Sunshine Coast Birds

Birding and other wildlife experiences from the Sunshine Coast and elsewhere in Australia - and from overseas - with scribblings about travel, environmental issues, kayaking, hiking and camping.

Wednesday 2 January 2019

Glossy Black Cockatoo under threat from Sunshine Coast nursing home

Glossy Black Cockatoos drinking at Sunrise Beach

Critical habitat for the endangered Glossy Black Cockatoo is set to be bulldozed for a new aged care facility at Sunrise Beach on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. A community group set up to protect the birds, Glossy Team Sunrise, says hundreds of food trees are threatened by a development planned by the Uniting Church's Blue Care. The area surrounding the proposal is recognised as a hotspot nationally for the cockatoo: during a 2016 survey in South-East Queensland, more than a third of  96 birds recorded were in the Noosa-Sunrise Beach area.

Glossy Team Sunrise says five hectares of habitat will be destroyed by the development – a huge complex including 98 residential aged care beds, 74 apartments and 55 living units. The facility will be built in the heart of the most important areas favoured by the Glossy Black Cockatoo. Group spokesperson Bettina Walter says about 300 Allocasuarina feed trees, which the birds are dependent on, would be removed. A high care unit and car park will be built adjacent to a creek visited by the birds for drinking. Survey stakes for the development were planted recently.

Glossy Black Cockatoos feeding at Sunrise Beach
Says Bettina: “From how we read the plans and what we understand from Blue Care, it is a clear-fell proposal… In the north [of the site] are many food trees and this will be the site of the high care unit. In the southern area are some real regular hotspots. These contain stands of old feeding trees and also younger regrowth. We could spot some glossies feeding there pretty much every time we went in. I have not found any food trees in the adjacent southern lot, that has been allocated for conservation.”

While Blue Care is expected to be required to plant Allocasuarina seedlings in nearby areas to “offset” the felled trees, these will take at least seven years to grow. The species feeds only on the cones of mature Allocasuarina trees. The development will also destroy thousands of Banksia and other trees in wallum woodland on the site.

Site of Blue Care's development plan
According to Glossy Team Sunrise, the then Sunshine Coast Regional Council in 2008 gave Blue Care permission to develop the facility. It did not happen at the time and approval was extended by the Noosa Shire Council in 2017. Says the group: “We believe the approval was given based on dated knowledge of the ecological value of the site and a traffic report long overtaken by reality. While aged care is needed in Noosa, the current high-density Blue Care design will require clear-felling of a prime habitat of the Glossy Black Cockatoo, one of Australia’s rarest cockatoos. The Glossy Black Conservancy recommends that where developments are planned, existing stands of favoured food trees should be recognised and retained.”

Protecting the local “glossies” has become a goal warmly embraced by the local community. Residents plant food trees, remove weeds, mark the most important feed trees and carefully monitor the movements and behaviour of birds.

Feed tree marked at Sunrise Beach
Adds Glossy Team Sunrise: “At a minimum, we are asking the Uniting Church (Blue Care) to show commitment to their aspirations to be a 'green church' and to retain and protect our Sunrise Glossy Black Cockatoos and wallum. We would like them to listen to a community passionate about their unique environment and to work with Team Glossy members and other experts to rethink and adapt the development. Their Eco-Mission Statement is encouraging the congregation to care for the environment as God’s creation. Well we have the perfect place to put those words into action.”

Anyone wishing to register their concerns about the plans can sign a petition here.

Glossy Black Cockatoo feeding at Sunrise Beach


6 comments:

  1. Thank you, Greg. Your support is much appreciated.

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  2. Hi, the petition link isn’t working, could you please repost an up to date link? Thanks!

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  3. There is so much cleared land available it is sad to take more of our bushland. If they can't afford to not go ahead with something here, how about something phased over a few years, with a small establishment first, leaving most of the habitat for the elderly residents as well as others to enjoy and appreciate (I know if I ever have to go into such a home I'd want it to be one with access to forest and birds), and starting the planting of casuarina seedlings nearby now, and the whole development staged over a decade to allow the new trees to grow and monitor whether the birds are using them before the final (not necessarily complete) clearing.

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  4. Has the petition been taken down? The link doesn't work.

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  5. The petition link is now fixed, sorry

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  6. I endorse Ronda Green's comments -very well put.
    It is worth rationally testing whether neither the development application, the council approval, state and federal governments not calling in the development follow the rule of law under our Westminster system because in all aspects whether the development achieves the objects, principles and obligations of the Planning Act 2016, Environmental Protection Act 1994 and Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Acts and the provisions of the Economic Development Act 2012 for protection against serious environmental harm needs to be rationally tested in the context of objective facts outside subjective wishes, wants, desires likes and dislikes.
    Surely the community and the Glossy Black Cockatoo are entitled to reasonable application of the Rule of Law beyond subversion through subjective rhetoric and exploitation of legislation weaknesses, exemptions and loopholes.

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