BOBUCKS DISCOVERED AT BALD HILLS! 

First of all, I guess we'd better talk about the wind farm. In politics the hot potato is not a food item but an object of proverb. And there's no hotter potato in South West Gippsland, as I write, than the proposed wind energy project at Bald Hills, just past the town of Tarwin on the South Gippsland Coast. 

Wind Power Pty. Ltd. recently completed an impressive array of wind turbines near the town of Wonthaggi. A bigger array is now planned for Bald Hills. Many local residents are in favour, many are against. An election in the State of Victoria is due this year (2006). The governing political party backs the project, their political opponents are against it. The margins are narrow and the electoral outcome in this part of Gippsland is anybody's guess at the time of writing. The Bobuck Underground Biodiversity Survey will simply report upon our results as we find them. For readers who may be interested in Australian politics, basic information about the two main political parties in Australia may be found at Wikipedia : the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal Party of Australia.

Pertinently to our enterprise, the opponents have seized upon Conservation issues to block the project. It appears the endangered Orange Bellied Parrot, Neophema chrysogaster, has with extreme impertinence chosen to regard the coast and proximate lands around Bald Hills as a desirable roosting site. It's estimated that the spinning turbine blades may kill one parrot every thousand years or so. In spite of other, more immediate, threats these parrots surely face this may be enough of a risk to kill the turbines and not the bird. 

WIND POWER AND BALD HILLS HABITAT 

Most of this corner of Gippsland is open farm country. Dairy farming is an important rural industry in the district. But there are wetlands too, thoughtfully reserved by Parks Victoria for future generations to enjoy. These special places must surely be the source of life for many of our native fauna.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION FOLKS!!!! :)

BASIC FACTS

The turbines are highly complex machines and must be carefully designed so as to operate economically and safely. The blades, in particular, can be subject to high stresses. The power generated by a wind turbine is proportional to the cube of the wind speed, thus the output can generate a lot of power at even fairly low wind speeds. When wind speed drops too low the turbines are normally taken off line and the blades are "feathered". As wind rises, the blades are positioned to bring the generator up to "synchronous speed". Once the turbine voltage is synchronised with the main power grid, the system can be connected and begin delivery of electric energy. If wind velocity should rise too high, the blades are "furled": they can be rotated about their own axes so the leading edge faces into the wind and stresses reduced. Interested readers may wish to refer to our Green Energy Info Pack.

Clearly, wind turbines are complex machines. Although they generate electricity by means of electromagnetic induction, they are far removed from a simple "dynamo". There are many challenging technical hurdles they must overcome, in order for a satisfactory return on investment to be achieved along with safety and minimal environmental impact. Once you factor these issues in, the "free" energy that's blowing in the wind may not be as free as we thought. On the other hand, traditional large-scale energy generation technologies - coal & nuclear power - do have costs and hazards of their own. One should remember a certain old adage. The one about free lunches.

WHERE IS THE BALD HILLS WINDFARM SITE? 

 THE FIRST CAMERA SITE: NIGHT FALLS. 

At first all is quiet. Then there's movement. Rodents come out, in ones and twos. This area is flat and low lying, not far from a creek. It's subject to flooding so burrows are clearly not an option. That means even the rats live up trees. Our cameras capture images of them coming down, foraging about and climbing back up the large tree in the foreground. 

Soon other animals of the this dark and dreary swamp come out. First are Common Brushtail Possums, Trichosurus vulpecula. On the first night our cameras see lots and lots of them. Perhaps there are only Brushtails around here? The main aim of this survey, The Bobuck Underground, is to find out how widespread is the Gippsland Bobuck. This swampy waterlogged country is very different from its typical mountain habitat. So far, we've found Bobucks pretty much everywhere we've looked. Of course, it's early days yet for the Survey, but even so. It's odd that they are so visible to our cameras yet reports of them are so rare. 

In fact we're now leaning to the view that the Bobuck or Mountain Brushtail Possum, Trichosurus cunninghami, is the predominant large ground-living marsupial in Gippsland. Possibly they're even more numerous than the very common Swamp Wallaby, Wallabia bicolor. Certainly we'd say they are more numerous and widespread than the other large ground-living marsupial, the Common Wombat, Vombatus ursinus. 

The Bobucks at Bald Hills, have almost a battle-worn look about them. The fur of some individuals appears to be in poor condition. This is in contrast to the Common Brushtail Possums, all of whom, at least that we've seen so far, appear to enjoy excellent health.

What could be the reason for this? The ground is damp and subject to flooding but Bobucks cope with far harsher conditions than these in the mountains whence they originally came. There is no sign of their usual fare, Acacia dealbata, so other vegetation surely takes its place in their diet.

Bobucks gather in the dark. Note the "scars" present on the body. This appears to be the result of parasite infestation. "Rump wear", as it's called is by no means uncommon among Bobucks.

This form of infestation is seasonal and some form of mite is involved. But much is unknown about the ailments of native marsupials. Does habitat disturbance play a role? Again, this is not known.

WHAT DID OUR OTHER CAMERA SEE? 

A day passes, another night falls. More Bobucks! Common Brushtail Possums are supposed to be, well, common. But we'd have to say it looks like a Bobuck Takeover down here in Gippsland. They're literally everywhere. Along comes a female with pouch young. We know it's a Bobuck by the rounded ear. But why have they remained unreported till now? Are we the first to see see them, or did they stay unseen because they really were absent until recently? Is there a Bobuck migration underway, across southern Victoria? We can't say with certainty at this stage. 

All we can say is that our cameras reveal that these wetlands are teaming with Bobucks. We saw a road killed specimen on the main highway near the Bald Hills turnoff and we have a report of another road killed animal from near Cape Liptrap. This indicates they're not confined to swamps and creeks but can and do pass over open farmland.

So, yes, we'd now have to concede that a cross country migration is definitely feasible. But what could be driving it?

ANIMAL EXODUS CAUSED BY HABITAT DISTURBANCE?

Over the last ten years or so, much land has been cleared in Gippsland. Loss of habitat would force animals into enclaves. Competition for limited resources in overcrowded habitat islands would likely compel an aggressive response towards new arrivals. The East Strzeleckie Ranges, inland from Port Welshpool, has seen much logging in that district's remaining old growth forests. Could the animals we're seeing in lowland Gippsland be part of a wider exodus forced by forestry practices in the older forest areas of the Eastern Strzeleckies and perhaps other parts of Gippsland?

LOGGING IN THE STRZELECKIES

Satellite images provide an overview. Vegetation reflects sunlight differently from bare soil or. Thanks to this we can "false colour" satellite images of forest and enhance the visibility of cleared areas against the leafy overstorey. What do we see in the Strzeleckies?

NOT FINISHED .....

FOXES KILL NATIVE BIRDS. ORANGE BELLIED PARROT ON THE MENU? 

Daylight dawns and things get interesting. We left nothing in front of the camera. Suddenly, a freshly killed bird and a fox appear. The camera caught 91 images, including ones of Bobucks. 

The fox appears to behave quite oddly: for several frames, it circles about, yet it makes no move either to consume or remove the bird's carcass. Then it stands watching the camera for several frames, as you see in this image.

How to interpret what's happening here? Did the fox kill the bird and deposit it in front of the camera? Sure looks that way. But if so, why? A dog might do something like that, possibly: dogs do have a "go fetch" instinct, after all. But foxes? Well, foxes are known to cache things. Maybe that's what's going on here? 

See :Saunders, G., Kay, B., and McLeod, L. (1999). Caching of baits by foxes (Vulpes vulpes) on agricultural lands. Wildlife Research 26, 335-340.

It's hard to envisage any other scenario, really. There's nothing to attract birds to our camera - it's just a metal box. These instruments do photograph birds quite often but they're random visits. Birds don't congregate near the cameras.

What sort of bird is it, anyway? It has white feather plumage and white on its neck(?). That strip of dark red on its back appears to be a genuine feather colour. It's not blood and it's not an artifact because it stays the same over the next day and night. Could it be a waterfowl? So, a black and white, largish bird with a dash of dark red dorsally. What species might that be?

It's a good thing it's not an Orange Bellied Parrot! Everyone knows it anyway but these images graphically underscore the point: foxes certainly do kill avifauna. Obviously, a logical next step will be to employ automatic video cameras. Then we can start to collect behavioural data "out there". 

Biosis, the biodiversity survey company who were engaged to conduct an intensive study around the Victorian and Tasmanian coasts in relation to the Bald Hills Wind Farm Project focused upon the risks posed to avifauna. That birds will be killed by the spinning blades of a wind turbine is surely a reality. Yet we wonder if there'd be a better payoff for wildlife if some of the angst and effort and money that's directed against the Bald Hills Windfarm went instead into fox control, and the technical means of monitoring them? We can see clearly how the endangered Orange Bellied Parrot is surely at much greater risk from foxes than turbine blades.