We start sadly
Because it ended badly
Even before we begin
Cassowary was chosen
Second to giant tortoise
To be a face in the tribe
One well known local was Mrs C
Jungle Queen of - where else
- the Cassowary Coast
Local personality for 50 years
She would have been the one
But she was already gone
Killed by a car after so long
Fondly regarded and now missed
Though the Cassowary Festival goes on
So in memory of Mrs C
Her mission ended at Mission Beach
We seek another to take her place
Endangered animal personality No.2
(Insert name here) the Cassowary
At the end suggest her name
Formidable ground bound bird
Flight not needed, fully capable to fight
Not many would face her in battle
Better to be friendly with this one
Better still leave her well alone
Don’t threaten her in her home
Brilliantly coloured not needing to hide
Glossy black with blue and purple neck
With red wattles and amber eyes dramatised
Battering her way through the forest on the run
With her horned axe-like helmet, casque
Not to mention her formidable toenails
Otherwise known as dagger-shaped claws
Your won’t want to see how she uses those
Ratite with an appetite for seedy fruit
Eating what falls, digesting
To deposit in her rambling
Across her jungle habitat
To propagate and spread the rainforest
For the next ones and the biodiverse
In the hot and Wet Tropics
of Far North Queensland
She and her kin decline with the Forest
As it is cleared and felled
Pushed out to pasture and human homes
She is a bird that lives
In the dappled light and shade
Ancient rainforest dweller
Remnants of Gondwana, a different time
When the continent was lush
And teeming with life
Flightless but not helpless
Don’t you find out
Luckily, fruit eater and nothing else
Heavyweight champion of Australian birds
Emu may be taller but would take flight
On foot rather than try to disprove!
To halt (her name) decline we have to turn it around
More trees in the ground, more range
More rainforest, more Cassowary
More Cassowary, more rainforest
And all the rest that comes with its spread
That’s where Brett and Mr Miyawaki
Dig in and join in
And the WTMA people use their skills
To plant and preserve her home
Give Mrs C’s replacement a name
Or suggest an existing Cassowary
With personality, like Mrs C
To lend her face and her given name
To awareness of her plight
These birds that can’t take flight
Support the aspiration to delist her
Send her back the right way
Away from endangerment and extinction
To stay where her kind have always been
In the remnant rainforest
Eating seedy fruit....
A.E. (Anthony) Lovell
WTA - Wet Tropics Management Authority
Brett - Brett Krause, Tree Planter who uses the Miyawaki Method
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