The environmental nightmare that is the Sunshine Coast's Coochin Creek

 

Shining Flycatcher

A developmental nightmare is emerging on the southern fringe of Queensland's Sunshine Coast that demolishes the environmental reputation of Premier David Crisafulli's Liberal National Party Government. Twin project approvals will transform the quiet rural backwater of Coochin Creek into a bustling, noisy tourism hotspot on the fringe of internationally protected wetlands. Habitat images in this blog post were taken during a morning visit today (26/02/2026).

Deputy Premier and Planning Minister Jarrod Bleijie used special powers to “call in” the projects by the Comiskey Group, fast-tracking them to avoid scrutiny by the Sunshine Coast Council. This is the kind of stuff that was the hallmark of former Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen's darkest days.

Bleiji gave the first tick in January to the Coochin Creek Holiday Resort, absurdly labelled as a “family friendly ecotourism experience”. The 150-site park hosts 75 cabins and 75 campsites along with a 1,000-square metre recreation building, a waterslide, firepits and assorted bits and pieces, including a 2.4-hectare sewage treatment plant to process 64,400 litres of effluent daily. The park will generate 85,600 visitors annually.

Shortly after came approval for a music festival venue adjacent to the tourist park on a 150-hectare site. It will host events year-round for up to 35,000 festival goers in an area that the promoters compare to the North Byron Parklands, the site for Byron Bay's famed Bluesfest events. This approval follows the recent collapse of other music venues in the Sunshine Coast area.

All of this will unfold at the end of a quiet, narrow road on the shore of Pumicestone Passage, the wetlands of which are listed by the RAMSAR Convention - an international treaty intended to save what's left of the planet's important wetlands. I have seen from my kayak very close to Coochin Creek large numbers of migratory shorebirds feeding and resting. Australia is a signatory to several international treaties requiring the country to protect habitat for these shorebirds. Among those at Coochin Creek are numbers of the critically endangered Far Eastern Curlew and Curlew-Sandpiper.

Far Eastern Curlew

The Comiskey Group operates the Sandstone Point Holiday Resort opposite Bribie Island about 20 kilometres south of Coochin Creek. What the Coochin Creek projects will do is threaten the integrity of the South East Queensland Northern Inter-Urban Break - a green buffer zone that separates Brisbane from the Sunshine Coast. It is only a matter of time, it seems, before there will be a continuous urban belt stretching from the Queensland-NSW border north to Noosa.

Pumicestone Passage is home to a thriving population of dugongs along with good numbers of dolphins and turtles. Its extensive mangrove forests provide breeding habitat for numerous fish as well as harbouring a large population of the regionally scarce Shining Flycatcher and many other birds, including nesting Black Bitterns. In open forest and melaleuca woodland in the area, other birds of note include the southern-most population of Large-tailed Nightjar and the elusive Pale-vented Bush-hen.

Pale-vented Bush-hen

Crisafulli's government thumbed its nose at the government's own State Assessment and Referral Agency. The agency concluded that the development did not comply with planning laws and was at odds with the Rural Landscape and Rural Production Area designation for the site. There was no demonstrated need for the development which violated protections for the South East Queensland Northern Inter-Urban Break, the agency found.

Mangrove Honeyeater

In a letter last year to Bleijie, the agency said there is no overriding need in the public interest for the development, noting that the site abutted Pumicestone National Park and Pumicestone Passage, which was part of the Moreton Bay RAMSAR-protected wetland. It was also inconsistent with the goals and strategies of the ShapingSEQ 2023 planning scheme.

Nor has the project been referred under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, despite the risk of impacts on RAMSAR wetlands and species of national significance.

So what are the tourist park visitors going to do with their time after getting there along a road that will need to be substantially widened and improved, inevitably boosting the wildlife roadkill toll? There are no beaches and the water is not safe for swimming with its healthy population of bull sharks. Presumably that means lots more fishing and lots more boats on the water, further disturbing shorebirds already seriously stressed at other roosting and feeding grounds in the region, such as Toorbul, not far from the Comiskeys' Sandstone Point developments. The entire passage will now be a boating free-for-all.

These two developments are seriously flawed. Register your concern by emailing Jarrod Bleijie:  kawana@parliament.qld.gov.au and dpc@premiers.qld.gov.au

A Morning in the Kayak on Coochin Creek, Sunshine Coast

A morning exploring the myriad of waterways in the mangroves of Coochin Creek, Sunshine Coast. I was in this general area - mostly in the Pumicestone Passage - last week and returned because of some interesting things going on here with flycatchers.

I found two new pairs of Shining Flycatchers (including this female), bringing to 12 the number of territories I have found for this species in the Coochin Creek-Pumiceston Passage area during the two visits. Hard to believe that this bird was regarded as extremely rare in southeast Queensland until recently.
I returned to the area because suspicions remain about whether Broad-billed Flycatcher, another predominantly tropical mangrove flycatcher, may be about. I posted photographs last week of a bird I thought to be that species but which was evidently a female Leaden on the basis of the absence of graduation in the tail. However, I realised subsequently that I failed to photograph two other flycatchers which were behaving as a pair; one of these was much more brightly coloured than the other, showing glossy blue upperparts. I  looked hard for them today but failed to see any Leaden Flycatcher-types. I mention this because it may be worthwhile for birders to keep an eye out for Broad-billed Flycatcher in southeast Queensland.

There were plenty of Collared Kingfishers about today - always a joy.

Mangrove Honeyeaters were abundant. It is interesting that this species appears to be absent from some parts of the Sunshine Coast - such as along the Noosa River, while it is scarce along the Maroochy River.

Brahminy Kite showed nicely.

As did this Great Egret in breeding plumage.

There were plenty of Whimbrels roosting in the mangroves.

New man-made Sunshine Coast wetland

 

Great Egret

A newly created wetland on the southern outskirts of the Sunshine Coast is a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy landscape as the region's population continues to boom. The wetland on the junction of Central Way and Bells Creek Arterial Road is the kind of thing developers need to do a good deal more often.

The new wetland

I last headed to Bells Creek a few years ago. At that time it was a quiet road through farmland, big acreage blocks and pine plantations that ended at a pleasantly positioned boat ramp on the creek, not far from Pumicestone Passage. A pair of Shining Flycatchers was in residence there. Now, the newly built arterial road roars through this area, connecting the Bruce Highway to Caloundra and the densely crowded urban belt that extends north from there to Maroochydore. A sea of newly built homes surrounds an elaborate network of roads.

Australasian Darter

That urban conglomerate now extends southwards with the creation of the suburb of Aura. eventually providing homes to 50,000 people on top of the 380,000 souls already calling Australia's tenth largest city home. The Sunshine Coast is invariably the top - or among the top three - regional destination/destinations for Australians looking for a sea or tree change. That's understandable: its combination of subtropical climate, world-class beaches and a stunning mountainous hinterland is hard to beat.

New Wetland

The Sunshine Coast has it over other coastal hotspots like the Gold Coast largely because much of its natural environment remains intact, thanks in no small part to the relatively pristine floodplains of the Maroochy River; the Noosa Biosphere Reserve; and big hinterland national parks and reserves in the Conondale and Blackall Ranges.

The edge of the Aura residential development, framed by the Glass House Mountains

The rate of urban development, however, is dizzying. Urban sprawl to the south of the Aura real estate developments is exacerbated by new plans to build a holiday resort and music festival venue at Coochin Creek on the Pumicestone Passage. The Liberal National Party state government ignored its own professional planning advice by bulldozing the plan through. Ultimately, it seems only a matter of time before a continuous coastal urban corridor connects Noosa to the Queensland-New South Wales border.

Amid this gloomy outlook, it was a joy today to stroll around the artificial wetland being developed by civil contrator Shadforth, working for the creator of Aura – the Stockland property behemoth. The wetland includes one of the Sunshine Coast's largest and certainly now its most accessible freshwater reed-beds. My attention was draw to it by the recent occurrence there of an endangered Australasian Bittern, a very rare visitor to south-east Queensland.

Australian Reed Warbler

I had no trouble finding a few Little Grassbirds and Australian Reed Warblers in the reeds, while skulking Spotless Crakes called. Australasian Darter and Great Egret were about. I expect in the warmer months that some interesting birds will turn up. It's a small thing, this aquatic gem amidst the residential sprawl, but at least it's there.

Spotless Crake

If these urban developments are going to happen, we need to encourage developers to do whatever they can to protect remnant habitat because these refuges are increasingly important to shrinking wildlife populations. So on this one, a thumbs-up to Stockland.

NB: There is no public or street parking here. Room for a single vehicle at two access gates to the wetland.

New wetland access track

Powerful Owl, Musk Lorikeet about Sunshine Coast & Bribie Island

Powerful Owl male (L) female (R)

A pair of Powerful Owls has turned up at Beerwah on the Sunshine Coast. The agitated behaviour of both birds indicates they have begun nesting. The owls are in a reserve of open forest with a dense understory along Upper Coochin Creek. Thanks to my Facebook friend Chow Chilla, who discovered the birds and asked that the site remain under wraps, and to Matt Wright for helping me get on top of this pair. The birds were calling frequently in the area in recent days. One was seen to fly over houses after sunset, suggesting they may be feeding in suburbia as well as in the fragmented forest patches about Beerwah.

Powerful Owl male

Powerful Owl is a rare bird in the Sunshine Coast region. I've heard or seen them several times in the Conondale and Jimna ranges – at Charlie Moreland Park, Booloumba Creek and Peach Trees camping ground, among other places – but sparingly over many years. Friends have recorded them several times in their garden at Buderim and there is supposedly a territory near Gympie. Barry Traill last week had one calling in his garden at Maleny. Other locals reported Powerful Owls recently in the Blackall Range foothills between Maleny and Landsborough. Another Powerful Owl was taken into care recently after being hit by a motor vehicle in Moffat Beach.

POSTSCRIPT: 9/5/2018
A Powerful Owl was found road-killed last weekend on Steve Irwin Way, just 1 km from the roosting site. I checked out the site today and there was no sign of any owls, confirming fears that the dead bird was one of this pair, with the survivor probably having left the area.
POSTSCRIPT: 20/5/2018
Local residents have heard a single bird calling at the site, suggesting that the survivor is the female and sitting on eggs in a hollow. Unless she attracts a new mate the nesting attempt will fail.

Powerful Owl male

Powerful Owl male

Also of interest locally is an influx of Musk Lorikeets on Bribie Island. Between 50 and 70 were feeding in bloodwoods at Buckleys Hole when I visited and they have been seen regularly at several sites on the island. They've also been about Brisbane so it appears there's a significant movement of the species into South-East Queensland, where it is normally a rare visitor, from the southern states; this may be due to poor flowering seasons further south.

Musk Lorikeets

Musk Lorikeets

A somewhat distant pair of Grey Goshawks at North Arm was nice.

Musings on Broad-billed Flycatcher Identification

Identification of the Myiagra flycatchers has always been a tricky business, particularly separating female Leaden Flycatcher from female Satin Flycatcher and Broad-billed Flycatcher. It's worth having a look at this in view of a healthy exchange of views between some of us on the subject in recent weeks.
The field guides tell us that Broad-billed is distinguished from female Leaden by the male having more glossy blue upperparts; both sexes having broader, more bow-shaped bills; richer rufous colouration around the throat and breast; and different tail patterns, with Broad-billed having shorter outer tail feathers, giving its tail a more rounded rather than square-shaped appearance. This graduation in the undertail - a "layering"of three or more feathers - is regarded as a particularly salient feature in view of the difficulty of being definitive about other features. It is well-illustrated in the photograph above by Tom Tarrant.

I have over the past year found Shining Flycatchers at 22 mangrove sites on the Sunshine Coast in southeast Queensland. This predominantly tropical species had until fairly recent times been considered very rare in this part of the world, and it occurred to me that it was worth looking for other northern birds in this habitat. I was equipped  with a new kayak, giving me access to extensive areas of mangrove in the region. Broad-billed Flycatcher is known from specimens and sightings to occur as far south as the Shoalwater Bay area of the central Queensland coast - not that far north of the Sunshine Coast - where it has been seen side-by-side with Leaden Flycatcher in fringe mangrove habitat.
For the discussion here, I am grateful for input from Jeff Davies, Chris Corben, Graeme Chapman and Henry Nix, all of whom have either intricate knowledge of the identification features of the Myiagra flycatchers, or have extensive field experience with Broad-billed.

Early last month, playback of Broad-billed in the mangroves of the Pumicestone Passage near Coochin Creek attracted a single bird and a group of three birds, all of them "female Leaden" types, including the bird above. I was convinced initially that they were Broad-billed.

The slightly bowed bill shown here could fit juvenile Broad-billed, or the dark chin could indicate juvenile male Leaden - such are the identification challenges posed. This bird was the one I found by itself.
One of the group of three appeared to have particularly glossy blue upperparts but I failed to photograph it. These three birds behaved very much like a family group; if they were Leadens, it was curious that there was no sign of an adult male. However, it was pointed out that the photographs I posted on my blog of two of the four birds showed the birds did not have graduated undertails so were most unlikely to be Broad-billed. The bird shown above does not have a graduated tail so appears to be a Leaden.

Nonetheless, a return visit was in order. I went back to the area a week later but could not find the birds. I eventually hooked up with them a couple of weeks ago, finding the group of three in the original area. One of them is photographed above. Again, that slightly bow-shaped bill looks interesting, and again, no sign of an adult male Leaden. Again I saw a bird with what appeared to be glossy blue upperparts but it kept well back in the vegetation and I was unable to photograph it; I point out that at the distance this bird was on both occasions, that impression could not be verified. These birds responded vigorously to playback of both Broad-billed and Leaden calls.

This is another of the group of three, and we've had some lively discussion about whether this is a Leaden or a Broad-billed. Bear in mind that tail feathers are missing and there is some blurred vegetation in the foreground, but the key question is whether this tail is graduated or not. This is where the discussion gets intricate, so I'll try to sum it up. In a nutshell, one view is that there are at least two feather tips visible on the left side of the tail which are noticeably smaller than feathers on the right side, suggesting a conspicuously graduated tail. Another view is that there are not necessarily two feather tips on the left side, and that shadows/vegetation interference could be giving a false impression of tips. In short, we simply are not sure.

Photographs of Broad-billed show that the level of graduation varies considerably between individuals. Compare the bird above, another of Tom Tarrant's photographs, with the bird at the top of the post (note also the very pale chest colouration on this bird). Hopefully we're a little more informed now about these issues.

Asian Dowitcher, Bush-hen on Pumicestone Passage

Asian Dowitcher

This afternoon I saw an Asian Dowitcher at the high tide roost at Toorbul, on Pumicestone Passage.  I was searching through a large gathering of Bar-tailed Godwit, Black-tailed Godwit and Great Knot when I picked the bird up. It was immediately obvious with its long, straight, black bill.

Asian Dowitcher

Asian Dowitcher

At roost, the waders largely had their heads tucked away so it was difficult to keep tabs on the dowitcher. In time, however, I was able to pick it out fairly easily even when its head was not visible. The dowitcher was almost as long-legged as the godwits, but much smaller in body size. It also appeared to be more greyish, its upperparts were more sharply defined and its eyebrow was whiter. The dowitcher largely kept on or close to the water edge.

Asian Dowitcher

Later in the afternoon, it moved about a bit and showed more readily. I ran into a couple of visiting birders from Dalby who told me the dowitcher was found yesterday by a birding group, a fact I had not been aware of.

Asian Dowitcher

Black-tailed Godwit

Here are some of the other waders that were present. Other migratory species seen were Eastern Curlew, Whimbrel, Bar-tailed Godwit, Black-tailed Godwit, Common Greenshank, Marsh Sandpiper (1), Grey-tailed Tattler, Lesser Sand Plover, Red-necked Stint, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper and Curlew-Sandpiper.

Eastern Curlew

Grey-tailed Tattler

Whimbrel

Brolga

On the way in to Toorbul, a Brolga was present on Bishop's Marsh, which had water in it after overnight rain.

Pale-vented Bush-hen

Before visiting Toorbul I called in to Coochin Creek. I saw two Pale-vented Bush-hens crossing the road just before the village.

Today was the first opportunity to road-test my new Vortex Razor 60x85mm and Manfrotto 190XB tripod. I was very impressed, especially finding a dowitcher with it. 

New scope

Green Catbird

Green Catbirds have been quite common about the garden lately and have been visiting the birdbaths.

Australian Little Bittern

At Parklakes near Bli Bli, the Australian Little Bitterns and Baillon's Crakes continue to show well.

Baillon's Crake