FW: [canberrabirds] Flight of the Sea-Eagle

[Geoffrey Dabb <>]

Martin   -  I remember the story that far (and others), but have no recall of one of RGM’s famous rejoinders on that occasion.  Searching the online catalogue of the RG Menzies library I have formed the impression he had no great interest in birds, whether of Manus or otherwise.  However, he thought the following worth keeping:

 

Robin Hide has been kind enough to draw my attention to a published field list which claims 6 endemic bird species for the Manus group. However there is not universal agreement on the taxonomic rank of all these, for example the Manus Masked Owl.  I do hope the last remaining haunt of this rare taxon is not a patch of jungle near the naval base.

 

From: Martin Butterfield <>
Sent: Monday, 19 November 2018 8:52 AM
To: Geoffrey Dabb <>
Cc: COG List <>
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Flight of the Sea-Eagle

 

Geoffrey

 

I am afraid that I still hadn't paid my 10 pounds during the Menzies hegemony so never heard the gentleman speak  However I understand he enjoyed a bit of back and forth with hecklers so wonder how he responded.

 

Martin Butterfield

http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/

 

 

On Mon, 19 Nov 2018 at 08:41, Geoffrey Dabb <> wrote:

So the word Manus is again on everyone’s lips with the news PNG, the US and Australia are to develop the naval base.  I first heard of the place in, I think, 1951or 1954 at an election meeting in West Geelong town hall addressed by Robert Menzies.  Menzies was still complaining that the Labor government had refused to accept a fully developed base there from the US at the end of WW2.  I remember this because of the following exchange:

 

Menzies:  And Manus went back to the jungle!

Interjector:  Why don’t you?!

 

I have visited the naval station when it was under Australian administration, the relevance for present purposes being that it was named HMAS Tarangau, ‘tarangau’ being the White-bellied Sea-Eagle in Melanesian pidgin.  The tarangau emblem was (perhaps still is) prominently displayed at the base.  This is one of our own local species, indeed one recorded in the 2016-2017 Garden Bird Survey with a recording rate of 0.04.  You will all know that the Bald Eagle emblem of the USA also depicts a sea-eagle, a relatively common bird around Washington DC.

 

You will probably not find Manus covered in most books on ‘New Guinea’ birds. However I might add that according to The Birds of Northern Melanesia (Mayr E & Diamond J, 2001) Manus has 50 resident land and freshwater bird species with an ‘endemism index’ of 0.72.