David Cuschieri

We are so grateful living up here on Tamborine Mou

We are so grateful living up here on Tamborine Mountain, surrounded by pure nature. Early morning walks in the rainforest, listening to the echo of lyrebirds, breathing in the beauty of waterfalls, and marvelling at form and colour of fungi. This is close to nature living at its best.

Tamborine Mountain has been described as a series of villages throughout the rainforest. There has been talk in the past of declaring the mountain and its surrounds as a Biosphere reserve. We hope one day this becomes a reality, to ensure the protection and conservation of this special place for generations to come.

This dream would be particularly poignant if we remember that Witches Falls, part of Tamborine National Park, was the first national park to be established in Queensland, on March 28, 1908. This illustrates that over a century ago, the natural beauty and wonder of this mountain was recognised as important enough to preserve.

With just over a week away to the anniversary of the establishment of the very first National Park in Queensland, I feel heartened that the natural beauty and charm of this magical place remains.

#wild places #tamborinemountain #mounttamborine #curtisfalls #TamborineMountainBiosphere
#tamborinenationalpark #mountainlife #mountainmagic #pureliving #wildnaturetherapy

One of my favourite plants. Liguria reniformis, co

One of my favourite plants. Liguria reniformis, commonly known as the Tractor Seat Plant, for its fleshy round leaves.

Plants have a way of transcending time, of connecting us to memories. The plant reminds me of my mum, who has this plant growing in her garden for decades.

In Maktese, it is called "galetti" or the "biscuit" plant because the round leaves look like biscuits. Since I've planted it, it has grown huge. Going to divide it and plant it through the garden.

#plantmemories #plantslover #planttherapy #wildnaturetherapy #gardentherapy #liguriareniformis #tractorseatplant #galetti #fortheloveofplants

Fungi is abundant in the garden after the rains fr

Fungi is abundant in the garden after the rains from Cyclone Alfred.

#fungirama #fungitherapy #fungi #stinkhorn #ilovefungi #wildnaturetherapy ##gardentherapy

I'm Fond of Fronds I'm fond of fronds, so green a

I'm Fond of Fronds

I'm fond of fronds, so green and bright,
With curls and coils in morning light.
They stretch and sway, a soft embrace,
A graceful dance in nature's space.

The fern's lush leaves, both small and grand,
Are gentle fingers of the land.
Each frond unfurls, a tender leaf,
A silent whisper, calm and brief.

In shaded woods, they softly grow,
Where sunlight dances, warm and low.
A secret world beneath the trees,
Where fronds rustle with the breeze.

Oh, how I love their tender might,
Their quiet strength, their endless flight.
A fern's frond, so soft, so free,
A secret bond between earth and me.

ChatGPT

#fondoffronds #ferns #treeferns #dicksoniayoungiae #iloveferns #ilovetreeferns

Curiosity has always driven me on exciting adventu

Curiosity has always driven me on exciting adventures.

The latest quest is the Black Plum Project. It is the story to save from extinction a rare and endangered dry rainforest tree endemic to southeast Queensland. There are reported to be 160-180 individual records of this tree in the wild.

The project is growing with 5 local councils in the species range involved in the project, together with state government, botanists, and local environmental groups and private landholders.

A couple of actions we are undertaking are surveying new and previous places where the tree has been found and genetic testing of different populations.

This foundational research work is crucial for when we formulate the Species Recovery Plan.

This tree is shrouded in mystery, and it is our combined curiosity that drives us to find answers. It is a tree that was discovered and then was presumed to have gone extinct and then rediscovered in the 1980's again.

It is found in isolated dry rainforest pockets, which contain other rare and endangered species. Some believe that it has become rare as there may have been a large ground dwelling bird such as a cassowary that used to eat the large fruit, and when that bird went extinct then the fruit couldn't be dispersed far from the mother tree. It became a story of the apple, or in this case, the plum, not falling far from the tree.

There are interesting questions that have arisen from this project, and we are determined to find answers.

Survey work has already increased the known number of individuals. I was privileged to join Sunshine Coast environmental officers recently to survey a known area, and many new individuals were discovered.

This morning, @Sarah Bashforth is interviewing the custodian of a tree that is found hundreds of kilometres away from known populations.

Next week, I'll be joining Logan City Council environmental officers to search for two individual trees that haven't been seen for a quarter of a century.

Through conversations followed up by scientific research, the story of this rare species will reveal its secrets and help us learn how to conserve it.

#theblackplumprjoject #wildnaturetherapy

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