The Queensland government says it has ‘‘no intention’’ of reducing ranger-led activities in a $2.5 million revamp of the Walkabout Creek centre at The Gap.
Platypus in the wild at Walkabout Creek. Photo: Karleen Minney
Fairfax Media understands the state government has set aside $2.5 million for the stage one of a new centre on the site, which is in Premier Campbell Newman’s Ashgrove electorate.
This follows a Fairfax Media story yesterday questioning the marketing of the nature centre, which includes a rare chance to see a platypus in a natural setting.
However residents are concerned the master plan for the site - the regional headquarters for the National Parks and Wildlife Service - plans to wind back the animal enclosure at the centre.
In a statement issued late Tuesday afternoon, the government said there were ‘‘no plans to discontinue ranger-led wildlife encounters at the facility’’.
Enoggera Weir, behind the centre. Photo: Tony Moore
‘‘Certainly there are no plans to turn the location into a ‘theme park’,’’ the statement said.
The government has received 265 public submissions to its master plan for the site, which includes plans to use a ‘‘flying fox’’ or ‘‘zip line’’ to re-invigorate the area, beside Enoggera Weir.
Stage one of the upgrade includes the placement of the ‘‘flying fox’’, new playground equipment, picnic areas and barbeques.
Flying fox lines would go in the outdoor section of the wildlife enclosure, which now runs down to Enoggera Weir.
Some residents have questioned the impact of the extra noise from Enoggera Weir on local bird species, like the Red Browed Finch.
This area now houses the outside wallaby and wombat enclosure.
The majority of respondents have been supportive of the draft master plan for the centre, the government said in a statement.
‘‘The master plan seeks to expand nature-based opportunities for visitors and encourage them to explore national parks in the area,’’ it read.
‘‘To get out ‘into the bush’ and reap the health and wellbeing benefits that an active outdoor lifestyle offers.”
One of the submissions came from the Riverlife Centre at Kangaroo Point, which runs canoes and kayaks on the Brisbane River.
Manager Josh Wicks confirmed Riverlife was interested in being part of any revamped centre at The Gap.
‘‘But it comes down to what activities that they are willing to keep open,’’ he said.
‘‘My understanding is that they still have not got a firm understanding of what they are going to offer.
‘‘But I understand that is likely to come about June.’’
He said Riverlife would not run wildlife operations, but was interested in running canoe and boutique-type events from the site.
‘‘We obviously don’t have any say in what happens to that wildlife zoo, but we wouldn’t be saying that you would have to get rid of that,’’ he said.
Mr Wicks said a lot of locals were saying they wanted access to the weir.
‘‘So we might be interested in running jazz-kind of events under the stars like we do down at Kangaroo Point, which the locals like,’’ he said.
‘‘And I’m not sure that there is the opportunity to do that type of thing - we have to wait until the government releases the master plan - but we are willing to look at that.’’
Queensland researchers say environmental groups tasked with managing the state's coastal ecosystems are critically under-resourced.
Reef Check Australia volunteer Deanna Hing with a sample of the rubbish collected in a land and sea clean-up. Photo: John McCutcheon/Sunshine Coast Daily
Australia's coastal ecosystems are maintained by community-based natural resource management groups.
However, Alby Wooler from the Capricorn Coast Landcare Group says it is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit and retain unpaid workers.
"The volunteer base is not as good as it was eight, 10 years ago," he said.
CQUniversity researcher Julian Reid is investigating the structures and functions of Government-funded coastal management groups.
He says most struggle with volunteer shortages and their resources are being over-stretched because of population growth, coastal development and climate change.
"The concern is how these environmental groups, if they'll have the capacity to respond to these increased needs," he said.
He says environmental conservation is among the least popular of volunteer activities.
SCIENTISTS and river health teams are using reclaimed timber from a tornado in the Yarrawonga area to create a series of fish “motels” along the Ovens River.
Macquarie perch fingerlings released in the Ovens River.
New habitats for native fish are being funded from recreational fishing grants.
The North East Catchment Management Authority and representatives from the Department of Environment and Primary Industries attached to the Arthur Rylah Institute are involved in developing the new habitat.
The push for additional fish habitat coincides with a large number of recent fish stockings in the region.
The habitat structures are starting to be built between Tarrawingee and Everton today.
“Native fish look for snags and complex structures in a river when they are seeking shelter or it’s time to spawn (breed),” said Anthony Wilson, the catchment co-ordinator with the authority.
“Previous mapping of in-stream woody habitat in the Ovens River identified a lack of in-stream logs and timber for native fish species.
“That’s why we are creating these ‘motels’ for native fish.”
The fish motels are constructed by layering logs in a crisscross formation to form a tower-like structure that provides bulk and complexity for the fish species through differing water heights of the river.
The structures are then held in place within the river by large poles that are pinned into the river bed.
Mr Wilson said it was initially difficult to source native timber for the innovative fish habitat project.
“Streamline Environmental Project Management based in Yarrawonga helped us source the hardwood we needed to build these structures from tornado damaged areas,” he said.
“In doing so, we are helping to clean up storm damaged vegetation in the Yarrawonga community and offering environmental benefits for the Ovens River and its native fish populations.”
Earlier this month 5000 Macquarie perch were stocked in two spots along the Ovens River with another 33,000 released in five spots at Gapsted, Whorouly, Oxley Flats, Tarrawingee and Rocky Point last Wednesday.
About 20,000 Murray cod have been released into the Mitta River.
The North East Anglers Association with the department released 1400 catfish in Lake Moodemere near Rutherglen two weeks ago.
Fish species such as the much-loved blue groper will be at risk if the O'Farrell government permanently allows recreational fishing in sensitive marine areas, a former government scientist has warned.
At risk: The blue groper could be targeted by fishers. Photo: Sarah Speight
On Monday cabinet is due to consider making permanent an amnesty on recreational line fishing from beaches and headlands in so-called ''sanctuary zones'' - marine areas that purportedly provide the highest level of protection for wildlife.
It is understood that cabinet is likely to allow line fishing in some of these zones. Under one option being considered, this would occur in about half the state's sanctuary zones, which are designated in marine parks around Batemans Bay, Cape Byron, Jervis Bay, Lord Howe Island, Port Stephens and Solitary Islands. It would mean reinstating a ban on fishing in the remaining sanctuary zones.
A former scientist at the now-defunct Cronulla Fisheries Research Centre, Kevin Rowling, said the move could devastate stocks of some fish species including the blue groper, red rock cod and eastern blue devil fish. ''Recreational fishing can have a major impact,'' he said.
''There are millions of [fishermen] and it all adds up.
''A lot of the fish that live [around rocky headlands] … are slow growing and there are many species we don't know the biology of.''
The state's most recent update on fish species status was conducted in 2008-09 and he questioned how fishing could be allowed when stock levels were unknown.
''They could be overfished … or they could be wiped out in particular areas,'' he said.
The designation of sanctuary zones has been highly politicised. The Coalition accused the former Labor government of establishing new protection zones in the Jervis Bay and Solitary Islands marine parks before the last election to attract Greens' preferences.
But the Opposition and the NSW Greens said the government had bowed to the Shooters and Fishers Party by opening sanctuary zones to fishing in March last year.
Save our Marine Life Alliance spokeswoman Cate Faehrmann said sanctuary zones around popular Wategos Beach and the Pass, near Byron Bay, were likely to be permanently opened to line fishing despite the presence of a dolphin nursery.
''Recreational fishers already have 93 per cent of the state's waters in which they can fish … no other government in the world has wound back sanctuary zones in this way,'' Ms Faehrmann said.
President of the NSW Amateur Fishing Clubs Association, Sydney branch, Carlo Dicello said the impact of recreational line fishing was ''minimal''.
''The ocean looks like a big place, but unfortunately the good fishing spots are very small and confined. The [sanctuary zones] are our prime spots,'' he said.
A spokesman for Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson said the Marine Estate Expert Knowledge Panel carried out a risk assessment during the amnesty which ''thoroughly considered ecological, social and economic values''.
A department spokeswoman said fish assessment was carried out each year.
A PORT-based fishing charter business operator says she expects industry consultation on plans for an artificial reef off Port Macquarie.
Carolyn Wagstaff, who owns and operates Deep End Fishing Charters, based at the Port Macquarie Marina, says the reef plan sounds good.
"I read the article in the Port News and we are expecting to be contacted by the Department of Primary Industries," she said.
"It is early days, but I'd expect the department would want some feedback from us. There would also be a detailed environmental assessment required along with discussions with commercial and rec fishers.
"We ... hope that the department would be talking to us. But I think it will be wonderful. Anyone who fishes in Port Macquarie would be pleased with this news.
"Not that we are lacking in fish numbers but you want to be sustaining your stock levels."
Mrs Wagstaff also called for a restriction zone to be included in the plan.
"I wouldn't be surprised to have that zone around the site. This would enable more fish to breed," she said. "We pay fishing licences and, being a rec fishing charter, we are allowed to take locals and tourists out fishing and they don't need to purchase a separate fishing licence.
"It is good to see our money being spent well. I'd definitely give it the thumbs up."
Another supporter of the project is Ned Kelly's Bait 'n' Tackle owner Jason Isaac.
He described the plan as a fantastic idea and a brilliant concept.
"This is a terrific scheme they have going," he said. "What they look at doing is creating something out of nothing. Off Port Macquarie, we have large tracts of sand which are baron as far as rec fishing is concerned.
"But we need to give this time to implement and time for growth."
Mr Isaac said once the structure was in place, weed growth would be visible within a month with six to 12 months required to attract enough growth to attract bait fish.
"This would then attract predatory fish," he said. "And the longer the better. This is a tremendous attraction for off-shore fishos.
"Once established, the vast majority of off-shore fishos would visit this area. Visiting anglers will certainly fish the area ... I think it would be an extremely well-patronised area."
Mr Isaac also said the project was fishing licence money being put to good use.
The state government on Thursday announced the $900,000 investment to create the artificial reef.
The reef will be the third of its kind in New South Wales and is expected to further cement the Hastings' reputation as a tourism mecca.
The world's first continent-wide survey of reef sea life has found big fish gone around much of the Australian coastline.
Exhaustive: Jemima Stuart-Smith collects data for the first continent-wide survey of reef sea life which ended in Hobart. Photo: Rick Stuart-Smith
A year-long circumnavigation of Australia ended in Hobart on Wednesday with a trove of data from 700 coral and rock reef sites surveyed by volunteer divers for the Reef Life Survey Foundation.
It's not just over-fishing, it's the spread of invasive species.
Program co-founder Graham Edgar, of the University of Tasmania, said the first comprehensive study of any continent's reef systems found biodiversity losses, compared to earlier local counts.
''Virtually all of our coastline has had all the larger predatory organisms reduced - from the big fishes to the lobsters,'' said Professor Edgar, from the UTAS Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies.
''It's not just over-fishing, it's the spread of invasive species and problems such as pollution when you get near metropolitan areas.''
His 14-metre catamaran Reef Dragon served as dive platform on a 12,000 nautical mile circumnavigation while 75 trained divers examined the life on reefs up to 400 nautical miles offshore. The odyssey took the divers from the pitch dark waters of Port Davey in south-west Tasmania to spectacular Osprey Reef, a sheer-walled coral atoll off far north Queensland.
Pioneering collections of biological information were made in the Coral Sea and off the North-West Shelf on the way down the West Australian coast and back to Tasmania, where Reef Dragon docked in a Derwent River marina.
Professor Edgar said the final report card was ''a mixed bag''.
''Some of the reefs are doing really well, particularly off the North-West Shelf where there are good numbers of large fish,'' he said. ''Elsewhere coral reefs are seriously degraded by bleaching. There have been some massive changes out of sight in the marine environment.''
Data collected on this, and other surveys, is making its way into what the New York Times said in an editorial this week was eye-opening work by Professor Edgar and other Tasmanian researchers.
According to a study published this month in Nature, the best protection for marine life comes in reserves that are likely to be ''no-take'', well-enforced, more than 10 years old, more than 100 square kilometres, and isolated by deep water or sand.
The New York Times said: ''Marine-protected areas are clearly a positive trend, a reflection of the growing awareness of governments across the globe that the oceans and their bounty are not limitless or indestructible.''
Australia's 3.1 million square kilometre system of marine reserves is in doubt after the federal government's decision to scrap most of the network's management plans and no-take zones. An expert scientific panel will examine the science behind the reserves, and advisory panels are to be chosen to improve stakeholder consultation.
Environment Minister Greg Hunt is yet to announce membership of the panels.
Original story by Chrissy Arthur and Donna Field, ABC News
Thunderstorms are expected to bring more welcome rain to drought-stricken parts of Queensland's interior today.
The flooded Belyando River crossing on Carinya station, north-east of Alpha. Photo: Sally McKeering
Major flood levels are being recorded at Jericho, east of Longreach, where more than 250 millimetres of rain has fallen.
The Barcaldine council is monitoring river rises in the Jericho area.
Barcaldine council spokesman Rob Bauer says it has limited information on river levels near the town.
He says graziers will welcome the rain but he is hoping there is no damage.
"If we can get away with no major damage to livestock, plant and equipment, I am sure they are rejoicing with the rain," he said.
"It is just unfortunate in this world that we live we seem to have droughts and floods to end droughts and then in the meantime bushfires.
"It is just something we put up with in this part of the world."
Mr Bauer says the Belyando River is still about a metre over the Capricorn Highway east of Alpha and he expects the road to be cut for most of the day.
Alpha residents rejoice with rain relief
A band of very heavy rainfall has delivered 200 millimetres at Rebecca Comiskey's property at Alpha.
"You can't help but quote Dorothea McKellar can you - I love a sunburnt country," she said.
"It's a perfect poem for where we live.
"Lots of before and after shots in my mind of a dry dam and dams that are well and truly full - it's unbelievable."
She says many properties in the drought-declared area were having to cart water because there was nothing left.
"When you're sort of approaching the end of the growing season for grass, we only had sort of eight or so weeks left of growing time for grass," she said.
"We were starting to plan our next de-stocking moves, so eight inches is a lot of rain."
After such prolonged dry weather, the sound of rain on a tin roof is one of the most positive morale boosting sounds you'll ever hear.
AgForce CEO Charles Burke
She says the rain has saved her from making some tough decisions
"We'd already had to make quite a few tough decisions in terms of selling classes of stock we normally wouldn't like to," she said.
"But the water situation was our biggest drama and we're very thankful to have our water supplies replenished."
Rain creates 'atmosphere of hope'
With much of Queensland in drought, peak rural lobby group AgForce chief executive officer Charles Burke says this rain will be uplifting.
"That's what this rain will do for a lot of people it creates an atmosphere of hope and it lifts morale and it lifts spirits," he said.
"It's quite amazing for those people who've never experienced this that after such prolonged dry weather the sound of rain on a tin roof is one of the most positive morale boosting sounds you'll ever hear."
But Mr Burke says the rainfall has been very isolated.
"There is just on 70 per cent of Queensland drought declared and by the figures that we have gathered, that represents about 6,500 properties," she said.
"If you look at the map it's basically everything west of the Great Dividing Range."
Meanwhile, it is expected the Federal Government will announce details of a drought assistance package for Queensland and New South Wales soon.
Feral pigs, wild dogs and cars are just a few of the threats facing the turtles that nest along the Queensland coast.
The Queensland and Federal Governments are launching a joint $7 million dollar campaign, they say will protect these vulnerable creatures and continue the so-called 'the war on pests'.
Reef Turtle. Photo ABC
Indigenous rangers are welcoming the investment, saying there needs to be a focus on employment.
Traditional owner Jim Gaston has watched out for turtles for decades.
"They've been around for as long as we have, maybe longer, so we've got to look after them for the next generation."
In his years patrolling beaches, he's seen, first hand, the type of destruction that pests do to turtles' nests.
"They eat the eggs and destroy the nests," he says.
One north Queensland conversation group says the joint campaign is merely a 'minuscule gesture' when 'major action' is needed to protect marine wildlife and the reef.
Co-ordinator Wendy Tubeman says 7 million dollars won't go far.
"It's the case of putting a band-aid on your finger, and ignoring the cancer."
Wildlife authorities are ramping up efforts to prevent a fatal crocodile attack amid a population spike in waters around Broome.
Crocodile trap in waters near Broome. A permanent crocodile trap has been installed in Dampier Creek amid an increase in crocodile numbers. Photo: ABC News, Erin Parke
The Department of Parks and Wildlife's Dave Woods says for the first time, a $4,000 trap will be permanently installed at a popular fishing spot to help rangers deal with the increasing number of crocodiles in local waterways.
The five-metre aluminium contraption has a trapdoor system on it which is attached to a bait.
Night patrols are planned, and computer technology will be used to map where and when the animals come close to shore.
The program is part of a push to raise awareness of the risks of crocodiles, and Western Australia is looking to the Northern Territory for pointers.
"The Northern Territory have been the leaders in crocodile management for some time, and rather than reinventing the wheel, we're pretty much drawing on what they've learnt," Mr Woods said.
"We're following a standard operating procedure that the Northern Territory Department of Parks and Wildlife is using."
He said the department was going through a process of increasing skills and undertaking extra training.
Rising sea levels are typically written about as a “threat to future generations” – something to worry about by 2050 or 2100, not now. But if you want to see why even relatively small increases in sea levels matter, come to Darwin.
Riding underwater on Darwin’s most popular bike path, on 1 February 2014. Photo: Andrew Campbell
The Arafura and Timor Seas off northern Australia are a global hotspot for warming oceans and rising sea levels. Image: CSIRO
Australia’s top end is a global hotspot for rising sea levels. In Darwin and the World Heritage-listed floodplains of Kakadu National Park, we’re seeing how the combination of gradual sea level rise and “normal” weather events - such as storms and king tides - can have surprisingly big impacts.
Small changes adding up to big damage
Storms and heavy rain are not unusual in the Darwin wet season. But recent weather has been spectacular, as monsoonal onshore winds coincided with king tides to batter the shoreline. Crowds gathered to see waves crashing over cliffs and jetties that usually overlook calm seas. Tragically, two people got into trouble in these rough seas, losing their lives, and a young boy drowned in a flooded stormwater drain.
Sea levels around Darwin, which abuts the warm, shallow Arafura Sea, have risen by about 17 centimetres over the past 20 years. As the CSIRO noted in its last State of the Climate report, the rates of sea-level rise to the north and northwest of Australia have been 7 to 11 millimetres per year, which is two to three times the global average. Along the eastern and southern coasts of Australia, rates of sea-level rise are around the global average.
Sea-level rise rates around Australia, as measured by coastal tide gauges (circles) and satellite observations (contours) from January 1993 to December 2011. Source: CSIRO State of the Climate 2012
Seventeen centimetres may not seem much, especially with a 7 to 8 metre daily tidal range. However, raising the underlying base makes a big difference, not just to the ultimate penetration of big tides and storm surges, but also in the everyday hydrodynamic fluxes on beaches, estuaries and floodplains.
The impact of recent Darwin weather on infrastructure — both built and natural — has profound implications for coastal planning, design, management and regulation. The recent confluence of 8-metre king tides with strong onshore winds after weeks of wet monsoonal weather was unusual, but well short of being even a Category 1 cyclone.
By Darwin standards, there has been nothing exceptional about this wet season’s wind or tides. There was heavier than average rain last month - but even that has been a long way short of the records, or even a 1-in-10 year event.
The chunk of bitumen with the white line used to be the bike path. Photo: Andrew Campbell
Yet the damage we are seeing in Darwin has been considerable. Near where we live, a significant stretch of the city’s most popular bike path (right) was washed away. Further north, a large casuarina tree, which 10 years ago stood atop the landward side of two dunes, toppled into the surf. A blowhole emerged where waves had undercut the cliffs.
And as global maps in a recent article in the journal Nature showed, Darwin is just one of many cities - including heavily populated centres such as New York City, Kolkata and Shanghai - at growing risk of coastal flooding, in part due to accelerating sea-level rise.
How can we manage change better?
In Darwin, like other low-lying coastal settlements, we essentially have three options: start managing our retreat from the sea; try to engineer coastal defences; or get used to much more volatile and risky life on the edge, and modify our systems, policies and behaviour accordingly.
Of course, we could simply do nothing. But we contend that is the least credible and potentially most expensive option in the long run.
The other three options of managed retreat, investment in coastal defences, and accepting greater risk are not mutually exclusive. They can be blended within a well-conceived long-term strategy.
Managed retreat is the most confronting option, which some communities are already facing. Some low-lying coastal areas simply cannot be defended cost-effectively, and even the best adaptation strategies may be inadequate.
But there are also significant opportunities to reconfigure coastal settlement in ways that minimise social disruption.
In places with valuable assets, such as parts of some cities or Kakadu, we can improve coastal defences, natural and/or engineered.
On the Tommycut Creek: this used to be a freshwater melaleuca forest, like those seen in the film Ten Canoes, but saltwater intrusion has turned it into a hypersaline swamp. Photo: Eric Valentine
After our recent storms, Darwin’s coasts were more intact in sections where mangroves, trees and shrubs protected the soil. While the shoreline did retreat, damage was less than in cleared sections. We need to be replanting the dunes we want to keep, and retaining or restoring mangroves in estuarine and low-lying areas.
The North Australian Biodiversity Hub is working with Kakadu Traditional Owners to look at options for managing the impacts of weeds and sea level rise on the floodplains that are so important for food for local people, and more broadly for Top End fishing and tourism experiences.
A casuarina tree that used to be on the landward side of two dunes, now toppled on the beach. Photo: Andrew Campbell
In Darwin, hard protection of foreshore made some difference. But even rock-walled sections were disassembled in places, with the rocks dragged back into the sea or thrown, with astonishing force, onto the tops of cliffs.
If expensive hard protection is going to be used, it needs to be done at a scale that is engineered to last for decades and withstand extreme weather events, taking into account projected future sea levels.
Darwin residents protest against a proposed residential island between Nightcliff and East Point. Photo: Andrew Campbell
The latest climate science suggests that northern Australia may have less frequent cyclones in future, but a higher proportion of extremely intense (Category 5 or worse) tropical cyclones.
Thirdly, the construction of new residential or tourism infrastructure in exposed zones of the coastal environment is inherently risky. At the very least, coastal planning must take into account the amplified risks from continuing sea-level rise.
Prepare now, or pay later
What we are seeing now in Darwin is a taste of things to come in many coastal areas of the world if we don’t take preventative and adaptive measures.
This has major implications for residents, investors, insurers, planners and policymakers. It also promises to create fertile grounds for litigation in the future, if people approving developments are not seen to be basing their decisions on the best available information.
Recent events in Darwin underline that sea level, especially in the monsoonal north, is rising fast, and old assumptions should no longer hold.
So we need to think long-term about which bits of coastal infrastructure we want to try to keep, and for how long, while steadily moving essential services to more secure places.
And we should remember that recent storms have been mild compared to the cyclone that will likely whack Darwin again sooner or later.
The Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods undertakes research and monitoring in Darwin Harbour and other coastal areas in northern Australia and south-east Asia, funded by a wide range of NT and Commonwealth agencies and industry, including the Bushfires and Natural Hazards CRC.
Stephen Garnett receives funding from the Australian Research Council for research on Indigenous land and sea management and has received funding from the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility on climate change adaptation for birds.
