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.
LITTLE (FAIRY) PENGUIN (Eudyptula minor)
In 1952 there were a number of penguin colonies in the Manly area totalling about 500 birds. People camping on Store Beach remember them marching through their tents at night. However 300 birds were shot in the 1950s and a number were destroyed by dogs alighting from boats near Store Beach.
In 1990 a long-term Manly resident became alarmed at Government plans to "flog off" the foreshore, and the impact it would have on the already shrunken habitat of the Manly penguins. His story is remarkable in that he contacted and brought together stakeholders from Taronga Zoo, NPWS, Maritime Services Board and Manly Council to save the remaining colony. Apparently some locals knew about the penguins, but manly Council and the majority of residents had no idea.
When Manly council was informed, in confidential session, of the penguin colony's plight, Council resolved to make every effort to protect it, while keeping its location a secret.
A fairy penguin management committee was convened. The successful installation of six nesting boxes, habitat restoration through replanting of native species, cleanups and education began.
Investigations into planning controls to prevent building structures such as gazebos in the nesting area were hampered because of the need to preserve secrecy. Even very supportive residents were not in favour of entering into a Conservation Agreement with NPWS.
When dogs destroyed the Little Penguin colony at Eden, Manly's colony became the last breeding colony on the mainland of NSW. However, htis did not help us to gain planning protection, even though the penguins were living and fishing so close to the Harbour's only Aquatic Reserve, and North Head is listed on the National Estate.
When a disasterous dog attack killed 8 birds in 1995, we were amazed to discover another part of the colony. The building of a sea wall in 1986 had cut off their access to nests under house foundations and every night they were walking up flights of stairs beside buildings and down again to get to their burrows.
A Little Penguins Steering Committee who are responsible for preparing a draft Plan of Management was formed from the penguin Management Committee.
Subsequent to this it was decided to nominate the penguins as a threatenened colony under the Threatened Species legislation. The application was prepared by Kim Brebach from the Threatened Species Network and Erna Walraven, Senior Curator at Taronga Zoo.
New residents who professed no love for the penguins planned small but extensive additions to their homes. A special set of conditions were prepared for Council which were included in the development consent. These conditions included many aspects of site management to protect fauna and would be a useful model.
The same residents "tidied up" by removing vegetation outside thier boundary to enhance their view and possibly to provide access to the beach through the nesting site. Because of concerns about instability of the steep site, an adviser on soil conservation from the Department of Land and Water Conservation visited the site and advised on soil stabilisation and planting. Manly Council provided native plants which a small task force of volunteers replanted in conjunction with local residents.
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.
After the penguins were declared a threatened population, NWPS advised Manly Council that it would be some years before a Recovery Plan could be prepared, as required under the Threatened Species Conservation Act. In addition we were recently stunned to recieve a letter from the office of the Minister of Environment in regard to the property where penguins are nesting under the house foundations. It states: " ...the Director General of NPWS advises that the owner of the property has offered to design his development so that the nesting sites are conserved ... and NPWS does not consider it neccessary ro remove the sea wall..." This development threatens some 15% of the colony where, in the last 6 months, four chicks have successfully been raised with local residents watching over them.
The whole approach taken by NPWS is contary to the decision of previous Steering Committee meetings, as the decision to even consider the possibility of allowing this development after the listing of the penguins as a threatened colony, was reached without any consultation by NPWS with members of the Steering Committee. Experts from Taronga Zoo have repeatedly stated that this development should not go ahead, and the draft Plan of Management calls for the removal of the sea wall. The NSW Minister for Ports, Carl Scully, has twice stated that it should be removed. Further it is ironic to note that initially, when assistance was sought from the Threatened Species unit of NPWS to prepare our applicatioj to the Scientific Committee, the officer who was contacted advised that he was not a panguin expert, could not visit the site and was really a desktop ecologist.
The Manly community cannot accept this total lack of consultation by NPWS when so many structures for good communication and consultation have been in existence for 7 years. These include the two committees mentioned previously, ongoing opportunities such as recent penguin counts and the continued involvement of MEC.
The recent jet-ski incident, where a number of jet-skiers allegedly rounded up and killed about five penguins, elicited tremendous public sympathy and support from all over Sydney. The extensive media coverage also "flushed out" some attitudes and wildlife expertise which were surprising. Water Police, Waterways officers and the jet-skiers showed amazing evidence of "multi-skilling" ina bid to preserve the rights of the jet-skiers to enjoy the waterways. "Penguins did not congregate in the water ...", "They were too fast for jet-skis..." and "it just did not happen because we did not have five battered, bloodstained and bruised corpses...",
were just some of the comments from police officers, Waterways inspectorrs and the president of The Jet-skiers Association.
In spite of numerous protests to the office of the Minister for the Environment by a multitude of concerned residents, an annual jet-ski race started off from Manly only a few weeks later.
There has been much research published about Little Penguins: the Little Penguin Supplement (pages 261 to 402) of the JOurnal of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (1992) and the more recent work of Rogers, Eldershaw and Walraven (1995). According to Walraven (1997), 25 years ago penguins were quite common on Sydney Beaches, and people actually used to keep chicken wire underneath their houses in Avalon and Whale Beach to keep them out; subsequently they are no longer there. Prof Mike Cullen of MOnash UNiversityhas stated that: "...penguins are very conservative in their habits, and once a place has been selected to breed, they return for life." mThis is obviously the case in Manly where they are now livinf under houses and in gardens. Nevertheless this provides an ideal situation where residents are happy to observe and report on panguin behaviour in an urban situation on a day to day basis.