The newsletter of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland Fraser Coast Branch THIS ISSUE: COVID-19 Restrictions easing •Presidential Ponderings •Branch Activity Report •Branch’s Annual Report 2019-2020 •Dougan Street Debacle •Nature Walks reports •Nature Watch snippets SPRING 2020 Wambaliman since 1967 In the language of the Butchulla people, who are custodians of land that includes the Fraser Coast, ‘wambaliman’ means ‘to carry’, and refers to the messages that the Newsletter is communicating. Editor's Note I am thankful I live beyond the earthworks happening around Dougan St. Point Vernon. There is the occasional background hum of the WILDLIFE PRESERVATION machinery and we have more kangaroos here SOCIETY OF QUEENSLAND than usual - otherwise we are protected. But known informally as close by large double dump trucks are hurtling WILDLIFE QUEENSLAND around suburban streets carrying massive amounts of soil into the Dougan St. residential FRASER COAST BRANCH development and machinery goes all day. PO Box 7396 Urangan, 4655 And why? Why are we filling in low lying areas for housing? How are our local authorities President: letting developers get away with destroying Vanessa Elwell-Gavins beautiful environments and displacing so much 0428 624 366 wildlife? How are the developers getting away Vice President: with providing ecological reports that downplay the environmental values of an area? As if the John Williams 0428 980 019 displacement of about 200 kangaroos (no plan Secretary: for their dispersal or relocation) wasn't bad Kerry Alston 41244194 enough the beautiful tidal creek which is such a Treasurer: haven for wildlife will be hugely compromised Bruce Dick 41248142 with this development. In the development application this natural creek was described as Ass’t - Jenni Watts a drainage line so as to dismiss any value it Facebook may have as habitat or recognise the Peter Duck 0432 250 213 importance of retaining vegetation as a natural Webpage filtering system for our runoff. And I thought Head Office (contact President) Mangroves were protected? Read Peter’s article on page 10 and 11. Wildlife Matters articles Carol Bussey: 41173483 On the plus side - Parraweena Park has its new signs designating it as a “Bushland Newsletter WAMBALIMAN Reserve”. I have seen Glossy-Blacks, a pair of Publisher: Bazas, a Shining Flycatcher and a Rose- WPSQ Fraser Coast crowned Fruit-dove among other beautiful birds Editor & Production: in the last week in the area. In my tiny garden Pale-headed Rosellas are feasting on the blue Jenni Watts 0481 289 521 berries of Dianella and the galahs and corellas Proofreading: are enjoying the wattle seeds. There are many Andrea Van Kampen more butterflies around. The wildflowers have Printing: Peter Duck put on their annual magnificent display in the Mailing: Jackie Henrion Wallum. Spring is here. ⚫ Wambaliman SPRING 2020 2 Notice Board Branch meetings Contents SPRING 2020 Usually held 3rd Sunday of month 2:00pm Presidential Ponderings 4 Halcro St Community Centre, Pialba Quarterly Branch Activity Report 6 October 7 - Executive Meeting / no GM November 15 - General Meeting Turtle Cove, River heads 8 December 6 - Social Gathering EAG report 9 Backyard BioBlitz Spring 2020 Dougan Street Debacle 10 Weekend - 10 and 11 October Migratory Birds Workshop 12 Wildlife Talks in the Library Turtles, Tiaro Landcare 13 cancelled until further notice Wildlife Workshop 14 Nature Walks New plaque for bat warrior 15 Last for the year Nature Walks reports 16 Sunday 8 November - River Heads NB. Bookings do not open until Marlene’s Walk on K’gari 19 information sheets are distributed. Nature Watch 20 Thursday, 29 October Branch Annual Report 2019/20 22 2pm to 4pm Tavistock St Council Offices Jasmine Butler, Council’s Strategic Planner is hosting Branch members to a Wambaliman dedicated introduction to and workshop on e-copy in colour the discussion paper for the review of the hardcopy in black and white FCRC’s Planning Scheme Let us know if you want the e-copy only. Branch end of year function Sunday, 6 December Contributions for Wambaliman Arkarra Tea Gardens—Time TBA. We welcome contributions from WPSQ members and supporters. Articles can FCRC—CEP take the form of reports, observations of For information nature, anecdotes, quotes, humour etc. [email protected] Send contributions to: FCRC - Land for Wildlife [email protected] For information [email protected] Submissions for the next issue are due by Friday 15 JANUARY 2021 Don’t forget to LIKE us on Opinions expressed in Wambaliman are not neces- sarily those endorsed by the Wildlife Preservation www.facebook.com/WPSQFraserCoast Society Queensland, Fraser Coast Branch unless Check out our page on specifically attributed to them. https://wildlife.org.au/fraser-coast/ 3 Presidential Ponderings with Vanessa Elwell-Gavins We have just had our 2020 AGM and have a 'new' Execu- tive. Bruce Dick is now our official Treasurer, but Jenni Watts will continue to maintain all the accounts and prepare the reports as our (non- Executive) Assistant Treasurer. Bruce will also continue to do the minutes for meetings. We would like to welcome Kerry Alston to the Executive team as our new Secretary. For those of you who may not know Ker- ry, she is wonderfully well or- ganised and oozes loads of common sense and experience 2020-21 Executive in dealing with people and groups. John, Bruce, Vanessa and Kerry She also has back-up, particularly in Linden, our youngest active member and some of her other children. John Williams is continuing as Vice-President. Many thanks in advance to them all. The Executive is the 'Management Committee' for our Branch. The Executive roles all relate to good governance and we are responsible for making sure the Branch can do our business properly. As with every organisation it is often hard yakka and sometimes we don't get to see any of the 'fun' or interesting stuff that is the Branch's core business. When Executive members do get involved with other Branch activities, such as fund-raising, or organising the now resumed na- ture walks program, we do not wear our Executive hats. The Branch has lots of other roles which can be filled by any interested member. Teams are encouraged, as we all benefit from sharing our ideas with others. Hopefully by the time you read this I will have circulated the list of current 'non- Executive positions', for you to say whether or not you would like to withdraw, continue or take something up. The biggest priority for me personally in the next 12 months, apart from on-going presidential responsibilities (which are largely hidden from view and are not al- ways 'easy' or 'fun'), will be the Branch's participation in Fraser Coast Regional Council's review of the planning scheme. This is profoundly important for our Branch's business. Council's decisions with regard to development are the single biggest influencer on our local environment and whether or not our wildlife have any future in the Fraser Coast. In the last couple of years, we have seen any Wambaliman SPRING 2020 4 number of horrible decisions and actions that have had a catastrophic impact on the local wildlife, with loss or reduction of patch after patch of remnant vegetation. Development applications are all considered under the planning scheme operat- ing when the development application was lodged. In some cases lodgement was last century!!! The review of the planning scheme will not change this, and nor will it consider how the objectives of the new planning scheme will be achieved with the applica- tion of now out-dated rules. This is a huge problem and one that will require on- going discussions with Council that are outside the review of the planning scheme itself. Lack of proper Council monitoring for compliance by developers, contractors and consultants appears to have been a serious flaw. Getting better outcomes in this space will require lots of on-going hard work on our part, with vigilance, tact and firmness. This will be an on-going challenge. If you become aware of a new development anywhere in the Fraser Coast, please keep a close eye on it. On the basis of current evidence, in all probability it is happening with no environmental protections. The good news is that we have had a couple of wins recently with the federal Minister for the Environment rejecting the Turtle Cove Haven development at River Heads, and the decision by Council to pursue fencing off of Esplanade veg- etation that has been illegally poisoned so that the area can regenerate. We have not achieved these wins on our own, of course. Supporting and working closely with other groups who share our aspirations is one of the most powerful things we can do as a group. And don't under-estimate the power of letters! Nature Matters - a personal story Today, 6 September, was to be the second nature walk for me but sadly, bad luck struck an unfortunate roo just before I passed a section of the highway not long out of Hervey Bay and heading to Poona. The young male roo had been hit and injured but could not get up, only able to move head, shoulders and arms. I sat with the animal for two hours, on the edge of the road, waiting for a wildlife rescue, trying to sooth a very distressed animal (making two of us!) Unfortunately, they had two to three other road incident calls that same morning, hence the very long delay. After more than two hours and at least four calls to a wildlife rescue group, the roo passed away. Our local wildlife rescue group are volunteers and self-funded.