Bird Routes obtain awards

The Bird Routes of Manilla gets an award. On the 20th December 2000 John Wheeler received an award from the "Well Done Manilla Awards" for establishing the Bird Routes of Manilla. The Bird Routes  was a project of  Manilla Shire Council.

Right, Russ Watts with the award presented to Barraba Shire Council for the Bird Routes of The Barraba District.

History below

By Russ Watts from a Presentation  to 2000 National Awards for Innovation in Local Government, Canberra, 10 November 2000

This new approach was a way to draw attention to the pitiful state of the environment was introduced to Council through a plan called "How to make Barraba the Most Attractive Small Town in Australia". During the 50's and 60's I was a stock and station agent and traveled many parts of NSW. Forty years later about five years ago Jenny my wife and I drove to Melbourne, via Dubbo, West Wyalong we returned through Tumut, Young and Cowra.

The loss of habitat astonished me.

The skyline along distant hills often consisted of a line of dead trees. Most paddocks had little vegetation, sometimes an old tree standing alone. Environmentalists describe these trees as "the living dead". They will disappear within the next fifty years. Biologists Stephen Garnett and Gabriel Crowley say one in five of Australia's birds is under threat of extinction. Within my lifetime the bush I once new has disappeared. When we returned home I realised this area along the North West Slopes of NSW was one of the few places where birds of the once vast Grassy White Box Woodlands, which previously stretched from Victoria to the Queensland border might survive. According to CSIRO's Plant Industry Communication Group only 1/10,000 th of this woodlands survives in a relatively unmodified condition, 0.01%.

My knowledge of traveling stock routes gained in my years as a livestock agent tied my thoughts together. There is a way to protect these vital remnants to identify the public access to these Crown Lands and through overseas and Australian bird watchers let the whole community know these places exist by drawing attention to them. There are these ecological niches almost everywhere, begin to let the nation know this is a challenge a way to save what is left and one way to do this was to submit the plan "How to make Barraba the most attractive small town in Australia" The thrust, the aim of this project was to draw attention to the plight of our environment. During 1993 Barraba was "streetscaped" trees planted, heritage buildings painted. I suggested to the Council we become "shirescaped" by describing a way to bring eco-tourism visitors to our district.

The plan described : (1) How there is access to places to see native birds, people were unaware that they are entitled under the Rural Lands Protection Act (in NSW) to enter the network of travelling stock routes, those old drovers' routes. (2) It described how signs would point to each site. (3) How sites would be described by a brochure with a map and a list native birds to be seen. (4) How it would attract eco-tourism visitors, Barraba had the lowest per capita income in NSW in the 1996 census. Council adopted this plan and budgeted $1,200 for ten signs and the brochure. Volunteers were to erect the signs and they did.

When the council realized the "Bird Routes" were attracting eco-visitors they decided to erect "Welcome to Barraba" signs at the end of town. These feature a picture of the endangered Regent Honeyeater. These birds can, at times, to our delight be seen within the town boundary attacking their images in the side windows of a car, as well of course, on the Travelling Stock Routes and Reserves.

Until the Bird Routes appeared and bird watches came there was little community interest in native birds. Since then, the Information Centre has displayed pictures of the Regent Honeyeater and other native birds. Members of the Information Staff and Barraba birdwatchers discuss methods on how to provide visitors with the information. The centre stocks and sells Field Guides of the birds of Australia. Stories in the Barraba Gazette encourage the community to report sightings of the Regent Honeyeater. Last year teachers at the Barraba Central School arranged two field trips for pupils to see native birds. Citizens have begun to bring dead birds to the Information Centre for identification.

News of our innovation brought an email from a subscriber to the website "Birding Aus" (a world wide chatline). He sought advise for a project similar to Barrabas' for the Bunya Mountains, Queensland, which comprises Wambo, Nanango and Kingaroy Shires.

Manilla Shire adjoins us to the south and we helped establish their "Bird Routes", which link with ours.

A New England ornithologist, Andrew Lee, heard an ABC regional radio talk about our recent success in the "National Awards for Innovation in Local Government," and asked for information. He is a member of "Birds Australia," an official organisation of Australian bird watchers. He wants to create and implement bird routes for Armidale, Guyra and Uralla Shires. Uralla adjoins Barraba to the east.

Coonabarabran Shire to our west has printed the brochure for Bird Routes of the Baradine and Pilliga Scrub, pointer signs have been erected by their local Forestry Department. Barraba birdwatchers have begun a similar project for the Bingara Shire, which joins us to the north.

Senior officers from the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service were having a meal at the bowling club when they overhears members at the bar say how the birds had helped Barraba. This led to a story in the Sydney Morning Herald, which described Barraba as "The Bird Capital of NSW." This story by James Woodford has been adopted as an information text for Junior High Schools in NSW. We received Big Sky Country's award for excellence in Environmental Tourism.

An article in the Australian, "Spirit Reborn," led to a request from the Australian Heritage Commission, Canberra for information to be included in a twenty page, lobbying document called: "Heritage Tourism bringing people to the bush a plan to implement outcomes of the Regional Australian Summit"

I believe that these acknowledgements of our success have given a fresh sense of pride to our district and provided information and direction to the wider community. The Sydney Morning article led to an interview by the BBC, London.

Looking to the future …the number of bird watchers is increasing. This new Field Guide sold more than 100,000 copies in the past two months. They travel to every part of our land. We believe, because of our unique approach, many more bird watchers, or twitchers as we are called, will make eco-visits to our region. Already there has been a rapid increase in eco-visitors who stay for an average of four days. Local business houses have benefited from the increasing numbers.

Advertising in ornithological journals continues to bring an increase in enquiries. The web-site "Birding Aus," the world wide chat line lets us relay unusual bird sightings to a larger audience. The Regent Honeyeater mirror attack story brought visitors and gained for us, Australian and world, wide publicity. The forthcoming inclusion of Bird Routes on Barraba's web-site will be another source of benefit

At the Barraba Central School a junior class will begin an environmental project called, "A strategy to conserve and promote the Regent Honeyeater." Its goal will be an awareness of conservation and environmental issues in the local environment.

The greatest benefit of all begun by the Bird Routes will be achieved when government sources recognise the need to act and preserve all Crown Lands where native vegetation can survive and provide habitat for our rapidly diminishing fauna.

Following the success of Barraba's Bird Routes, Manilla Shire sought our expertise to provide an application for funding from the Department of Industry, Science and Resources. Their project is called Bird Routes of the North West Slopes of NSW. This would comprise the six Shires of Tamworth, Parry, Manilla, Barraba, Bingara and Yallaroi. To assist with enquiries we have produced a kit about ways to influence other Shires:

BRING A FLOW OF ECO-TOURISM $$$'s TO YOUR SHIRE

Already other shires have adopted this concept, and, the recognition of what valuable resource we are custodians of, is spreading, and others are beginning to recognise the need to protect what is left of our landscape and soil.

In the words of David Suzuki:

"regarding an eco-logical perspective. The greatest cause for hope lies in the fact that at a local level people and groups are emerging to find answers."

And that's something we have not a lot of time to do.

John Wheeler e-mail jwheeler@bigpond.com            Russ Watts  e-mail barrababirds@optusnet.com.au

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