Volunteers -28 -but stayed on average one month.

Interns -4

Students - 4

Researchers - 1

International Student Volunteers - this year we had 3 groups with a 2 week break between groups (a total of 30).

Visitors -included John Sinclair (Go Bush Safaris, AUSTROP Director), George Maddock (National Parks Association of Queensland), Ray Rex (Mossman TAFE), David Solomon (and other elders of the Kuku Yalangi tribe), Julie Tessler and Gabrielle Greeves of the Daintree Land Trust (US arm of Austrop)

Hugh to ISV conference in Sydney, thence to USA to visit Lubee Foundation bat research facility (Gainesville Fla), Florida Solar Energy institute, and thence to NYC to meet up with Julie Tessler, Director of the Daintree Land Trust and met the the new educational coordinator for the Daintree Land Trust, Monica Bianchi. Monica has since joined the Station at Cape Tribulation.

Hugh, Brigitta and Monica attended the Joint Reef and Rainforest CRC conference in Townsville 22-24 November 05 to give a poster presentation on "Coconuts as a Threatening Process to Tropical Littoral Rain Forests", and "Attitudes of landholders to riparian habitats".

Consultancies -Hugh has been an Expert Witness in the Booth vs Frippery case in Townsville (Sept 05) (a case involving a Townsville fruit farmer who set up "non-lethal" electric grids for controlling flying foxes -except that the non-lethality of these grids was highly contentious -and so he was taken to court for transgressing the Queensland Conservation laws).

He has also been retained to act as expert witness for a case concerning a passenger aircraft which collided with a flying fox at Cairns airport. This is due to go to court in 2006, but has involved a considerable load of work to date.

Building -there has been no major building activities this year (quite a change) -but Hugh's new cabin was sufficiently completed for him to move-in in May. Steps were fitted to the Bat House verandah to lead off to the new Regeneration boardwalk.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed with the "Centre of Excellence for Photovoltaic Research" at University of New South Wales, to collaborate on the development of the solar component of the Flying Fox GPS Collar project, and the Centre has provided us with samples of high output cells for the project.

Flying fox GPS collar. Due to our electronic whiz Tim Miller, marrying, moving into the area, buying a house, and becoming an Australian resident, he has been only able to devote small amounts of time to the project over the past year. He is settled now -and is able to become much more involved. Luckily the Givewell Fund gave the $30,000 grant money as a "one-line" grant -so that we have been able to spread it out over the time since we received it, and have about $10,000 remaining. However, until we have a "proof of performance" system, we can't get further funding. We hope that will be by early next year. There is considerable interest in the project and not only from flying fox researchers, as it is useful for everything from bats to birds to dingoes and even cattle, especially a solar-powered version with an integral logger and remote downloading (so we don't have to catch the animal to download the logger contents). Fortunately we no longer have to attempt to make our own specialist circuit boards, as this capability can now be easily contracted out (we wasted a considerable amount of time and money this year attempting to do this).

An ISV student Katelin Craven (from Colorado US) is presently looking at the impact of white tailed rats on coconuts (the rats appear to be an important seed predator) and the relationship between coconut densities and rat seed predation.

Our poster presentation at the Rainforest and Reef CRC meeting in Townsville (November), generated an article in the Townsville Bulletin -but the published responses were largely from pro-coconut people, and didn't really promote the idea of coconuts as a threatening process to the littoral forests.

This has been a total roller-coaster over the past 12 months -so much so that many of the local conservation activists have given up completely (several leaving the area) . The Douglas Shire Council is perpetually split on the issues -the decisions keep being reversed, and the Queensland Department of Local Government (through Minister Desley Boyle) have been getting exasperated with the process. At the moment an "Alternative Planning Strategy and Code -Daintree lowlands north of the Daintree River" was given a very brief public airing (to which Hugh gave a detailed response on behalf of the Foundation), and is now in the process of producing a final version for the Minister to comment on. The Daintree planning process has been altogether a most unsatisfactory state of affairs. However, the consultants given the job of handling the buy-back component (2020 Group), have been slowly and thoroughly doing their job, despite the winds of controversy roaring above them and over 100 properties north of the Alexandra range have been purchased, and through buyback and defaults, they expect that over 300 properties will be secured. Not bad.

Following from Julie Tessler and Gabrielle Greeves visit from New York in July, as part of their efforts to involve the local aboriginal community in the conservation of the Daintree, the Station was able to initiate contact with the local Yalangi aboriginal community. The hopes are that we will become involved with the outreach program operated through the local Mossman College of Technical and Further Education (TAFE), assisting the elders to teach "Children at Risk" to "Care for Country", through providing the opportunity for them to learn basic forest rehabilitation techniques. Monica will be coming on board assisting the program.

Dec 05 -We have had an Aboriginal group here for 3 days, doing an ACDC (Agricultural Chemical Distribution and Control) course, and they flattened and sprayed another acre of grass for next years re-planting.

ISV -we had 3 "International Student Volunteers" groups this year, as ever a mixed bag of students with widely divergent interests and attitudes. We had 2 new ISV staff members -Chad Allen ( a grad student from Florida) and Dr. Peter Mitchell, a retired geographer, ex Macquarie University. Both of them were great to work with -and both committed conservationists. The students managed to achieve a great deal for the Station and the local environment. They constructed the new Bat House Regeneration trail (an idea which has been simmering away on the (very) back burner for years) -and constructed most of it in about 1 week. They did lots of coconut control (about the only thing that we could do given the terrible weather -almost non-stop drizzle), cleaned up S Cape Tribulation beach, weeded regeneration areas, fed the bats and operated the Bat House.

Monica Bianchi, one of our early volunteers from 1990 (who helped build the Bat House) re-surfaced late 2004 and joined the Station in September of this year. Monica comes from California, and is a Secondary Vocational Agriculture teacher with a degree in Animal Science. Very practical and "hands on", she is proving to be a great organiser (something seriously lacking!). Even in the short time of her being at the Station, her touch is everywhere -the place looks cleaner and more spacious, a garden has been established, piles of junk have gone to the dump, and most importantly the station will be operating in a less laissez-faire mode! Her teaching skills will be especially welcome with the ISV groups, and will give Hugh the much needed space to get the various pressing research and maintenance issues dealt with.

In an effort to help provide vegetables for Station and fruit for the bats, Monica has tackled one of the Station sore spots -the lack of a vegie garden. Soon after her arrival we visited old friends (Harry and Angie Dick) who live in an idyllic location on the south bank of the Bloomfield River. Angie is an expert and prolific garden (they, the Dicks, are virtually self- sufficient) and Monica returned to the Station loaded with plants and ideas. The soil is good -and things are thriving -but it is a matter of watering them sufficiently during the dry. However to feed the bats enough papaya -we are going to need a major orchard!

Two large Elaeocarpus trees (blue Quandongs) next to the shower block, hit the dust in October, thanks to the efforts of Guy Watts (the local coordinator of the Wildlife rescue, who is also a tree surgeon). These trees were planted in about 1998 near the toilet block, and have shot skyward -obscuring the sun to the solar HWS, but most importantly, being a major danger in the event of a cyclone.

With the increasing rainforest vegetation growth at the Station, we are now attracting a wide range of native species -jungle fowl, scrub turkeys. Goannas, bandicoots, melomys and Uromys (white tailed rats) -and Cassowaries. Over the past 2 years we have had increasing frequencies of visits by 2 adults and a range of partly grown chicks/subadults -with peak visitations in May to August -to coincide with the ISV groups! (much to their delight).

Both continue to look after and re-habilitate a retinue of sick flying foxes that everybody else has given up on, in addition to their own ménage of un-releasable bats. Tony continues to be the primary person operating the Bat House, in addition to carrying out all the PC related work at the Station including the GPS project

Brigitta is now at the end of her first year in Social Psychology (a long way from training flying foxes to press levers -but she couldn't find a supervisor for that PhD project at JCU). She is now working on elucidating the attitudinal processes that farmers engage in with regard to their streamside (riparian) vegetation. It sounds very exotic, but in fact it is essential that we understand how farmers think, if we are to make any headway at all in getting them to look after this critical part of the landscape. How important that is was made very clear at the recent Reef and Rainforest conference in Townsville, where she presented a poster on her continuing work.

The Bat House continues to slowly evolve. The last ISV group (under the guidance of Peter Mitchell), came up with a wish list for improvements to the Bat House, and they are slowly being ticked off!. We have increased the lighting (by installing 12V compact fluoros) -but the protracted bad weather has put the batteries under great strain -and we had to purchase a little 2-stroke generator and battery charger. So much for "sustainable" lifestyle!! We have a new roadside sign (after someone nicked the sign that last years ISV group made)&this one is firmly bolted between the supports of the Wet Tropics sign opposite the entrance. We still have the problem of the re-forestation in front of the Bat House acting as a deterrent rather than an attraction for passing tourists (they LOVE lawns!!). One of the ISV groups planted lots of native Crinum lilies along the "nature strip" to make a visual "statement" (and because Crinum lilies are resistant to the Council's best efforts to kill roadside vegetation!)

After many years of wanting to have a Nature Trail at the Bat House to showcase the regeneration work that we have been carrying out since the Station was established, we took advantage of a break in weather, and the presence of the ISV volunteers, to put one in. It winds about 400 meters in a serpentine fashion, starting from the verandah of the Bat House, to the new regeneration area. We have yet to put in interpretation signs -we will use laminated cards which are keyed to markers on the trail. Maybe we can increase the Bat House entrance donation to $4.00 (it's been at $2.00 for the past 10 years!).

The old Chironex caravan that served as accommodation (and storage of junk) for the past 8 years has finally been moved out (after a cleanup that has the caravan looking almost presentable). We are hoping that it will find a home in Rossville (where old caravans go to die!).

Three trailer loads of clay have been packed into the VW sized holes on the final approach to the Stationand well packed down (aided by the fine weather) and covered with gravel -so, with improved drainage, we might have a passable road for the wet.

Grim. The entire region has had a significant increase in cloudiness over the past 4 years, which has put an growing strain on the batteries. Although we are supposed to be at the vanguard of energy awareness, we are like everyone else, and get trapped into using too much power. After 10 years the Qld Gov't supplied freezer has leaked enough gas to no longer operate satisfactorily, and the second lab refrigeration unit has done likewise -resulting in an enormous load on the system. Both are being repaired as I write. We are considering investing in a 24V Stirling cycle DC generator (Whisper Gen from NZ) and shifting the guts of the solar system to the space between the laboratories. The Whisper Gen waste heat (over 5 KWH) can be used to operate a dessicant de-humidifier for the labs, which is far more efficient than operating chillers (if a bit more bulky!), and also heat water for showers -so we should get diesel use efficiencies of over 70%! Besides, removing the 2 lab water chillers from the system will make a major reduction in loads. Next will be the replacement of the upright refrigerator (once its case has rotted out) with a horizontal chest type refrigerator will make even greater energy savings. (once people get used to horizontal chest fridges!). However -Gas chromatographs are BLOODY INEFFICIENT! (so big science will have to wait until the power system gets sorted out).

For some reason, the first lab (now the instrumentation lab) has had great difficulty in lowering its humidity and maintaining it, whereas the second (larger) lab, has not. No idea why, other than the fact that the humidity exchanger in the first lab had rotted and developed holes (and so wasn't working). Replacing it didn't make all that much difference -so it is a continuing mystery.

Johan Siverklev (from Sweden) returned for the third time for about 6 weeks to continue his modelling studies on the exchanger performance (using the 2^nd lab -which is working well). Johan is attempting to set up his own business in Sweden based on the Station-developed exchanger technology -but is finding it a bit of a tough road. Given the potential energy benefits that counter-current exchangers provide for buildings, it is a wonder that people are not beating a path to his door -but in many ways building technology can be a very conservative industry, and counter-current principles are hardly ever taught in fluid dynamics courses!

David Lennard (Sydney) has donated us 100 dollars per month towards bat maintenance

J. Maclean (Atherton) $9,000.

J. Crew $200

Thanks to these generous souls.

Tolga Bat Hospital 1,100

Batreach 1,000

Tolga Bat Hospital 5,000

Tolga Bat Hospital 4,000

Daintree Bat Recovery 5,050

Publications etc. -

" Hugh Spencer. "Desulphators in the Daintree" Article in Renew Magazine #63 pp 63-66.

(Australian Appropriate Technology Association) -on the Daintree Power survey

" Hugh Spencer , "Impact of coconuts on littoral forests in the Daintree region of North

Nov 05 27-28.

" Expert Witness Report for Quantas vs Cairns Port Authority.

Brice le Maire (ISAB) Calophyllum inophylum as an indicator of beach

movements at Cape Tribulation . (Dec 04)

Sara Brewster (SIT) Assessment of specificity of fig wasp attraction to host fig

species. Dec 04.

Adeline Menet (ISAB) Impact of Coconuts on Littoral Forests in the Daintree region of

North Queensland. (Nov 05)

Katelin Craven (SIT) The impact of white-tailed rats (Uromys caudimaculatus) on

coconut palms (Cocos nucifera) in the littoral forests of the Cape Tribulation

region. (Dec 05)

After 2 months of dry weather -we have had to start to irrigate the plantings -especially the small plants -it has become incredibly dry.

Power system is slowly collapsing -at least it is sunny. But the upgrade is becoming increasingly urgent.

Hugh and Monica went to the first Australian field station meeting at Orpheus Island in early Dec -05 It was wonderful to be amongst people who ACTUALLY UNDERSTOOD what it is like to run a research station!

Chiller for lab 2 died, so Hugh is in the process of donning the mantle of refrigeration engineer (which he ain't) - to rebuild it and charge it with environmentally friendly hydrocarbon refrigerant - this also means that ALL station refrigerators will eventually be able to be totally serviced at the Station without releasing flurocarbon gasses into the air.

Hugh Spencer

Director and Chairman

Australian Tropical Research Foundation

Dec 14 2005

This is based in New York and is overseen by Julie Tessler, and exists to raise funds for Daintree buyback and related concerns. Currently funds attracting tax-exempt status in the States are channelled through the Tides Foundation.

In early June 2005, The Christensen Fund awarded the Daintree Rainforest

Land Trust a first-time grant of $45,000 (US) to aid our conservation and

educational activities. This grant underwrote our Daintree Photography

exhibition at the Robert Steele Gallery in New York, and enabled elders of

the Eastern Yalanji to share their knowledge and culture with the

international New York community. The Yalanji elders opened and introduced

the exhibition and gave over 180 guests a deeper understanding of their way

of life and how deeply entwined their traditional culture is with the

natural world - the Daintree Tropical Rainforest. They then reinforced this

new insight with traditional and contemporary music and dance.

The grant also generously provided for roundtable discussions' and

intensive workshops to follow up and reinforce the conversations and

understandings between: Australian Tropical Rainforest Foundation, the

Daintree Rainforest Land Trust, and Yalanji elders and representatives.

In 2, 1-Day Workshops, we discussed core curricula as well as the need to

incorporate Yalanji cultural elements into our Open Classrooms and, in the

final workshop of the series. We drafted a Memorandum of Understanding

between all parties concerned.

In August, we (Julie Tessler and Gabrielle Greeves) travelled to Australia specifically to address the outstanding issues defined during the intensive discussions in New York. An

immediate result has been attained within our Open Classrooms program

already underway at the AUSTROP research station facilities in the Daintree

that have now begun to incorporate two TAFE programs: "Rangers" and "Youth at Risk"

(for indigenous/aboriginal children).

The true achievement of these months is our progress toward our ongoing

goal: the systematic and thorough inclusion of traditional systems of land

management into our more Western methodology. We will

continue to work to deepen our relationship with the Yalanji people and

incorporate the traditional custodians, their history, and conservation

understanding. Our systems will mix to form a richer and more varied body of

skills, methods, and protocols to protect land held by the Daintree

Rainforest Land Trust and Australian Tropical Research Foundation against

storms, disease, and invasive species. In the coming months we will build on

the progress we have made in our programs in land management, education, and

the arts and continue to maximize our social and environmental impact by

purchasing and consolidating the threatened heart of the Daintree Tropical

Rainforest and sharing stewardship of the rainforest with the Yalanji

traditional owners.