Whit'sunny'days to the 'Wet'sundays…
With the upcoming Christmas season on our doorstep, QPWS is ensuring that all of our visitor sites are ready
for the holidays. While all campgrounds and tracks are open for visitors at the moment, any closures due to the
wet season can be found on the DERM website as 'Park Alerts' on the relevant parks pages.
Are you harbouring island hitchhikers?!
One of the amazing things about Queensland is the amount of islands we have that are easily
accessible from the mainland. Unfortunately, tourists are not the only island hoppers- invasive
weed species seeds and burrs (such as Mossman River LEFT and cobbler's pegs RIGHT) also rely
on this accessibility by hitching a ride on clothes, socks, shoes or camping gear!
To try and combat the spread of invasive weeds on our national park islands, QPWS will be
installing a number of de-seeding stations in various islands along the QLD coast. These stations
will highlight to visitors how weeds can be transported by clothing and equipment, and a deposit
bin will be available for seeds and burrs to be placed in for disposal by the Rangers.
The de-seeding stations will be used in conjunction with the ongoing weed management program
throughout December. The next island on the program to receive intensive weed control activities
will be Lindeman Island, occurring in early December.
Open for business
In preparation for the upcoming busy season maintenance of the national park island's day use areas and
campgrounds has been a focus. These works have been completed for the visitor sites in the northern part of
the Whitsundays and will be finalised for the Cumberland islands group leading into Christmas. Therefore all
visitor sites are open with no unseasonal closures anticipated.
On the water, inspections on the public moorings were completed and now have a clean bill of health. Thank
you to those of you who may have assisted QPWS by moving on to enable Rangers to conduct the
maintenance and dive operations safely.
Preserving our natural assets
Feral animal control in the Mackay islands group has been hugely successful over the last twelve months with
the eradication of goats and deer on St Bees and South Percy islands now within sight. Over 2500 goats have
been removed in recent years and now recent culling episodes only return a handful of individuals. Already the
benefits of removing of this feral species have become evident with the recovery of native grasses and the
presence of eucalypt seedlings which have not been seen for decades.
Pending favourable weather conditions some planned burns are programmed to occur on both island and
mainland national parks, particularly in the Conway national and conservation park. Smoke alerts and any
temporary walking track closures will be sent out to the media and Park News subscribers to ensure visitor
safety. Minimal disruptions to visitors are anticipated.
Marine Animal Strandings update
Over the last 11 months there has been a significant increase in the number of marine animal strandings along
the QLD coast. The main cause of these strandings is associated with impacts caused by last summer's
severe cyclone and flooding events on critical marine animal habitat. Seagrass, the primary food source for
dugong and turtle, recorded losses of up to 80% in some areas. Unfortunately, this reduction in food availability
has created a dugong and turtle population in poor condition making them more susceptible to secondary
infections or human related threats such as boat strike or netting.
QPWS undertook a review of all strandings procedures and policies earlier this
year in light of this increase in stranding events. As a result, QPWS has
increased its response efforts and engaged stakeholder to further mitigate the
threats posed by human activities. Each stranding event is recorded and
evaluated by QPWS. This information in turn assists QPWS to identify areas of
concern and implement or refine management actions in that area.
Closer partnerships with community groups, councils and vets have also been established, and all
rehabilitation facilities are operating at capacity. Although the number of stranding events are beginning to
slow, we are likely to continue to experience higher than average stranding incidents until seagrass beds begin
to recover and animal condition improves. Most significant is the concern that these events will have long term
impacts on an already small dugong population in the southern GBR, with numbers less than 5000. This
species will continue to be closely monitored and further investigated. Seagrass bed recovery is also being
closely monitored during this time.
QPWS would like to thank all members of the community for their efforts to date and ask that everyone
continues to report all stranded marine animals via the RSPCA hotline 1300 ANIMAL (1300 264 625). For
more information about marine animal strandings, please see the attached information sheet.
Christmas office closure
The Airlie Beach QPWS office (Cnr Shute Harbour and Mandalay Rds) will be closed from Saturday 24th
December and will reopen on Tuesday 3rd January 2012.
Throughout the Christmas period, camping bookings can still be made online at
www.derm.qld.gov.au (permits
link in the left hand side menu of the home page) or by calling 13 QGOV (13 74 68). The Marine Animal
Strandings Hotline 1300 ANIMAL (1300 264 625) will continue to be operational 24 hours a day for reporting
any sick, injured or dead marine animals.
