Emus of the Clarence Coast, NSW

 

Clarence Valley Independent, 26 May 2021:

The Lions Club of Clarence – Environmental [LCCE] is a rare breed of Lions club and, just like the threatened coastal emus it is campaigning to protect, its vital numbers are growing.

The nature-focussed group, the first of its kind in Australia, has gathered 1,318 signatures on its petition to reduce the speed limit on Brooms Head Road from 100kph to 80kph, particularly where emus regularly cross. In October last year, volunteers completed the group’s first major project, planting 250 trees and shrubs on a Shark Creek property that was devastated by bushfires in September and October of 2019. “The endangered coastal emu, phascogale, brolga, and an amazing amount of birdlife visit the [78 acres] property, which is about 80 percent wetland and dedicated to the Wildlife Land Trust,” LCCE spokesperson Barbara Linley said at the time.

Last week, around 100 people attended the launch of Clarence Distillery’s new Three Emu Vodka at the Yamba Surf Life Saving Club. “Earlier this year the distillery’s co-owner, Alison [Sloley] spoke to me about a new line and supporting the endangered coastal emu,” Ms. Linley said at the function. “Alison suggested that our group runs a silent auction to raise more funds for the emus and that for this night $5 per bottle goes to the emu campaign. “I also want to thank NSW Save Our Species, Clarence Valley Council, and Yaegl, the traditional owners…..

Yet another Frydenberg ministerial blunder disclosed which is still reverberating

The Guardian, 11 December 2018:

The Australian government has permitted the export of hundreds of rare and endangered parrots to a German organisation headed by a convicted kidnapper, fraudster and extortionist, despite concerns the birds could be sold at a huge profit.

An investigation by Guardian Australia has revealed that the Berlin-based Association for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots received permission to export 232 birds between 2015 and November 2018 – more than 80% of all the live native birds legally exported from Australia in the same period.

The exports include threatened species such as Carnaby’s and Baudin’s black cockatoos, worth tens of thousands of dollars each.

The head of the ACTP, Martin Guth, has multiple criminal convictions, including a five-year jail sentence for hostage-taking, extortion and attempted fraud in 1996. In 2009 Guth was sentenced to one year and eight months in prison for seven cases of fraud. In one incident Guth kidnapped two men and threatened to cut their fingers off unless they paid a large sum of money.

A six-month Guardian investigation has found:

·    Export permits for Australian birds specified they were for exhibition purposes only, but ACTP has no facility that is freely open to the public.

·    Export permits prohibited the sale of the birds or their offspring, but private messages on social media reveal native Australian birds apparently from ACTP have been offered for sale for hundreds of thousands of dollars. The German federal agency for nature conservation has said it was aware of those offers.

The Australian government was repeatedly warned of concerns about ACTP by international wildlife authorities, private breeders and the government MP Warren Entsch.

International conservation bodies and scientists have raised questions about the organisation’s activities in other countries, including Dominica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Brazil.

ACTP does not publish its financial records and is not registered with any major international zoological association.

Concerns about ACTP in Australia were raised with the former environment minister and now treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, and the office of the former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, as well as the environment department. But the government has continued to allow the exports. The latest shipment of 64 birds to ACTP was approved on 12 November.

In December 2017 the government brokered a deal with ACTP that involved the organisation giving $200,000 to the Western Australian government for projects to protect the endangered western ground parrot.

In response to questions from Guardian Australia, the office of the threatened species commissioner, Sally Box, said no such deal would have been reached had it known of Guth’s record…..

Guth’s criminal convictions do not relate to his involvement with ACTP. But the investigation raises serious questions about the oversight of exports of native species from Australia, and the due diligence conducted by international wildlife authorities on a group that has acquired one of the largest collections of rare and endangered parrots in the world.

The Australian parrots, which were bought openly and legally by ACTP from local breeders and birdkeepers, were exported after the environment department agreed to recognise the organisation as a zoo in 2015.

Documents show ACTP obtained a licence to operate as a zoo in Germany in 2014, only months before its application to Australian authorities.

The organisation told the Australian government it ran numerous centres in Germany. None are freely open to the public. Its main premises at Tasdorf, a village 30km outside Berlin, displays no public information other than a mobile phone number. Its location is not advertised and the buildings display no opening hours nor any other indication that the public is welcome to visit….

Germany’s Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) has confirmed to Guardian Australia it was aware that glossy black cockatoos imported from Australia by ACTP had been offered for sale. It said it had looked into the offers and found the birds had been legally imported and bred, and there were no limits on trade.

But under the terms of ACTP’s Australian permits, the animals and their offspring could only be moved to recognised zoos…. [my yellow highlighting]

Koalas in Iluka on the NSW North Coast and coastal development pressure

Who would not get pleasure in seeing this healthy young Koala peering down at them from the foliage?

Photograph supplied by Gabrielle Barto

It was sighted in Paperbark and then later Flooded Gum in Sid and Eileen Gill Park in Elizabeth Street, Iluka all day on Wednesday, 8th February 2017 and is one of those koalas giving lie to the myth much favoured by developers that the local koala population is functionally extinct.

The amateur photographer on the spot, Ms. Barto stated: May be the same koala sighted in Elizabeth St. on 5th January. Both sightings are within 250 metres of Hickey St. Iluka D/A site. One of the criteria for assessing critical koala habitat  (E.P.B.C  Critical Koala Habitat assessment tool) is that one or more koalas are sighted within 2 kms. of the edge of impact area, in this case the Hickey St. (D/A) site, within the last 5 years.

Passions run deep in Iluka not only for koalas, but also more generally for protecting biodiversity for future generations.

Letter to the Editor in the Clarence Valley Independent on 8 February 2017:

Iluka DA - Have Your Say

15 January at 20:07 

Koala sighting again.

Intersection of Hogan street and Elizabeth streets 5th January 2017 around 9.30 am. (West of the 160 lot development proposal)

Thank you and great work Essential Energy. They got here pretty qiuckly and it was a great relocation to the relative safety of the bush across the road.

This situation came about because of a dog chasing the koala. Hopefully the koala headed back into the Bundjalung National Park (to the East of this location) and to relative safety.

This bush heading back to the national park is going to be largely cleared and broken up if the 160 lot subdivision gets approval. The re-submitted DA still does not include a continuous vegetation corridor for koalas to move in a east west or west east direction!

Koalas will become more vulnerable to dog attack and car strike unless the developer includes a realistic continuous vegetation corridor within the proposed development site.

Belatedly the NSW Coalition Government; is currently beginning the development of a whole of government koala strategy and asking for community feedback on planning issues and its Saving Our Species conservation strategy. At a federal level, the National Koala Conservation and Management Strategy expired in 2014. Word is that a new strategy is in the pipeline but at the moment we’re flying blind.

The best way to protect koalas is a tried and tested one. The scientists that identified the crisis ecoregion problem also identified the solution: large, well-connected protected areas. Only by protecting and connecting remaining koala habitat can the government enact meaningful conservation. Everything else is tinkering round the edges.

And only by demonstrating that it can effectively protect koalas can we have any confidence that the government can protect the rest of Australia’s extraordinary wildlife that doesn’t share the koala’s high profile. [The Guardian, 16 January 2017]

On the other hand professional property developer, climate change sceptic and alternate Clarence Valley Council representative on the NSW Northern Joint Planning Panel, Cr. Andrew Baker, made this characteristically snide comment on Saturday, 11 February 2016 in an email he cc’d to North Coast Voices¹:

Thanks Gab for the copy

I hadn't appreciated the significance until your email.

It seems the only Koala sightings in the last 5 years have occurred at exactly the same time as Council is considering significant Iluka Development Applications.

I recall the identical occurrence as Council was about to consider the Anchorage Park expansion.

On the basis of your reports it seems development applications are proving extremely beneficial in attracting Koala to the area. Of course it might take a few more DA's to prove this obvious benefit but I expect this will now encourage further.

Of course I'm not suggesting the ability to encourage Koala is the only reason to support any development application - it will be just one of, if any, benefits to be considered along with disadvantages if any on a case-by-case basis.

Thank you for bringing this supporting information to our attention.

Regards

Andrew Baker

The tenor of this comment throws into doubt Cr. Baker’s ability to act as an unbiased council alternate (if called upon) in relation to this particular development application when it is considered by the Northern Joint Regional Planning Panel in March this year.

North Coast Voices was not alone in noticing this comment, as one other recipient of Baker's email made clear when he told the councilor: "I find your comments not only highly offensive, but, given your supposedly impartial decision-making role as Councillor, deeply disturbing."

To which the property developing Cr. Baker's insouciant reply (again cc'd to this blog) was; "It's unfortunate that you are disturbed and offended. Surely that's some personal issue that can't be blamed only on my willingness to state the obvious?

And people wonder why - when all the world loves koalas - they are fast disappearing from this state's coastal landscape?

Note:
When deciding to send his reply email as "Reply All", Cr. Baker made a conscious choice to also make his personal views known to council staff having some responsibility for and/or carriage of formal advice to Council-in-the-Chamber in relation to DA SUB2015/0034. Thus muddying the waters considerably, given it is a number of concerned residents' understanding that a final staff report and recommendation on the development application is yet to be delivered.

Wildlife becoming stressed in sustained heat

Kookaburra, Animals Australia, December 2016

The Daily Examiner, 6 February 2017, p.12:

VOICES FOR THE EARTH

EARTH Charter, Principle 2: "Care for the Community of Life with understanding, compassion and love."

Early January 2017 was for many people a joyous holiday period with family reunions and New Year resolutions but for all of us it was a time of temperatures of 40 degrees or more. Most of NSW experienced an oppressive heat wave and the people of the Clarence Valley sweltered.

Even night temperatures became difficult to bear and people needed to be careful to avoid dehydration. Some newspaper reports suggested the heat wave posed a threat to human health, especially to older people and the very young.

But in the midst of our discomfort did we consider the impact that the heatwave was having on our biodiversity?

Mid-afternoon on January 14 a king parrot suffering from the extreme temperature sought some relief in a shady porch behind our house. Even here the temperature was close to 40.

Her beak was repeatedly opening and closing and her wings were drooping. We were careful not to disturb her and she stayed in that position for at least two hours.

At the front of the house two more king parrots were perched in similar shady positions, again with beak and wings conveying distress.

Do such images have an important communique for our human community?

If we fail to limit our greenhouse gases urgently, if we go ahead with the massive Adani coal project, if the Donald Trump presidency ignores climate change, if... the list goes on.

Will this image of a king parrot suffering from heat wave conditions become a symbol for all life on our planet?

Big questions are looming and the future of our Earth Community - our biodiversity and our grandchildren - will be greatly influenced by our answers.

-- Stan Mussared, Clarence Valley Conservation Coalition

W.I.R.E.S. 2 December 2016:

While most native animals are well adapted to changes in climatic conditions they can still suffer during heatwaves.  Animals can cope with extremes in temperatures they are used to, but if these extremes are unusual for a particular area the animals there will struggle. 

If you can, please put fresh, cool water out for wildlife. Make sure you have a few sticks or stones in bowls or containers so that if small creatures fall in they can make it back out. Where possible refresh the water frequently throughout the day.

Flying-foxes are particularly susceptible to several days with low humidity and very high temperatures. This year with severe food shortages already a factor many populations up and down the coast are already suffering fatalities. If you see flying-foxes, young or old, on the ground or low to the ground in trees please call WIRES 1300 094 737 or use our report a rescue form to report. If you see flying-foxes moving to lower branches or to the ground below their roost trees please call WIRES. It is important that only trained and vaccinated carers rescue distressed and injured flying-foxes or bats.

If you are on a rural property and are concerned about water bowls attracting snakes near the house then you can choose to place shallow bowls around the perimeter fences. This can also assist in providing a water source to deter reptiles from seeking water from dripping taps closer to the house.

Animals with health issues, or are very young or old, will find it harder to cope - just like in people. The increasing loss of suitable habitat including the loss of leafy vegetation and older growth trees with hollows for shelter means more animals are at risk in the heat. 

Tree hollows are particularly essential for our native parrots and many of our marsupials and as less and less are available for shelter it means more creatures may suffer from exposure and more animals may seek refuge in unusual places e.g. garages, sheds or houses.

Please keep an eye out for animals exposed to the elements, but remember DO NOT approach snakes, monitors, flying-foxes, microbats, large macropods or raptors. These animals require specialist handling and MUST be rescued by trained wildlife rescuers. 

Call to reduce speed on the Maclean to Brooms Head Road

Residents of Brooms Head say, "Enough is enough" in a letter to the editor of The Daily Examiner.

Road kill appalling

Plenty of well-meaning people work hard to address the impact of Brooms Head Road traffic on our wildlife. National Parks keep count of emu numbers; WIRES repairs victims; some attach tracking devices; and, occasionally, The Daily Examiner reminds us how warm and fuzzy are emu chicks. But none of this reduces the appalling road kill.

Eighteen months ago my wife and I concluded a series of letters to The Daily Examiner and The Coastal Views  about the level of the road kill on the 20km stretch between Brooms Head and Maclean, but the killing continues.

I recently presented photos of wildlife killings on that road to The Daily Examiner: roos, wallabies, wallaroos, possums, echidnas, various reptiles and a wide variety of birds. The reporter wasn't interested except to wonder why I cared.

I said that if I were hit, it would hurt me as much as if I were an emu or goanna. I asked if, in the scheme of things, an emu has a less-important right to seek a pain-free life than I do; that while I use its natural land, should deadly confrontation be inevitable; that while I possibly think quicker than the emu, does it give me a greater right to destroy it - or am I ethically obliged to care for the less able? Should my code of behaviour be based on the levels of difference between the surrounding wildlife and me and, if so, how should it be expressed caringly or non-caringly?

If conflict between "unequal" species is okay, what about between members of our species? Should we excuse killing one another on roads. If not, why not?

While it seemed my reporter preferred to pursue the warm and fuzzy approach, bosses/authorities who don't make decisions can have devastating effect. Reducing this 20km trip to mostly 80km/h all the way certainly increases the time by three minutes but allows that bit extra for sharper navigation and avoidance on a road where highway speed (and often more) simply invites collision. The administrative inaction shows poor duty of care. It's a little similar to the carelessness surrounding that thoughtless message recently allowed through to nurse Saldanah in London.

K.Giese
Brooms Head

Source: Letters, The Daily Examiner, 21/12/12