SC mini CONGRESS

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In late May, ‘18 the Sunshine Coast sub branch of Birdlife Australia held its inaugural Mini Congress. This was a one-day event featuring a variety of speakers who presented about birds and / or conservation themes; especially those relevant to Sunshine Coast folks. The 80-strong crowd – a sell-out- enjoyed the presentations, the venue and, it’s fair to say, the catering! Suffice to say the Congress can be considered a success and hopefully, with a few considerations, will be repeated in the future.

The Congress was conceived and planned by Ken Cross and John Birbeck as a way of educating and entertaining local Sunshine Coast members in addition to be a catalyst to start more substantive conversations about conservation in our area. And so, the Congress was not-too-imaginatively titled   Birdlife and Conservation, Sunshine Coast.

All the presentations reflected our title. Our two Keynote speakers, who both spoke about birds, were simply excellent.

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Dominique Potvin, a Sunshine Coast University lecturer in Animal ecology and behaviour, Ornithology and Urban ecology, spoke about modern influences on the evolution of bird song. Dominique is originally from Canada and her speech presented information and data from both Canada and Australia [and even New Zealand]. The talk delivered some information about bird song and calls generally and the modern impact of urban noise on bird song.

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Urban bird expert, Darryl Jones, from Griffith University, after making some welcome off-the-cuff comments about the importance of local conservation community groups, presented his summary of the phenomenon of Bird Feeding using examples and case studies from Europe, North America and here in Australia. It is impossible to summarise an hour-long presentation so I won’t try however with The Birds at my Table. Darryl is currently assisting Birdlife Australia in developing guidelines for bird feeding in Australia.
participation rates in bird feeding in Australia moving to the rates in the USA and UK, it seems birding organisations are better to work with the folks interested in bird feeding and encourage them to feed birds sensibly and responsibly, considering welfare and local ecology rather than saying simply, ‘don’t!’.  More details on this fascinating topic can be found in his book, which I recommend,

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The Congress started with a presentation by well-known birder, blogger, journalist and conservationist, Greg Roberts about the birds and the ultimately successful campaign of the protection of the Yandina Creek Wetlands. The wetlands, discovered and championed by Greg, have now been protected via their purchase by Unity Water. This is an important story that illustrates the importance of an individual with determination and resilience to create and drive an education and publicity campaign for a positive conservation outcome. It also emphasises the importance of local community groups. Sadly, it also a story that suggests how our environmental laws are ineffective in encouraging government to acting boldly to protect birds and their habitats. This was a theme re-visited by Judith Hoyle, Birdlife Australia Southern Queensland Convenor, in one of her presentations.

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Judith Hoyle presented twice! Her first presentation was the bad news… the failure of environmental laws. The case of Toondah Harbour was presented; despite the fact that this area ticked a large number of boxes signifying it deserved protection on environmental grounds development was granted. Her second talk was more clearly good news; a presentation about a new sustainable development at Deception Bay, Brolga Lakes. This development, in addition to being self-sufficient with on site water supply, sewage treatment, solar farm and batteries and community gardens, offers environmental lands for Birdlife Australia Southern Queensland plus a building that offers both office space and interpretive information.

  Considering conservation on the Sunshine Coast it was important to consider what has already been happening and to consider some successes. To that end Narelle McCarthy was invited to speak on behalf of the Sunshine Coast Environmental Council [SCEC], John Birbeck from SC Council about land acquisitions using the environmental levee from rate payers, Julie O’Connor, also from Council to discuss a range of incentives for land owners to pursue positive conservation outcomes [in particular, the Land for Wildlife scheme which has the most successful take up on the Sunshine Coast than anywhere else in Queensland]. Susie Duncan, of Hinterland Bushlinks, [an organisation working to promote connectivity between environmentally significant habitats on the Sunshine Coast hinterland] spoke of her organisation’s work as well as the preservation of Curramore, a property purchased for biodiversity protection by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy [AWC].

Our final presenter was Dr Scott Burnett, from the University of the Sunshine Coast, who gave a personal account of declining taxa on the Sunshine Coast region. Scott warned we are at risk of losing both rare and common species due to fast growing populations, the development of roads and declining areas of habitat of significant size; especially in areas east of the highway. He encouraged the audience to contribute to citizen science so we can share accurate information about the distribution of species and also to be involved in community groups lobbying for protection.

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From my perspective it was a long yet rewarding day and I learned valuable nuggets of information from every speaker. Not enough thanks can be given to our speakers. John Birbeck is mentioned twice because of his [huge] efforts in planning and organising the whole thing. Steve Popple and Carol Popple were amazing [as usual] helping with compiling all the registrations and acting as welcoming committee and, most importantly, keeping me away from handling money! Thanks also goes to the Friends of the Botanical Gardens who helped us arrange the congress venue and supplied us with morning tea and lunch. Finally, thanks to Robyn Combes for taking pics from the [mini] Congress, many are attached here.

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