Friends of Stradbroke Island

Friends of Stradbroke Island Issue #76 - April 2017 In this issue  Minjerribah's Wild Places Rehabilitation Obligations Not Being Enforced By State Government Island Conservation Cyclone Side-effects 2017 Glossy Black-Cockatoo Survey Bus Shelter Poetry Nature Notes Have you considered making a donation to support FOSI’s work?  Minjerribah's Wild Places A Nature Guide to North Stradbroke Island, Minjerribah. Book review by Julie Kearney Affectionately known to many as Straddie or Minjerribah, North Stradbroke Island has been a favourite holiday destination for south-east Queenslanders since it first began attracting boating parties to its shores in the nineteenth century. Millenia before this it was regularly visited by Indigenous mainlanders for similar purposes, as well as ritual business with the Quandamooka people. Now, hot off the press in 2017 we have A Nature Guide to North Stradbroke Island, Minjerribah , the first-ever compre...

Local ranger Michael Nothling holding a Broad-shelled River Turtle Chelodina expansa at Bumeira (Brown Lake). This turtle is rarely seen as it mostly lives lying concealed at the bottom of the lakes. Only spotted when the females come out on land to nest over. Foxes on North Stradbroke Island are still thriving with an estimated population of between 1 and 2000. Recent wildfires only increased the opportunities for these sly and opportunistic predators to attack and eat small native animals left vulnerable with essential vegetation cover incinerated. The eradication program should have been geared up immediately to give native animals the best chance of survival but reaching an agreement of island landholders to a start-up of an island wide action program has been slow. The Redland City Council has, as FOSI members are aware, employed a controller doing good work for some years, but only on council land. The Queensland National Parks Service and QYAC joined this program and ena...

A photograph of the recent bushfire on Stradbroke Island by Soren Martensen Stradbroke is no stranger to bushfire. We all have our recollections of fires of past years, power cuts and close shaves. Many an interesting conversation on the island gets on to how different areas are recovering: Blue Lake regenerated quickly after the fire of ’95, but the slopes near the S-Bends had bare trunks visible for many years. But the fierce 2014 fire will go down in history and will, we hope, be a turning point in the adoption of proper fire management strategies for the island. Fire adapted Banksia aemula Although the bush looks devastated in parts, the natural processes will in time bring it back. In areas where the natural biodiversity has been replaced by miners’ revegetation the bush is reportedly more severely damaged and will likely need human intervention to replant and keep weeds under control. Some plants of the coastal bushlands on Stradbroke Island have developed...