Rainforest Bulldozed on Sunshine Coast

Rainforest bulldozed along Sippy Creek, Sunshine Coast - Pic Ted Fensom

The clearing of rainforest and other native vegetation on the Sunshine Coast is accelerating as the Queensland Government pushes ahead with a massive $1 billion program to expand and upgrade the Bruce Highway. At the same time, landholders on the coast are making the most of the absence of meaningful state land-clearing laws, with the rampant destruction of native forest being documented on at least nine properties.

What is happening on the Sunshine Coast is indicative of what is happening across the state as the recently re-elected Labor government stalls on its pledge to restrict land-clearing.

Forest converted to mulch piles, Steve Irwin Way, Sunshine Coas - Pic  Ted Fensom

Of particular concern on the Sunshine Coast is the fact that the government has sliced into the Palmview Conservation Park, Mooloolah River National Park, Beerwah State Forest and other reserves to make way for its roadworks. National parks are supposed to be sacrosanct and there is little point in protecting land as reserves if they can be carved up at the stroke of a pen.

Environmentalist activist Ted Fensom has documented the extent and nature of the clearing across a large swathe of the southern Sunshine Coast. He says critical habitat for koalas and numerous plant and animal species have been devastated without meaningful environmental assessment studies being conducted, and with little consideration for far-reaching ecological consequences and the loss of biodiversity.

Old growth trees felled at Palmwoods, Sunshine Coast - Pic Ted Fensom

According to Fensom, the highway works are particularly devastating. “The area affected by the huge clearing for works associated with the Bruce Highway is beyond comprehension and stretches many kilometres north to south,” he says. “Koala habitat and precious rainforest has been turned into giant mulch piles. These pockets of biodiversity are disappearing every week around the Sunshine Coast.”

According to the federal Department of Environment and Energy, the roadworks are affecting populations of koala, listed as a threatened species under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, as well as subtropical lowland rainforest, listed as a threatened ecological community. However, the department approved the development with conditions.

Rainforest logging and clearing at Sippy Creek, Sunshine Coast. Circled sign says: "Environmental Protection Zone"

Fenson says the rate of tree-clearing elsewhere around the Sunshine Coast is “going beserk”. Native vegetation has recently been - or is in the process of being - bulldozed or logged at four sites around Palmwoods; two properties near Woombye; and two areas around Caloundra, including a koala habitat corridor at Little Mountain; and a 60-hectare holding in Yandina. Areas where further clearing is planned include Tanawah North, Coolum West, Nambour Heights, Buderim, Bli Bli, Mooloolah and Beerwah East.

Activist Ted Fensom

The state Liberal National Party Government in 2012 gutted the Beattie Labor Government's 2004 laws controlling land-clearing. In 2016, the minority Palaszczuk Labor Government failed in its bid to again tighten up land-clearing laws when crossbenchers joined the LNP – ever the slave to the old school Bjelke-Petersen Nationals - to defeat the move. An estimated 300,000 hectares of Queensland bushland are being bulldozed annually as a consequence.

Clearing for a Bruce Highway on ramp, Sippy Downs, Sunshine Coast

Labor was returned to government in the November 2017 election, this time with a majority.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk pledged to reintroduce the tree-clearing restrictions but no time-frame was set, and the state's new Environment Minister, Leeanne Enoch, has had little to say about the matter. Her office declined to respond to requests for comment. The Queensland Department of Main Roads and Transport also declined to comment.

Land-clearing at Woombye, Sunshine Coast - Pic Ted Fensom

It is a matter of considerable regret that the Greens and some in the environmental movement pay little attention to the land-clearing scandal. Their focus in Queensland has for some time centred on the proposed Adani coal mine at the expense of just about everything else. One leading figure in the birding community dismissed concerns about land-clearing as “spin” designed to divert attention from Adani.

On Twitter: Paul Sullivan is BirdLife Australia CEO

Adani is a very important issue, to be sure, but it is a proposal and one that may well not fly as its proponents struggle to secure finance. Uncontrolled land-clearing is happening right now. Ted Fensom's photographs on this post, all taken recently across the southern Sunshine Coast, speak for themselves. They reflect what is happening across Queensland.

Forest destruction at Tanawah, Sunshine Coast - Pic Ted Fensom

Bulldozer at work at Palmwoods, Sunshine Coast - Pic Ted Fensom

Captured Night Parrot Disappears in WA

A Night Parrot at the WA site where a bird was captured: Pic by Bruce Greatwich 

The following news story written by me was published in The Weekend Australian of 24-25 February, 2018.

Rare night parrot vanishes after intervention by recovery team

A critically endangered night parrot disappeared after being caught and fitted with a radio transmitter in Western Australia by the team of experts charged with saving the birds from extinction.

No surveys were undertaken to determine how many parrots survived in the remote East Murchison site before the night parrot recovery team netted the bird.

The news emerged as it was revealed that almost half the nests of the night parrot found in Queensland were deserted after being discovered by scientists. Critics say misdirected, if well-meaning, interference in managing the species may contribute to its demise.

Researcher Neil Hamilton with the captured Night Parrot: Pic from Twitter

The parrot once was widespread across inland Australia, but numbers plummeted from the late-1800s. The first photograph of a night parrot was taken only in 2013, by naturalist John Young.

As few as 20 night parrots survive in a small area on and near Pullen Pullen Reserve where Mr Young took his photographs. Three nests uncovered by scientists working for Bush Heritage Australia, which owns Pullen Pullen, subsequently failed to produce offspring. BHA says one nest failed due to heat stress; a snake is believed to have eaten the eggs in another nest; and it is not known why a single chick in the third nest died. A BHA spokeswoman said five other nests successfully produced birds.

In March last year, the night parrot was discovered at the Each Murchison site in WA by four ornithologists. Details of the site were sent to recovery team head Allan Burbidge, who led an expedition to the area last August.

Dr Burbidge and his team strung fine nets in an area of spinifex where ornithologist Bruce Greatwich has photographed a night parrot. Researchers walked through the spinifex in a line, hoping to drive parrots from their day roosts into the nets.

A parrot was caught and fitted with a GPS and radio tracking antenna.

Researcher Neil Hamilton was photographed handling the bird soon after its capture. No trace of the bird was found subsequently despite extensive land and aerial searches; its fate is unknown.

The antenna was intended to allow researchers to track the movements of night parrots. Two parrots were captured and tagged in Queensland - one in 2015 and one in 2016. Some experts believe no more birds should be caught until comprehensive surveys are undertaken to determine population numbers.

WA site where the Night Parrot was found: Pic by Bruce Greatwich 

Ornithologist Ian May, an authority on arid zone parrots, said the role of recovery teams for endangered species should be restricted to the management of habitat, predators and disease control.

“They should not be handling wild birds except for the purpose of disease control and only then in the most extreme circumstances if an obvious problem exists,” he said. “Handling critically endangered birds in the wild should cease and shouldn't be permitted until all other management options are exhausted and then considered only if numbers... have substantially increased."

Dr Burbidge, principal research scientist with the WA Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, said the radio-tracking antenna was “presumed to have failed”.

Dr Burbidge said monitoring a parrot in WA was necessary because its habitat differed from where the tagged Queensland birds were studied.

“Our understanding of foraging habitat is limited. A sound understanding of feeding habitat preferences is required in order to inform management decisions,” he said.

While government sources confirmed no surveys were undertaken before the capture to determine parrot numbers in the area, Dr Burbidge said “various levels of monitoring” were under way at four WA sites.

Rainbow Beach & Cooloola February 2018

Beach Stone-Curlew

We camped for three nights this week at Pt Carlos, outside Rainbow Beach. There was no sign of the Large-tailed Nightjars that were so evident here in September 2016. A family of Bush Stone-Curlews in the camping ground were the first birds we saw.

Bush Stone-Curlew

Shorebirds on the sandflats at low tide included good numbers of Red-necked Stint, Grey-tailed Tattler, Pacific Golden Plover, Lesser Sand-Plover and Bar-tailed Godwits in breeding plumage (elist).

Bar-tailed Godwit

Grey-tailed Tattler

Lesser Sand-Plover

Pacific Golden-Plover

A Squirrel Glider was spotted above our camp and a Common Ringtail emerged from its hiding place in a bunch of mistletoe after being harassed by miners.

Common Ringtail

Squirrel Glider

I visited the spit at Inskip Point several times in the hope of more interesting shorebird fare but exceptionally high tides didn't help. There were very large numbers of Little Tern, with Common Tern in smaller numbers. Three Double-banded Plovers in non-breeding plumage - suggesting they had oversummered - were of interest, as was a trio of Beach Stone-Curlews, including a fledged youngster.

Double-banded Plover

Little Tern

A Frilled Lizard along the road was nice; the Great Sandy World Heritage Area is one of the most southerly known sites for this iconic species. There was no sign at all of Black-breasted Buttonquail at Inskip Point - not even old platelets; clearly they are gone from this site. Nobody is sure why as they had been there for many years and disappeared relatively quickly. It could be that a feral cat learned the art of catching them, in which case the entire population would be doomed. 

Frilled Lizard

Frilled Lizard

At Bullocks Head a female Shining Flycatcher showed nicely in the mangroves, as did a pair of Torresian Kingfishers (elist).

Shining Flycatcher

Torresian Kingfisher

I visited the Noosa Plain of Cooloola in the early morning. I heard three Eastern Ground Parrots calling just before dawn and flushed a male King Quail from the track. Then I saw a Brush Bronzewing on the track, about half-way between the pump station and the area of damp heath. As usual it was extremely skittish and this distant image was all I managed.  A recently fledged Channel-billed Cuckoo flew overhead (elist).

Channel-billed Cuckoo

Brush Bronzewing

I visited the rainforest at Bymien - where plenty of Rose-crowned Fruit-Doves and a few Wompoo Fruit-Doves were calling - and Lake Poona.

Lake Poona

 Some more of the birds seen in the area generally follow.

Little Egret

Scarlet Honeyeater

Striated Heron

Wompoo Fruit-Dove