That’s exactly what happened – it smelled!
The circumstances of the time haven’t recurred – it was at the height of
the drought, very little or no water had been flowing into or out of that dam so
the nutrient level did build up, probably caused equally between the ibis colony
and fertiliser, but not a long term problem, in my opinion. The dam is now
regularly full and overflows, no algae has built up. If they’d left the colony
as is, or reduced the trees by half, which they had the option to do, I think
there would have been no issue, so to speak.
I’ve played golf there for more than 20 years – algal blooms have always
been a feature at certain times, long before the ibises turned up.
BTW, Sullies flows through the course as an open concrete drain, and this
dam overflows directly into it.
David
From:
Sent: Monday, November 03, 2014 5:27 PM
Cc:
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] Australian White Ibis
breeding
I
think the watercourse involved is Sullivan’s Creek and ultimately Lake Burley
Griffin, although exactly how it got into Sullivan’s Creek, which I think at
that point in its journey, is via an underground storm water channel which
emerges at Southwell Park on Mouat Street in Lyneham, is something of a mystery.
My feelings, and something I was told several years ago, was that the golfers
(not all of them) complained about the smell and dirty balls.
Mark
From: Martin
Butterfield [
Sent: Monday, 3 November
2014 5:17 PM
To: David Cook
Cc: chatline
Subject:
Re: [canberrabirds] Australian White Ibis breeding
I think there was
rather more outrage on this chatline than in the main bar at Yowani.
Out of pure
interest, the official reason given for the ibisicide was the way they were
polluting some watercourse or another. I have never seen anything emerge
to show whether the health of the watercourse improved dramatically as a result
of the removal of the ibises, or whether the crappy condition of the water
remained as it was due to some other reason (and I would not dream of blaming
the fertilisers thrown around on the golf course).
On 3 November 2014 16:48, David Cook <>
wrote:
You are of course
referring to the FORMER Australian White Ibis breeding colony at Yowani – that
colony was deliberately destroyed a couple of years ago to very little fanfare
either on this chatline or anyone else really.
Environmental
vandalism at its worst - a classic case of “not in my
backyard”.
Sent:
Monday, November 03, 2014 4:27 PM
Subject:
[canberrabirds] Australian White Ibis
breeding
Good afternoon all,
Yesterday (Sunday) I took my wife out to the Tidbinbilla
Nature Reserve to show her a live platypus, a species she had never seen in the
wild before. We had excellent looks at a single animal on the “weir pond” just
after the top entry to the “Sanctuary”. Before moving down to the weir I spent a
couple of minutes looking out from the viewing platform near the beginning of
the walk, I could hear numerous squeaking calls coming from the pond at the
front and below the platform that sounded like chicks of some sort. After
watching an Australian White Ibis fly in to the area I finally managed to see
one bird feeding at least two small black chicks.
Today at around 1pm , I received an email from Pam Cooke, a
volunteer at Tidbinbilla NR, letting me know that Australian White Ibis were
breeding on Pond 2. I know of one other site in Canberra where AWI have bred
(Yowani Golf Course near North Lyneham), and am aware of the records on the
Federal Highway that have been placed on the chat line. I replied to Pam
advising her that this was an important record and that I would put in an
“Incidental Report Record” to COG.
While there I also noticed a Dusky Moorhen nest building in
what I think is the “Brolga Pond”. I will also put in a record for this as
well.
mark
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