Three years until Carnaby’s cockatoo starvation starts, BirdLife warns

“People see a flock of 10 now, or hundreds, and think it’s massive,” BirdLife Australia black cockatoo project co-ordinator Adam Peck said.

“In the past, 50 years ago, people would have seen flocks of thousands.

“They would blacken the sky.”

On the night of the 2020 Great Cocky Count survey, 70 per cent of the entire count of Carnaby’s black cockatoos, a species only found in south-west WA, was recorded in these pine plantations.

This was more than 9300 birds. One single roost in that area, which has over the past few years of the survey come to be known as the ‘mega roost’, had a count of more than 5000 birds, almost 40 per cent of all the Carnaby’s cockatoos counted on the coastal plain.

Mr Peck said Labor, while in opposition, strongly criticised the Barnett government for doing nothing about black cockatoo habitat decline, but had since done no better.

There have been small revegetation projects: BirdLife Australia has planted 10,000 crowdfunded trees. The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions has planted 15,000-20,000 seedlings in ex-plantation areas annually for the past five years.

But this represented 20-50 hectares a year, Mr Peck said.

“At the current rate it would take 750 years to revegetate,” he said.

“The cockatoos will be long gone by then.”

The government points to the need to recharge the aquifer beneath, which supplies half of Perth’s drinking water, as the reason for the lack of larger-scale revegetation plans.

But Mr Peck says the DBCA models currently in use for smaller scale plantings could work on a larger scale and allow aquifer recharge, while still providing a realistic additional food source within eight years.

“As they mature they will provide more but there will be a lag and that is why we want it to happen quickly,” he said. “If we don’t do this, the birds will starve and they won’t breed.”

The plan in the desk drawer

In 2011, the Barnett government launched the Green Growth Plan, or Strategic Assessment of the Perth and Peel Regions, to assess the region as a whole, and allocate all land for protection and development long-term.

Finally, in 2015, the draft SAPPR was released with numerous sub-plans – one, a strategy for the Gnangara mound after the final pine harvest.

Part of this sub-plan was to replant 5000 hectares of pines as a permanent food source for black cockatoos at 500 hectares a year from 2012. As pines take 10 years to become a viable food source, if completed this would have been producing food for the cockatoos by 2022.

It acknowledged that even with this, the impact of pine harvesting on the species would be considerable.

But it was not just a plan for cockatoos. It provided for industrial and residential development, mining, state forest and public open space across the vast area, while ensuring aquifer recharge.

There was a sister project to the SAPPR, the ‘Perth and [email protected] million’ planning frameworks that plotted where the city would accommodate its population to 2050, also launched by the Barnett government.

Both projects were behemoths. But while the government pushed through and managed to complete Perth and [email protected] million, the SAPPR floundered, copping forceful criticism from both sides of the development/environment fence during the public comment phase.

A revised draft was never released.

In April 2018, the McGowan government suspended the project pending a six-month ‘review’.

In April 2019, the government told WAtoday a “supplementary report” would be received mid-2019 and a decision from Deputy Premier Roger Cook would follow. But nothing was announced.

In March 2020, the government published a notice on a web page saying the project was suspended indefinitely because of COVID-19.

WAtoday asked the government how COVID-19 could be a reason for suspending a decision due to be made nine months before the pandemic.

“The government was considering these issues when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and the SAPPR work was deferred,” a spokesman said.

“Our immediate priority is ensuring Western Australia can recover from the pandemic. Further updates will be provided in due course. Until then, existing state and Commonwealth approvals processes continue to apply and are well understood by industry and conservation groups.”

Mr Peck said he was told at a meeting last August the project was “dead”.

But he said there was no reason not to revegetate the Gnangara mound.

“I am told the Department of Water and Environment Regulation has $6 million of offset money,” he said.

“People are queuing up to revegetate Gnangara: Perth Airport, Greening Australia, Main Roads.

“We are asking for an announcement of large scale revegetation, a long-term plan. Thousands of hectares over the next decade.”

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A spokesman said the government was looking at community and commercial partnerships to return native vegetation to the former plantation areas with the aim of creating habitat for the Carnaby’s and other native wildlife.

DWER, which administers offset funds, recently announced $2 million from the Offset Fund for Recovery program would be spent on supporting Carnaby’s cockatoo habitat in Perth.

The department is also working on a project to collect native seeds across an area including the Gnangara mound which will be used to revegetate the region. A competitive grant round for these future projects is expected in March or April.

WAtoday understands as this grants process progresses, the government may decide to bolster the program using use some of a new $15 million Native Vegetation Rehabilitation Scheme announced under the COVID-19 recovery plan.

There is no headline commitment to a specific number of hectares over a specific time period.