Speakers: Carolyn Emms, Georgina Stacpoole, David Carney, Steven Nowakowski, Roger Martin
Individual abstracts and biographies for the speakers are provided further below:
Georgina Stacpoole - Jirrbal Custodian
David Carney - Jirrbal Elder and Custodian
Title : Our connection through culture to the Country.
Steven Nowakowski
Bio: Steven Nowakowski is a widely published nature photographer who specialises in natural history subjects and publications. His self-publishing business now distributes widely and fulfils Steven’s desire to convey his love of nature and wild places. Steven has also been actively involved with many environmental groups and causes throughout his life, from direct activism to participating on committees of environmental organisations. These include the Alliance to Save Hinchinbrook, President of Kur-Alert, founding member of Save Our Slopes, and Committee member of the Cairns and Far North Environment Centre as well as editor of its magazine Ecotone for nearly a decade. Politically, Steven was a formative committee member of the Far North Queensland Green’s Branch and has run as a candidate numerous time. Steven is fortunate to be able to express his love for wild places through photography which he considers a crucial medium to convey a ‘feeling’ for such places. In 2011 Steven received A Cassowary Award for his contribution to the arts and in 2022, Steven was announced as the recipient of the William T. Cooper Conservation Award by the Tree Kangaroo and Mammal Group of the Atherton Tablelands (FNQ) for his tireless conservation work.
Roger Martin
Abstract: Potential Impacts of Wind Turbine Noise on Upland Koala Populations in FNQ - Roger Martin & Richard Hopkinson
An increasing number of large wind turbines are being erected on upland sites on the western edge of the Dividing Range in Far North Queensland. Largely because of the high elevation and reliable summer rainfall, the upland sclerophyll forests of this area are extremely important climate change refugia for wildlife. This is particularly true for the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus), an endangered species which inhabits these forests. Northern koalas are solitary, highly mobile animals that occupy large ranges and occur in extremely low abundance. Individuals rely on their low frequency contact calls and their great auditory acuity to locate conspecifics. The legislation controlling these developments (the EPBC Act, 1999) predates wind turbines and the amount of low frequency noise that turbines can inflict on wildlife is unregulated. There is an urgent need for scientific investigation of this noise and its wildlife impacts. We suggest that wind turbines could pose a threat to the viability of koala populations in this area. Habitat availability could decrease because the sheer volume of turbine noise could cause koalas, with their acute low frequency hearing, to abandon high quality habitat because of its proximity to wind turbines. Their noise could also mask long range koala contact calls and therefore decrease their breeding success.
Bio: Roger Martin is a wildlife biologist who lives on the Atherton Tablelands in Far North Queensland. In 1983 he was awarded the degree of Master of Science by Monash University for his pioneering research on the ecology of koalas in Victoria. He continued his work on koalas into the late 1990’s and published numerous scientific papers on their biology over that time. In 1989 he was commissioned by the Victorian Department of Conservation to write the first management plan for the koala in that State. In 1996 he co-authored the book ‘The Koala: Natural History, Conservation and Management’ which was published in Australia by UNSW Press and in the United States by Krieger Publishing Company. Reprinted in 1999, it is now out of print but still cited in the scientific literature as a primary reference on the biology of the koala. Roger commenced research on Bennett’s Tree-kangaroo in 1989 and moved to the Tablelands to live and conduct research on Lumholtz’s Tree-kangaroo in 2011. Alarmed by the death of an estimated 60,000 koalas in the 2018/19 bushfires in south-eastern Australia and the resulting upgrade of the koala to ‘endangered’ status in both Queensland and New South Wales, Roger resumed koala research in 2021. The focus of this research is the koala population of Far North Queensland. Up to this time no field studies have been done on these northern koalas, yet the upland Eucalyptus forests of this region are recognized as important climate change ‘refugia’; that is, habitat where wild koalas may avoid the probable devastation to be wrought by climate change on most of Australia’s southern populations.
27 сен 2024
