A local group of Queensland “Koala Crusaders” are assisting the vulnerable Glossy Black Cockatoos at the same time as the declining Noosa Shire Koalas. This will be achieved through their great work revegetating a local area of future koala habitat.
On Saturday 22nd June, a team of volunteers began replanting a large area of land at Ringtail Creek, along McKinnon Drive, previously used for forestry. They are now seeking advice from groups such as Landcare to arrange to include Glossy feed trees (mainly Allocasuarina littoralis), in their revegetation program.
Meghan Halverson from Queensland Koala Crusaders says that they really wanted to help the Glossy Black Cockatoos by planting the Casuarinas, but subsequently have realised that these feed trees will also benefit the Koalas. Meghan says that it appears that koalas use the Casuarinas as trees for shelter but have also been known to eat from them, perhaps as koala “medicine” when they are not feeling well.
The land being replanted was recently acquired by Noosa Council, Noosa Parks Association and the Queensland State Government who purchased the logging license from Hancock Qld Plantations to become one of the region’s National Parks. The aim now is to fill the land with as many as 24,000 native plants, including Casuarinas, in order to once again provide a home for vulnerable and endangered native wildlife.
However the battle to save the existing native plant species and feed trees for the Glossy Black cockatoos is not over yet. In terms of the Blue Care development at Sunrise Beach, there is still time to better protect native forest for wildlife by not clear-felling in the first place, rather than trying to replicate or reproduce it afterwards.
A more strategic and collaborative approach to protecting Glossy Black Cockatoos is not new. Bob Carey had requested a meeting with Mayor Tony Wellington in May 2017 to achieve just that. Here are the meeting notes.
Bob submitted a Possible 3 Step Plan as follow:
- Create a priority list of GBC habitat areas in Council-owned Natural Areas and Parks, roadside Reserves, Local organisational entities (Churches, Aged Care Facilities, Utilities, Educational Institutions etc), based on data from the Annual GBC Survey results.
- Create a Noosa Shire GBC Strategic Plan for habitat management and regeneration (weeding, planting, education/signage, trialling of nesting boxes) with Council leadership (Peter Milne rep for the GB Conservancy) and key stakeholders from Community including: Bushland Care Group Leaders, University researchers, Landcare representatives, local Utilities and Educational Institutions.
- Develop, populate and keep current a dedicated GBC webpage on the Council Website for information, action and engagement by community in GBC habitat management and regeneration. This web portal to provide for easy public access to information about GBCs in the Noosa Shire and to be a resource for interested individuals and groups at the local, national and international level.
Unfortunately nothing has come of it yet. Noosa Council and the Noosa Biosphere Reserve Foundation seem to lay low, but with so many people working together to try to save the remaining Glossies, there may still be some hope that these lovely birds will not become a further endangered, or indeed extinct species, like so much other uniquely Australian wildlife. Thank you to all these friends of the koalas and the cockatoos.
SUNRISE ACTION UPDATE:
Glossy Team Sunrise have received an offer from a kind person with a drone camera who will record and document the clearing work by Blue Care both before and after it commences. If you also have a drone and would like to help, please let us know. Message us on Glossy Team Sunrise. It would be important, for instance, to be able to check that the feed trees within the area that were agreed to be saved by Noosa Council, as part of the development approval process, are indeed being retained.
