A long time ago, in the post-WW II era, a popular womens
magazine carried coloured photos of ladies' hats with Australian
bird feathers as decorations, and, on the cover, most of a Crimson
Rosella on a beret. Australia's best-known conservationist at the
time, P Crosbie Morrison, condemned this in his very popular Sunday
evening radio programme, and in his excellent monthly magazine "Wild
Life". He also reprinted Mattingley's famous photos of the havoc
wrought by plume hunters in the Murray egret rookeries, originally
published in 'The Emu' circa 1904. There were also protests from
the RAOU, the BOC and other bodies. Public feeling ran very high
and the use of native bird feathers was forbidden in all states.
Milliners were restricted to domestic and aviary species, such as
pheasants, chickens, ducks and guineafowl.
During the late 1990s on a visit to WA, near Geraldton, a
honeyeater collided with our car and was killed. Its body was caught
on the radiator-screen. I handed it in at theGeraldtonwildlife
authority's visitors' centre. I was told that they were grateful
and would have it mounted to improve their display of native birds,
but that I was technically guilty of being in possession of native
wildlife, for which there were large fines. Perhaps WA authorities
should remember this regulation.
Anthea Fleming
On 29/10/2018 11:44 AM, Philip Veerman wrote:
Yesterday I happened to see this item on
ABC Landline https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-28/outback-milliner:-the-international-success-of-a/10439282
somewhat supportive or praising of this lady who is making a
business of making
hats, using feathers of native (and some domestic) birds. She
is in Broome WA.
It is presented as a hard luck story of a lady who has made
good of herself. This
is seriously concerning. It was the awful trade in,
particularly Egret breeding
plumage, decades ago, that lead to mass slaughter of these
birds at their
breeding colonies. Now we have this promotion of using
feathers of many species
in hats again. As I watched it I could identify most of the
birds species used,
(I consider myself particularly adept in identifying feathers)
but will decline
to type out a list here as a first approach. Some are
mentioned by the narration
(correctly or not). For example it refers to a “road killed
owl”
when the feathers shown at that point are clearly no owl, they
are from a
Pheasant Coucal, there is Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo, Brown
Goshawk, Kookaburra,
Bustard and many other species included, though the bulk
appear to be
Guineafowl and various raptors and parrots. It is hinted at
that the birds are
mostly road kill or just sent in by whoever to this lady to
make into hats.
What is clearly concerning is that provenance is in most cases
unknown and
unprovable. Especially if this becomes a commercial enterprise
– I guess
it already is. It is my understanding that whilst state laws
may differ, in
general it is illegal to possess without a permit, any
feathers of native birds
and certainly to trade in them. What is worse is if this
starts off a bigger
trend. We need to take action against that possibility. It
sure is easy to kill
birds to collect feathers if there is money in it and claim it
to be road kill.
I am disturbed that Landline presented this program without
having instead advised
this lady that what she is doing is almost certainly illegal.
And I reckon most
of us would find it highly unethical, if not just grotesque.
Maybe readers
would like to take up this issue with Landline. I wonder
whether anyone has
contact with the wildlife authorities in Western Australia to
take up this
case.
Philip
Veerman
24
Castley Circuit
Kambah
ACT 2902
62314041
0411716177
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