Platy

"This is Cassowary Country"

Until 24th May

"...Casuarius casuarius johnsonii or Southern Cassowary, is a tall, flightless bird measuring up to the height of a grown human male, with a high helmet on its head, a vivid blue neck and long drooping red wattles. This unique animal, found only in the tropical rainforests of north-east Queensland, Papua
New Guinea and some surrounding islands, is the focus of the exhibition . . . This is Cassowary Country. At the time of European settlement, the cassowary lived in tropical rainforests of northeast Queensland, from the Paluma Range [north of Townsville] to the tip of Cape York Peninsula. Surviving on a diet of fleshy fruits obtained from a diversity of fruiting trees, these birds are primarily found in rainforest areas, but often frequent woodlands, melaleuca swamps, mangroves and even beaches.
Recently their habitat has been greatly reduced through land clearing, so numbers have decreased quite dramatically. Cassowaries are now found in three broad populations. In the Wet Tropics cassowaries are found from Cooktown to the Paluma Range and on Cape York, they occur in
two separate populations: one in the McIlwraith and Iron ranges, the other around Shelburne Bay. This is Cassowary Country has been developed also to compliment the Kuranda Conservation study, which aims to identify [through DNA profiles] and document the remaining cassowaries, their habitat and its condition in the local region. This research makes a significant contribution to CSIRO’s Cassowary Recovery Plan for the Wet Tropics as well as highlighting
the Kuranda Conservation Volunteer Program [now in it’s twelfth year] of growing local native flora for public and private plantings in the lowland rainforests of Cairns and Kuranda.

Through individual perspectives and the employment of personal motifs and
other visual language, the combined works of local artists Margaret Genever,
Arone Meeks, Barbara Dover, Gerhard Hillmann, Mollie Bosworth, Susan Doherty and Terry Eager will highlight to audiences the plight of the endangered cassowary - nature’s own rainforest horticulturalist.
This is Cassowary Country is curated by Laurel McKenzie..."

Brian Robinson - Exhibitions Manager