Glossy Black Cockatoo under threat from Sunshine Coast nursing home

Critical habitat for the endangered Glossy Black Cockatoo is set to be bulldozed for a new aged care facility at Sunrise Beach on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. A community group set up to protect the birds, Glossy Team Sunrise, says hundreds of food trees are threatened by a development planned by the Uniting Church's Blue Care. The area surrounding the proposal is recognised as a hotspot nationally for the cockatoo: during a 2016 survey in South-East Queensland, more than a third of  96 birds recorded were in the Noosa-Sunrise Beach area.

Glossy Team Sunrise says five hectares of habitat will be destroyed by the development – a huge complex including 98 residential aged care beds, 74 apartments and 55 living units. The facility will be built in the heart of the most important areas favoured by the Glossy Black Cockatoo. Group spokesperson Bettina Walter says about 300 Allocasuarina feed trees, which the birds are dependent on, would be removed. A high care unit and car park will be built adjacent to a creek visited by the birds for drinking. Survey stakes for the development were planted recently.

Says Bettina: “From how we read the plans and what we understand from Blue Care, it is a clear-fell proposal… In the north [of the site] are many food trees and this will be the site of the high care unit. In the southern area are some real regular hotspots. These contain stands of old feeding trees and also younger regrowth. We could spot some glossies feeding there pretty much every time we went in. I have not found any food trees in the adjacent southern lot, that has been allocated for conservation.”

While Blue Care is expected to be required to plant Allocasuarina seedlings in nearby areas to “offset” the felled trees, these will take at least seven years to grow. The species feeds only on the cones of mature Allocasuarina trees. The development will also destroy thousands of Banksia and other trees in wallum woodland on the site.

According to Glossy Team Sunrise, the then Sunshine Coast Regional Council in 2008 gave Blue Care permission to develop the facility. It did not happen at the time and approval was extended by the Noosa Shire Council in 2017. Says the group: “We believe the approval was given based on dated knowledge of the ecological value of the site and a traffic report long overtaken by reality. While aged care is needed in Noosa, the current high-density Blue Care design will require clear-felling of a prime habitat of the Glossy Black Cockatoo, one of Australia’s rarest cockatoos. The Glossy Black Conservancy recommends that where developments are planned, existing stands of favoured food trees should be recognised and retained.”

Protecting the local “glossies” has become a goal warmly embraced by the local community. Residents plant food trees, remove weeds, mark the most important feed trees and carefully monitor the movements and behaviour of birds.

Adds Glossy Team Sunrise: “At a minimum, we are asking the Uniting Church (Blue Care) to show commitment to their aspirations to be a 'green church' and to retain and protect our Sunrise Glossy Black Cockatoos and wallum. We would like them to listen to a community passionate about their unique environment and to work with Team Glossy members and other experts to rethink and adapt the development. Their Eco-Mission Statement is encouraging the congregation to care for the environment as God’s creation. Well we have the perfect place to put those words into action.”

Anyone wishing to register their concerns about the plans can sign a petition here.