Manly High tide roost

[jilldening <>]

Hello John,

A great deal has been going on at the Manly Boat Harbour roost in Brisbane.  With hindsight I guess I would have to admit that we of the committee of the Queensland Wader Study Group may have been lax in not keeping the wider birding community informed about what has been happening there. It has been well documented in the Queensland Wader. This matter has consumed a great deal of the time of members of QWSG, not including myself. Peter Driscoll and Arthur and Sheryl  Keates have shouldered most of the responsibility. They have dealt with all the stakeholders over a lengthy period.

There  was a need to dredge the marina, as boats entering and leaving were bottoming out on a low tide. The negotiations to do this have been long and tedious, and (I hope I have the issues correct) covered the issues of the level of contamination of the dredge spoil, and therefore where it would be safe to dump it, as well as the shorebird conservation issue in a Ramsar site (Moreton Bay).

QWSG has gained for the birds what it considered an acceptable outcome in the end. At one point it was feared that the entire old roost would be destroyed. Note that the old roost was itself artificial, although not created for that purpose. An artificial roost is being built according to current best known practice, and it will be isolated by a moat. I heard Arthur say at the last meeting that there is still a risk of disturbance by fishing people, but the practicalities of building artificial roosts near human activity will always bring such risks.

I will forward this to Arthur, who might choose to add anything more of importance.

Regards,

Jill Dening

---

  John Harris or Jude Westrup  11/10/01 10:20 AM

> Dear Brisbane B-A's and others
>
> Can anyone inform me as to what has happened at Manly.  I went there on
> Sunday and was mortified that it was all flat and what was 3 ponds is
> now only 1.
>
> However, the birds seem not too mind so much from what I saw, although
> there were no Golden Plovers to be seen.  A species that I would have
> thought were a certainty as I got out of the car.
>
> Species Seen:
> Sharp-tailed, Curlew and Terek Sandpiper
> Great and Red Knot
> Bar-tailed Godwit
> Grey-tailed Tattler
> Greenshank
> Pied Oystercatcher - but no SIPO
> Red-capped, Greater Sand and Lesser Sand Plover
> Masked Lapwing
> Whimbrel and Eastern Curlew
> Ruddy Turnstone
> Gull-billed, Crested and Caspian Terns
>
> and others- Cormorants, gulls etc.
>
> John Harris
> Brisbane
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