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Caring about Carnaby’s Cockatoo: David Ward

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Dr David Ward, Bridgetown, December 2024

The tongue of experience has the most truth.
Old Arab Proverb.

White tailed Carnaby’s Cockatoos, named after the naturalist Ivan Carnaby (1908-1974), are noisy and sociable birds, still seasonably seen (and heard!) in Bridgetown. I like them, even if they plunder my fruit trees. Although I am sure the late Ivan Carnaby was a fine naturalist, perhaps we should call the bird by its traditional Noongar name, which I am told is ngoolak. If I am right, then that has been its name for thousand of years, so plainly has a vastly prior claim.

In former days I’m sure the squawking of ngoolak was dreaded by those settlers trying to make a living growing fruit around Bridgetown, and there might even have been some shooting in desperation. However, we have, in more recent days, been warned, by knowledgeable people, that it is now endangered.

Yet, on the other hand, a pair of interesting scientists, Valerie Densmore and Emma Clingan, both from DBCA , and both with actual practical experience in fire fighting and lighting, have published a paper which may give old ngoolak some hope. They have found that, at least on the Swan Coastal Plain, Carnaby’s feathery friends may have more food where the bush is burnt frequently, with light and patchy fires every few years, rather than roaring wildfires after decades of fuel accumulation.

This light, patchy burning, every few years, is of course the traditional burning regime long used by Noongar people. It is very different from raging wildfires in long unburnt litter. If any Noongar people are reading this, they will know exactly what I am talking about, because their Elders and ancestors did many such wise burns in their boodja for thousands of years. I believe that DBCA, to fine tune their own frequent, patchy burning, have been talking to Noongar Elders, rather than leaving areas unburnt for dangerously long periods, perhaps for ever, as some people, clearly lacking in practical fire experience, noisily propose. The DBCA’s burning depends, of course, on adequate government funding, and I will vote for politicians who understand this.

I believe Noongar people have great respect for the wisdom of some birds, so if you would prefer to ask a bird about the difference between these two fire extremes, ask a magpie (koolbardi). They will tell you they hang around mild fires, and feast on the insects running out of the light, patchy litter. In over fifty years of bushfire experience, I have never seen a koolbardi hanging around a fierce bushfire, in long unburnt litter, where both koolbardi and insects have little chance.

The welfare of ngoolak should be of interest to those currently enchanted by the notion of endless exclusion of fire from heath and forest, in the simplistic belief that this is ‘ecologically sound’. Their ideas may be based on questionable papers in ‘refereed journals’. Yes folks, be warned, such journals are not infallible. Academic papers may sometimes stray into wishful thinking, rather than the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. There is an old belief that those who publish the most sometimes have the least to say, and may simply be cultivating their academic careers. Valerie and Emma clearly have somethig very important to say about prescribed burning, and I hope their scientific careers blossom for the right reasons.

Reference
Densmore, V.S. and Clingan, E.S. (2019) Prescribed burning in a mediterranean-climate region mitigates the disturbance by bushfire to a critical food resource for an endangered bird, the Carnaby’s cockatoo. Open online access publication by the Association for Fire Ecology.

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