Hi,
ASHMORE REEF
Ashmore reef trips are nearly upon us so we’ve put together information for you, on this remarkable place. If you visit Bird-O and go to “Birding REGIONS” in the top menu, you’ll find access to a page about Ashmore Reef and the NW Shelf. You can see images from past trips, read about its history and the birds that have been seen there. There’s also new article which summarises the birding highlights from the last 14 trips and information on how you can plan your trip to Ashmore Reef next year.
CENTRAL AUSTRALIA
There’s another regional page set up for Central Aus. This is a way to support our growing birding tour industry so email us if you’re interested in being part.
OUTBACK HAS UNSEEN BUCKS
Also of interest, an article in NT News titled “Outback has Unseen Bucks” – a useful follow-up to the recent Princess Parrot debarcle. http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=%23birdonews
To keep updated with this news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook or sign up for the newsletter.
Happy birding!
Simon.
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OK, as a first point, I would have preferred that the link in Simon’s original post was http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2010/09/24/181931_opinion.html
The second point is that the article is written in a typical tabloid opinion style, and you learn little from reading it. The first sentence is the only one that contains any “facts” . The reference to literacy was gratuitous, and pitched at the attitudes of “the audience”.
On the positive side, the article makes correct use of the term twitcher [not a common term in journalistic circles], and it does make reference to potential economic spin-offs from birdwatching. For better or worse, birding may be regarded as a freeloading activity by some people – birders come in, poke about and leave without giving anything in return. From the local’s perspective, it is like the old joke about bushwalkers in Tasmania – “They arrive with a shirt and a ten pound note and leave without changing either”. If I remember correctly, birding organisations in the USA put a bit of effort in to demonstrating that birders do indeed make an economic contribution.
Regards, Laurie.
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Hi Chris,
I just had a look at the CLC web site and have got their side of the Princess Parrot fiasco. The CLC has issued a press release on the matter, the content of which I have posted below. As you can see, some birders did illegally enter the Aboriginal lands. It would also seem that the owners were concerned with environmental issues as well.
“The quest for princess parrot trampling Aboriginal land”
The Central Land Council, after consultation with traditional owners of the Haasts Bluff Aboriginal Land Trust, has knocked back a number of permit requests for access to the Trust.
The requests were made by keen bird watchers after the Princess Parrot was reportedly seen on the Trust.
Traditional owners approved the first request they received with conditions but have since refused up to about 20 additional applications that quickly followed.
The CLC has consulted traditional owners for the area on the Haasts Bluff Trust, where the parrot is said to have been seen, over the applications. However, the applications were refused when it was discovered that some bird watchers had broken the law by taking an estimated one day’s drive into the Trust without their permission, not once, but at least twice.
Traditional owners were also concerned about the large number of applications that were coming in to access a fragile, arid environment.
Land owners are already dealing with a significant introduced weed management issue in the area and are concerned about further environmental damage arising from a high volume of unregulated vehicle access.
There are also many sacred sites in the area of considerable sensitivity.
Visitors blindly walking around sacred sites and possibly accidentally damaging them can cause great offense and hurt to traditional owners and leaves the perpetrators open to being charged under the Land Rights Act.
The trust is Aboriginal freehold land, and like any freehold land, the owners have the right to refuse entry to people if they wish.
Traditional owners for the area in question have been quite adamant that the lack of respect shown by some of the bird watchers in choosing to break the law and travel around the trust without permission and the weight of numbers of people and vehicles that would be accessing this environmentally and culturally sensitive area has seen them take this decision.
While the level of interest has been overwhelming for traditional owners on this occasion, the CLC has received constructive approaches from people inside the bird watching fraternity interested in establishing a more manageable process, something the CLC is open to discussing.
Watarrka and West MacDonnell national parks and Tnorala (Gosse) Bluff Conservation Reserve are also reported to be possible sites to see the parrot and places where permits are not required to access. End Quote.
The release can also be seen at http://www.clc.org.au/Media/releases/2010/parrot.html
Cheers,
Carl Clifford
Hi Carl,
I’m not aware of any birders who went out onto Aboriginal land without permission? Have you heard something concrete that suggests otherwise? The original birders that went out had permits and explicit permission from the TOs. As far as I’m aware once permit applications were rejected people made other plans and respected the system, despite disappointment.
Perhaps the author for the article chose their words poorly (I haven’t read it yet, I’m out birding) however I think the suggestion that some adaptability on the part of the CLC and the TOs at the time could have led to a win – win situation for all concerned is a reasonable one. I for one would have happily paid $100 for permission to travel the 15km up the road needed to see the birds instead of dipping.
Regards, Chris
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Hi Chris,
Unfortunately not, if I did, the list would know. If there were no birders who trespassed, why the sudden ban on birders entering. Come to that, is there a ban on birders on the traditional lands, or does it only exist on B-A. Unfortunately there has not been any input to this discussion from relevant Aboriginal bodies, so all we are getting appears to be second or third hand. I think it might be time some-one contacted a body such as the Central Lands Council and ask them for their side of the storyand ask if they would allow their response to be posted on B-A. Then we can set about mending fences. I intend to email the CLC today and ask for their response.
Hopefully we birders will be able to bring about a win-win solution after all and have some kind of protocol in place which will allow some of us to catch the next Princess Parrot or even better a Night Parrot irruption.
Cheers,
Carl Clifford
Hi Carl,
I’m not aware of any birders who went out onto Aboriginal land without permission? Have you heard something concrete that suggests otherwise? The original birders that went out had permits and explicit permission from the TOs. As far as I’m aware once permit applications were rejected people made other plans and respected the system, despite disappointment.
Perhaps the author for the article chose their words poorly (I haven’t read it yet, I’m out birding) however I think the suggestion that some adaptability on the part of the CLC and the TOs at the time could have led to a win – win situation for all concerned is a reasonable one. I for one would have happily paid $100 for permission to travel the 15km up the road needed to see the birds instead of dipping.
Regards, Chris
Sent from my iPhone
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Hi Carl,
I’m not aware of any birders who went out onto Aboriginal land without permission? Have you heard something concrete that suggests otherwise? The original birders that went out had permits and explicit permission from the TOs. As far as I’m aware once permit applications were rejected people made other plans and respected the system, despite disappointment.
Perhaps the author for the article chose their words poorly (I haven’t read it yet, I’m out birding) however I think the suggestion that some adaptability on the part of the CLC and the TOs at the time could have led to a win – win situation for all concerned is a reasonable one. I for one would have happily paid $100 for permission to travel the 15km up the road needed to see the birds instead of dipping.
Regards, Chris
Sent from my iPhone
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A well thought out and measured comment Peter.
David Richardson
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Simon,
Birders are “banned” from entering all private property, unless invited or otherwise, by the owners. This whole situation has stemmed from birders entering private property without invitation. Lets be honest, those birders perpetrated a crime, trespass on private lands. It is no different than if a bunch of strangers set up camp in ones back yard. Bigger back yard, same principle. I know what I would do if I found some-one camped in my back yard.
I think the traditional owners have behaved in a restrained manner and hopefully over time a protocol can be worked out for speedier processing of permits for entering Aboriginal lands. Unfortunately, we, as birders, now have a bit of lost ground to regain in the process.
Carl Clifford
If there are connotations of racism or ‘blame’ in this article, I guess it’s got nothing to do with birding or birders. So putting those other matters aside and just looking at it’s mention that the indigenous community has lost out – isn’t this interesting to birders?
Since the Princess Parrot debacle, this is the first time that anyone in the Australian media has questioned whether banning birders outright was actually the best option. That would seem to me, to be a very reasonable hypothesis. So on that point, I think this should be of interest to birders and at least someone has had the gumption to mention it.
Remember, this article was written by a journalist … not by Bird-O – so don’t shoot the messenger ; ) … this is me ducking!
All the best,
Simon.
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Simon Mustoe Tel: +61 (0) 405220830 | Skype simonmustoe | Email simonmustoe@ecology-solutions.com.au
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I agree it’s interesting, but not that it’s useful. I can’t see much in the article that isn’t at least insensitive, although I can see that it reflects the views many people hold (I hope no one takes that as an insult).
“ABORIGINAL traditional owners recently banned about 50 birdwatchers from entering their land to see a rare parrot. The decision came across as petty.”
It might have come across as petty to some, but I doubt the matter was treated that way by the people that made it. If only one or two groups of birders had made permit applications then I assume it’s quite possible that they would have got a permit. There’s no way they were ever going to issue permits for the number that did apply.
I don’t think the article is useful in any other way than that it proves that there are some people who think the decision was wrong. We already knew that. Perhaps the situation did present an opportunity for the locals to get involved as paid guides, but that’s not something that was going to be set up at the drop of a hat for 80 birders who suddenly wanted to go there, so that suggestion isn’t relevant to this case.
I don’t really think birding-aus is the place for discussions like this, so I welcome any moves by the moderators to close it down, but the link was posted here and is birding related, so I’m responding.
Peter Shute
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Bill,
It is the NT News.
While on the subject, I would like to give a big “thank you’ to the person who ran to the NT News with the story. They have probably managed to stuff-up birding in the Centre for years to come by helping to get the Traditional people off-side with birders. Also I am sure that it won’t take long for the word will get around that birders will pay $100 a day for a “guide” and before you know it, anyone who want’s to enter Aboriginal lands for birding will have to pay $100 per day to bird and must be accompanied by a local guide, whether the guide knows their birds, or not. This practice has started in Indonesia, where in many of the National Parks, you must hire a local “guide” (who often does not know a parrot from a duck), at around USD50 per day
Carl Clifford
Simon, I’m not sure that “useful” is quite the word that I’d use to describe the NT News article.
“Racist” might be closer. Possibly “patronising” if I were feeling more conciliatory.
Not a good hook to get readers to Bird-o.
Bill
If there are connotations of racism or ‘blame’ in this article, I guess it’s got nothing to do with birding or birders. So putting those other matters aside and just looking at it’s mention that the indigenous community has lost out – isn’t this interesting to birders?
Since the Princess Parrot debacle, this is the first time that anyone in the Australian media has questioned whether banning birders outright was actually the best option. That would seem to me, to be a very reasonable hypothesis. So on that point, I think this should be of interest to birders and at least someone has had the gumption to mention it.
Remember, this article was written by a journalist … not by Bird-O – so don’t shoot the messenger ; ) … this is me ducking!
All the best,
Simon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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If the NT News really wanted a more accurate target they should be looking towards the government department that helped sink my relatives’ tourism project on Baby Dreaming. For example, elders were told (as was I) that they needed a “Certificate 4 in training” (cost – several thousand dollars for each person), to teach particular skills to others.
Also, a Scandinavian birding tour operator offered the community a donation of a couple of thousand dollars to train residents to show visitors sandstone birds. My relatives were very excited. But the money had to go through a birding or conservation organisation. A Birds Australia spokesman told me it was ‘too little’ to be worth their while. And then there’s the debacle of the latest effort to train Indigenous bird guides in Kakadu. There’s plenty of blame to go around, but very little of it should be directed at Aboriginal people. Denise
on 5/10/10 7:15 AM, Bill Stent at billstent@gmail.com wrote:
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Simon, I’m not sure that “useful” is quite the word that I’d use to describe the NT News article.
“Racist” might be closer. Possibly “patronising” if I were feeling more conciliatory.
Not a good hook to get readers to Bird-o.
Bill