Small Voices, Big Message For Motorists

Liz Gaille with some of the colourful cassowary road signs created from Mission Beach State School students’ artwork, currently on display at the Bingil Bay Café. Photo credit: Helen Cook

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When Liz Gaille first arrived at Mission Beach in the 1970s, she was captivated by the rainforest and wildlife. Decades later, that connection remains – particularly her love for the region’s most famous resident, the cassowary.

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Living in cassowary habitat at Bingil Bay gave Liz plenty of opportunities to observe and photograph the birds – and discover just how different each one can be.

An original member of C4, Liz established Mission Beach Cassowaries in 2009, including its popular Facebook page, where she shares photographs, information and a gentle but persistent message about protecting the local cassowary population.

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She’s also a lifelong creative – an artist and jewellery maker who admits she approaches most things with a “creative bent”. So perhaps it was inevitable that creativity, cassowaries and community campaigning would come together.

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Around World Cassowary Day in 2017, Liz began working with Mission Beach State School students to create road-safety signs with a difference.

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The children drew cassowaries and added their own messages to motorists. Liz then digitally transformed their artwork into printable signs, funded through donations, while making sure the distinctive drawings and handwriting remained.

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“I tried to keep the drawing and writing exactly the way the children created the message,” she said.

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Since then, Liz has produced several sets of signs featuring straight-to-the-point messages such as “Don’t Hurt Me” and “Save the Cassowary.”

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Simple, colourful and hard to miss, they carry an important message from local children to motorists – slow down and look out for the true Mission Beach locals on World Cassowary Day, and every day.