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| Palmview Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters |
The
only colony of the highly localised Yellow-tufted Honeyeater on the
Sunshine Coast is under assault from a combination of a massive new
real estate development and extensive roadworks. Thanks to Sarah
Beavis and Rob Kernot for alerting me to the presence of the
honeyeater colony in the Palmview Conservation Park.
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| Yellow-tufted Honeyeater |
The
reserve, directly opposite the historic Ettamogah Pub, has been
hacked into by the Queensland Department of Main Roads and Transport
as part of the $1 billion upgrade of the Bruce Highway. There is no
point in creating national parks and other reserves if their
boundaries can be altered at the stroke of a pen. Palmview is one of
several conservation reserves to be carved up to make way for the
highway upgrade.
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| Palmview Conservation Park - carved up for highway upgrade |
At
the same time, the huge $3 billion Harmony estate is being developed
on an extensive area of low-lying land abutting the northern end of
Palmview Conservation Park. The development will eventually deliver
4,800 homes for 12,000 residents on 100ha of land, spectacularly
extending
the urban sprawl of the southern Sunshine Coast. See
here for more on
the rampant destruction of rainforest and other native vegetation
underway in the region. Activist Ted Fensom has been leading the way in highlighting this environmental onslaught.
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| Activist Ted Fensom outside Harmony real estate development |
Palmview is set to
become like most of the region's reserves - an island in a sea of
suburbia. That's all the more reason to ensure such places are not
chopped up for roadworks and other infrastructure. The colony of
Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters (I saw 12-15 birds) favours thicker
vegetation in the reserve at its northern end - an area that will be
fronted by a sea of houses in the not too distant future.
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| Palmview Conservation Park |
Other birds in the reserve included this Fantailed Cuckoo
(elist).
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| Fantailed Cuckoo |
In other birdy news,
I had Stubble Quail, Brown Quail and King Quail together on a cane
farm near Bli Bli (
ebird);
Stubble Quail was a new bird for the Sunshine Coast when it turned up
here in January. Good numbers of White-throated Needletail were also present here.
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| White-throated Needletail |
I saw a Little Bronze-Cuckoo at Finland Road, and Varied Sittella showed nicely at Moy Pocket.
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| Little Bronze-Cuckoo |
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| Varied Sittella |
Quite a few Arctic Jaegers were harassing the large flocks of Common Terns and Crested Terns present at Noosa North Shore, where a White-bellied Sea-Eagle also found cause to annoy a tern. We had a pleasurable three nights camping at the caravan park there (
elist)
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| Arctic Jaeger chasing Crested Tern |
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| White-bellied Sea-Eagle & Common Tern |
This Comb-crested Jacana in flight at Wappa Dam was nice.
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| Comb-crested Jacana |
Thanks for highlighting this. It's such a shame that this forest is being destroyed parcel by parcel. It seems that the decision makers will always find a reason good enough to ignore conservation if need be – in this case, it's an off ramp. On a related note, I sought clarification from the SCC on numerous occasions regarding the Palmview Forest development behind the pub. One of my main concerns was not being able to find a fauna assessment in the publicly available submissions. One would think that if a large area of threatened native remnant subtropical rainforest was being cleared, a fauna assessment should be carried out. The SCC's response was that the approval was granted before the laws changed, so the assessment didn't have to be carried out. I can only imagine the amount of life that was wiped out.
ReplyDeleteSadly the wildlife conservation laws both federal and state are a joke. Worthless.
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