21 May 2026 MY LAST PIECE FOR THE PAPER

Herewith is the farewell text I submitted: It has been increasingly difficult to source new material. Alas, this is my last piece in a sequence of over 350 stretching back to July 2011. I consider it a privilege to have shared, in these pages, my love of the mountain’s species rich flora and fauna which is everywhere around us. I thank the editors of the Tamborine Times, the Tamborine Mountain News, The Scenic News, and the flourishing reincarnated Tamborine Mountain News, for their support in publishing this column. You can view the albums, videos and blog on my website: www.speciesdiversity.au – the first sentence was omitted because of constraints in fitting it all in.

In an email exchange with the editor culminating in one I sent her on May 1, I pointed out that three of the last four pieces were at the back of the paper, which I felt was a demotion, which she denied. I found it strange that since she resurrected the TM News in April 2024, my pieces have been consistently in the front half of the paper, sometimes on a very early page, but that she feels this situation cannot be continued. I wonder why. The two pieces in May, including today’s, were both at the back.