HOW WE SEE IT! Saturday Snapshot

With Bryan Littlely and Shaun Hollis

Last updated:
Cartoon by SHAUN HOLLIS

Thank you Local Legends

There is little more joy to be had for me as a journalist than getting to meet and tell the stories of the people who are the fabric of a local community.

Regional and outback areas generally have a wealth of “talent” for when it comes to a cracking yarn… but most often don’t consider their stories of much interest to the readership.

At the end of what has been a tough year for the Douglas Shire, on the back of the Jasper hardship and Mossman Mill shutdown, it has been uplifting to see the passion and pride the people of Port Douglas and Mossman, and other communities across the region, have in the area and their place in it.

Thanks to all of those who have told their stories to me and our Newsport team this year. We love serving our community by sharing your news, achievements and events.

 

Drongos have put dingoes on death row

Following the reported attack on pet dogs in the Port Douglas Sports Complex by two dingoes on Christmas Day, I don’t see any other way forward than to catch and remove the wild dogs from the area.

But it would have been a better idea to have removed a couple of other actual pests from the area a few months ago. The men camped in the sports grounds, returning in their campers at night or even blatantly parked up for days at a time, who admit to feeding the dingoes and happily let their own dogs mix with them as “boyfriend and girlfriend” have loaded the gun for these native animals.

With it now at the stage where dingo behaviour experts are giving advice to not run or jog in a sports complex and keep your children at arm’s reach at all times - makes skateboarding pretty tough - there’s plenty of reason to make sure the unofficial free camp in the heart of Port and home of these dingoes is moved on at the same time the dingoes are… just they can find their own new homes while we work collectively to find one for the dingoes.

Sign the petition to protect the Port Douglas dingoes here: SIGN THE PETITION

 

My 12 days of Christmas

I have got all inspired by the Wildlife Habitat mob and their brilliantly wild, and native, 12 Days of Christmas song and looked at what mine would be like home on the farm.

My biggest problem is that I don’t, typically, have just one of anything… but that may have changed on Christmas Eve!

Because Christmas has come and gone, I’ll go backwards in my 12 Days of count:

12 Hungry heifers - Drought has gripped our SA farm and while it is not desperate for us just yet, it will be more dire with every 35 degree plus day we get down south.

11 Cows are calving - In the next week and with 27 all up. Hopefully a bunch of speckle park cuties, even though it’s not ideal to have more mouths to feed at the moment.

10 Horses healing - We run a small racehorse rehab and retraining program, mostly with horses we have had a part of ourselves and they’re used for showing right through to equine therapy.

9 Roos are jumping - And that’s just in the home paddock! Kangaroo numbers are extreme in our region.

8 Puppies packing - We have just said goodbye, to good homes, to eight of nine border collie/Kelpie cross puppies.

7 Magpies warbling - Our daily visit by a family of magpies, who my wife befriended in a bid to stop “swoopy Steve’s” stable lane shenanigans, are a delight.

6 Echidna’s waddling - An almost daily drive highlight is getting a chance to say g’day to a prickly little mate. We’ve even had an albino one around our way.

5 Foxes stalking - With local rabbit population booming, there’s some healthy foxes making night time visits too.

4 Eagles soaring - Also benefiting from the rise in rabbit, and duck population, and ever keen on calving season, a family of wedge tailed eagles calls our farm home… and we call our farm Eagles Rise because they take off and rise up the hill to our home.

3 Cats are hunting - Well one does and keeps the mouse and rat population down in the feed sheds. The other two are more “comfort cats” and quite comfortable with that!

2 Dogs are loving - They may be kelpies but they’re not work dogs, even though they try.

And my one of a kind…

1 Rooster doing I have no idea what as I don’t have any chooks! “Rupert Hey-Hey” joined our clan on Christmas Eve as a result of being returned to my mate’s city chicken sales coop as a mini heatwave struck. He at very least makes a nice authentic farm noise.

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