The Manly Environment Centre (MEC) has played a vital role in the listing of the little penguin and the long-nosed bandicoot through researching the issues, linking the key groups, lobbying and organising volunteers for revegetation, penguin counts, etc.THE LONG-NOSED BANDICOOT (Perameles nasuta)
The Long-nosed Bandicoot was once extremely common in many parts of Sydney. As late as 1975, they were recorded at Bantry Bay and Burnt Bridge Creek, as well as North Head.
When Lisa Chambers (1991) and Lisa Scott (1994) completed their theses under the supervision of Chris Dickman from Sydney University, bandicoots had disappeared from most areas of urban Sydney and they were confined to a small area at Pittwater and the North Head area on bushland and adjoining residential areas. Both studies involved a substantial number of trap nights. Towards the end of her survey work, Lisa Scott found a significant decrease in numbers of bandicoots. This was attributed to a number of causes including feral animals predation and road kill. NPWS carried out trapping of feral animals in the Sydney Harbour National Park area of North Head, and speed humps were installed.
The students' findings confirmed residents' observations of declining bandicoot numbers and appeared to coincide with land disturbance and "tidying up," reducing habitat. While bandicoots could still be found on private land owned by the Catholic Church on St Patrick's Estate and in adjoining gardens, the residents felt there had been a significant decrease.
The Catholic Church announced its intention to redevelop St Patrick's Estate for 112 houses, a hospice (with a footprint the size of the seminary), aged care and other facilities. A Conservation Plan was prepared for the church and a consultant was employed to assess fauna. The first fauna assessment found, "only three bandicoots on the estate which could be relocated in the national park," causing outrage. A huge public meeting was assured.
NPWS commissioned Sydney University to conduct a study to determine North Head population numbers. Simultaneously, the MEC designed a resident survey, in consultation with NPWS and Sydney University, to gain a better understanding of bandicoot behaviour and gauge resident attitudes to domestic animal control.
A student from the Southern Cross University and another from the Australain National University devoted much of their summer vacation to interviewing and surveying residents. The normally shy bandicoots were observed navigating roundabouts and footpaths (where there was no cover). A sensor garden light triggered in the middle of the night alerted one townhouse resident to a whole family living in his pocket-handkerchief courtyard.
The university study and our survey showed a severe decrease in numbers. Our survey showed that most people believed that the major threats were:
- development
- removal of vegetation (including weed species like lantana)
- domestic and feral animals
- road kill
Most people indicated that they would be happy to comply with controls on domestic animals. There were a number of interesting cases of domestic animals being trained to avoid contact with the bandicoots in their own gardens, or happily accepting a curfew between dusk and dawn.
With the assistance of Michael Kennedy from the Humane Society, MEC drafted an application to list the Manly colony of the Long-nosed Bandicoot as a threatened population.
THE IMPACTS OF LISTING
Early in 1997 the Scientific Committee determined that both the Little Penguin (January 23) and the Long-nosed Bandicoot (February 28) colonies were threatened populations.
The Catholic Church had taken Manly Council to the Land & Environment Court for deemed refusal of their housing development. The listing of the Bandicoots was known by Justice Pearlman before she gave her judgement. Justice Pearlman stated that the proposed development would not have any significant adverse impact on flora and fauna. This statement is surprising to say the least, particularly considering that the development she approved coincided with the bandicoot habitat mapped out by the church's consultant. The Land & Environment Court judgement neglects many potential impacts of the development on the colony, including construction activities, reduction of vegetation to narrow corridors, increased risk of road kills, etc.