Saving Murdoch’s Carnaby Cockies

by Rebecca Robbins

April 29, 2008

THE last thing you would expect to see on the Murdoch University grounds at 6am on a Monday morning are groups of people with their faces aimed skyward, counting cockatoos.

It may sound unusual, but around 70 voluntary university staff and students, along with enthusiastic community members, have been doing just that while conducting cockatoo roost surveys for the last six weeks.

The surveys have been conducted around campus to identify potential roost sites, habitats and food sources of the Carnaby Cockatoo, a threatened species that occurs specifically in the south-west region.

Caroline Minton, Murdoch’s environmental planning coordinator, said a couple of hundred cockatoos arrive in summer from the wheatbelt.

“We have flocks all year ‘round but a large population comes in over summer,” she said. “The university wants to maintain that population and possibly expand it because they are an endangered species and any location in the Southern Coastal Plain they use is important.”

The volunteers, all of which need to have reasonable sight and hearing, gather on Sunday evenings, and before the sun comes up on Monday mornings. They count the number of cockatoos that fly in and out of the grounds and note what direction they fly in

Neil Goldsborough, Murdoch Guild’s environmental representative, has had his eyes and ears peeled for cockies.

“When we are out and about we record when we see them,” he said. “In fact I have seen a flock of about 30 today on three or four occasions.

“I could hear them feeding and watched them fly over.”

Mr Goldsborough said the research had been worthwhile for protection of not only the cockatoos, but also their habitat. At a new road construction site, three or four Tuart trees have been saved from clearing, which the cockies have since used.

Murdoch’s Banksia woodlands and pine trees, with their hollows and thick canopies, provide the cockatoos with a home, as large scale clearing for housing has destroyed much of their habitat.

Interestingly, recent large scale construction nearby does seem to have deterred the birds from Murdoch, with Ms Minton saying they’ve been found roosting in pine trees directly next to the expanding student village.

Volunteers are needed for upcoming tree planting days on May 31 and June 5. For more information call Ms Minton on 9360 7602.