This time, the feature animal is the non-flying very shy and endangered cassowary – Australia’s most dangerous bird. My January visit to Charley’s Chocolates at Mission Beach (located on the Cassowary Coast) involved dropping off a WOB intern to assist Charley’s with their Crowd Funding initiative. This was followed by visit to a colleague at Cape Gloucester – where we enjoyed some fine wine whilst talking about IP matters for startups / early stage businesses.
Back to Crowd Funding. It comes in various forms, Charley’s is the simple version where goods are exchanged in return for payment. With Charley’s, the delivery is delayed enabling the cash flow benefit to be directed to business expansion.
Crowd Funding for the issuing of shares has recently been approved and a financial services license is required, so it’s not a free for all. But we can expect to see a rash of crowd sourcing platforms seeking equity investments.
You can contribute to Charley’s business growth by taking up one of their
Crowd Fund chocolate offerings.
As to the intern; she seems to be getting on OK at her latest mildly eccentric vacation placement. The highlight so far is seeing a cassowary on the roadside; stopping to let it walk across the road; and being enchanted by Australia.
And now more about the cassowary. Of three species of cassowaries in the world, only the southern cassowary,
Casuarius casuarius johnsonii, is found in Australia. They are very shy, but when provoked they are capable of inflicting injuries, occasionally fatal, to dogs and people. The road from the Bruce Highway turn off to Mission Beach has many, many road signs. A good number have a sign with a cassowary on it saying slow down for obvious reasons.
At the left is a picture taken by your scribe in Cape Gloucester - a stunning view. You'd never think this area was still recovering from the havoc of cyclone Debbie in March 2017. While most of the region has recovered, some resorts and camping areas remain temporarily closed.