common name
Archidendron muellerianum	3	Veiny Laceflower
Ardisia bakeri	82	No common name
Argophyllum nullumense	10	Silver Leaf
Assa darlingtonii	1	Pouched Frog
Basistoa transversa (selwynii)	157	Yellow Satinheart or Three-leaved Bosistoa
Carronia multisepalea	51	No common name
Citrus australasica	2	Finger Lime
Cupaniopsis newmanii	39	Long-leaved Tuckeroo
Endiandra hayesii	14	Rusty Rose Walnut or Velvet laurel
Floydia praealta	1	Big Nut or Bull Nut or Ball Nut or Possum Nut int. al.
Fontainea australis	110	Southern Fontainea
Helicia ferruginea	5	Hairy Honeysuckle or Rusty Oak
Lastreopsis smithiana	1	Smooth Shield Fern
Macadamia tetraphylla	87	Rough-shelled Macadamia Rough-shelled Queensland Nut Rough-leaved Queensland Nut Rough-shelled Bush Nut Queensland Nut Poppel Nut int. al.
Menura alberti	1	Albert’s Lyrebird
Mischocarpus ailae	27	Woolly Bush Apple
Ochrosia moorei	5	Southern Ochrosia
Palmeria foremanii	1	No common name
Phaleria chermsideana	1	Scrub Daphne
Phyllodes imperialis smythersii	5	Pink Underwing Moth
Ptiloris paradiseus	1	Paradise Riflebird
Rhodamnia maideniana	25	Smooth Scrub Turpentine
Streptothamnus moorei	6	No common name
Tapeinosperma repandulum	13	No common name
Total	710

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Dateline: 13 June 2013

After a turbulent time in press, the Foundress’s book White Beech will be published in the US and UK at the beginning of 2014. Advance copies will be available in Australia from the beginning of November. She is planning a special and possibly rather arduous promotion tour of neglected rural centres. Seeya!

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Dateline: 28th November 2011

Lui Weber reports: The Forests of Eastern Australia is now the 35th global biodiversity hotspot! With over 8000 vascular plant species and more than 2000 endemic to the hotspot the area easily meets the 1500 endemic species criteria for a global biodiversity hotspot. And with 77% of natural vegetation cleared or modified it sadly also meets the 70% clearing criteria for a global biodiversity hotspot.

I am not sure why this is not bigger news. Only a minor blog website is reporting it: Forests of Eastern Australia are the World’s Newest Biodiversity Hotspots

The book where the paper is published is here: Biodiversity Hotspots

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Dateline: 23rd June 2011

The toughened leaves of the subtropical rainforest canopy protect the understorey from all extremes of temperature. Once the forest is cleared frost is a regular visitor, for as many as nine nights a year, usually in July. This year the frost arrived at Cave Creek early, on 23 June. Frost tends to slide down steep slopes and pool against the forest edge. It will damage and even kill young trees in new plantings. This is one reason for giving seedling trees plenty of time to harden off before they are planted out.

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Dateline: 31st May 2011

Container-grown trees are ready and available free of charge to anyone trying to rehabilitate Complex Notophyll Vine Forest or similar within 20 km radius of Natural Bridge (south-east Queensland). Please go here for a list of available trees. If you’re interested, simply email ccrrs@bigpond.com

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Dateline: 23rd May 2011

The Foundress of CCRRS has had an article she wrote on the floods of December 2010 selected for inclusion in “The Best Australian Science Writing 2011” to be published by the University of NSW Press. See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/15/australian-floods-queensland-germaine-greer

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Dateline: 21st March 2011

After five months of waiting for its fruit to ripen, during which time it had to be protected from all the forest animals who longed to eat it, we succeeded in collecting mature seed of the small Bolwarra, Eupomatia bennettii. We have now potted on no fewer than eighty seedlings. The genus, the only one in the family of Eupomatiaceae, consists of four species. One grows only in New Guinea, another only in the Daintree. E. bennettii is much smaller than the better known shrub E. laurina; it consists of a single stalk with a single remarkable terminal flower, with fleshy staminodes that exude a musky scent and a sticky substance that attracts their pollinator, a small brown weevil called Elleschodes hamiltonii. Similar fossils dating from the Cretaceous have been found in America.

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Dateline: 9 May 2017 

CCRRS did not expect to get caught up in the skirts of Cyclone Debbie, or the 800mm of rain she dumped on us over the last two days of March 2017. During the onslaught power and phone lines were brought down and the causeway across Cave Creek was badly damaged. Power was not restored for almost six days; all food spoiled, and Professor Greer who was in residence at the time had to live on dry bread and peanut butter for the duration. Unable to get out or back in again, she had no phone signal either.

Damage to infrastructure in the upper Numinbah Valley has been considerable; landslides closed many roads, and it will take months to get them all safe to use. At CCRRS a chunk of recently planted rainforest detached itself from the hillside and slid into a gully. Our very first planting from May 2003 was smashed when a huge old Hoop Pine, part of the remains of a plantation the QWPS should have felled years ago, fell across our boundary. The forest is full of leaning amd fallen trees. Thousands of the broken branches called ‘widowmakers’ hang in the canopy, ready to fall as the foliage decays. The forest will take all this in its stride, but it hurts to see.