Emus in the Cooloola Region

In the 1960s and 1970s, Emus were seen regularly on what was then called the Noosa Plain, now known as the Cooloola section of the Great Sandy World Heritage Area. However, it has declined drastically in numbers here and elsewhere in the Sunshine Coast-Wide Bay region. For instance, it was formerly common on Bribie Island, but the last emu there was killed by a dog in 2015. The species generally in south-east Queensland and north-east NSW is now very rare. Fortunately, some birds seem to be hanging on in the Cooloola region. I heard a bird drumming on the Noosa Plain in September last year but unfortunately it would not show itself. Prior to that encounter, the last record I can find for the site was during a Birds Queensland outing in 1997.

On March 6 (last Saturday) Christine Burton photographed two Emus – an adult and a well-advanced juvenile – on the edge of a pine plantation in Toolara State Forest (first image above by Christine's Wildscapes Photography). This site is about 15km west of the Noosa Plain. Christine reports that she saw another two birds in a pine plantation, also in Toolara State Forest, in October 2019 (image above). She has also seen in recent years a family with young birds in the nearby Tuan State Forest.Thanks to Tim Howell for drawing attention to these reports. Ebird includes records without further detail for Tin Can Bay in 1989 and Toolara State Forest in 1996, with three birds reported further south at Como in 2014. It seems that a small population of Emu is resident in the Cooloola region.

The causes of the decline of the species in south-east Queensland and north-east NSW are uncertain. Emus have been killed by dogs in the region (including "Eric", the last surviving Emu on Bribie Island, above) but they are well able to survive predation by dingoes and wild dogs further west. Habitat fragmentation could be in play but extensive areas of native habitat remain in the Great Sandy World Heritage Area and on Bribie Island; the birds also seem to be quite at home in pine plantations. There is no evidence that hunting and/or roadkill are important factors in the decline. So this population crash is a mystery yet to be unravelled. Image below of Cooloola's Noosa Plain.