Date: Sunday, October 11, 2015
笔谤辞箩别肠迟:听Eastern Australian Waterbird Survey
Observer:聽Terry Korn
An early start from Rockhampton took us south to Band 8 for a track west to Windorah for an overnight stay. Shortly after leaving we passed over the abandoned Mt Morgan copper mine where a small town persists, perched above a highly polluted stream varying in colour from yellow green to turquoise. The damage extends some kilometres downstream of the old mine. Such a thing would hopefully not be permitted today but sixty years ago practices and values were very different.
The eastern end of Band 8 is characterised by few natural wetlands of any substance but there are many farm dams constructed for stock watering purposes. Most of these were empty or near empty because of the current dry spell. The creeks were also mostly empty so little water meant few waterbirds. The highlight was about 300 Plumed Whistling-ducks on one of the drying farm dams.
Good flying conditions allowed us to quickly approach the very dry Lake Eyre Basin via the upper reaches of the Barcoo River. Count sites exist along this iconic stream but as expected, the river was dry and we moved further west to its partner, the Thomson River with which it merges North East of Windorah to form Cooper鈥檚 Creek. Formally named Cooper Creek, western Queenslanders passionately insist that the possessive should be used for a creek formed by the merging of two rivers.
Thomson River. Photo: Terry Korn
The Thomson River had reasonable water along the section we counted but few birds. This also proved to be so for the large waterhole on the Cooper east of Windorah which we encountered further downstream. In the mid-1990s this water hole attracted the attention of New South Wales irrigators who lobbied for water allocations on a river (creek!!) with the highest variable flow on the planet. Overwhelming community opposition has prevented 鈥渃otton on the Cooper鈥, as the program became known, and the stream remains one of the most undisturbed in the world.
Sunset on red dunes west of Windorah. Photo: Terry Korn