Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service Map of Reported Cassowary Vehicle Strike Deaths

In April 2007 the Queensland government produced a map of known cassowary vehicle strike deaths at Mission Beach.

Sometimes a picture says a thousand words and basically a map is just a picture isn’t it!

Click on image for larger view.

Keep in mind that these are exclusively cassowary vehicle strike deaths and only record the percentage of vehicle strike deaths that are reported.

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Cowley Beach . . . Looking Back 50 Years at Better Days

Yvonne Cunningham from Innisfail’s Violets and Lace Garden Centre was kind enough to share this story with me and give permission for me to share it with you too.

Of course Yvonne has her own site. This particular story appears in the May edition of her newsletter.
Yvonne has put together some terrific stories and a favourite is called cassowary. I also found a story on burning National Parks very interesting and Yvonne raises some very valid points.

Well once again I have talked too much so I will hand you over to Yvonne without any further ado!

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Road Death Rate of Cassowaries at Mission Beach Unsustainable says C4 spokesperson Liz Gallie

I promised an update on the latest Mission Beach cassowary death when the press release arrived so here it is.

10 May 2010 1 x adult female cassowary killed on Mission Beach Roads
20 Dec 2009 1 x adult female cassowary killed on Mission Beach Roads
16 Nov 2009 1 x adult female cassowary killed on Mission Beach Roads


Is anyone starting to see a pattern here?

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Tragic Cassowary Death Raises Mission Beach Road Toll to an Unacceptable 3 Adult Females in 6 Months

Yet again I find myself sitting in my office receiving news from my friend Liz Gallie at Community for Coastal and Cassowary Conservation (C4) that the Mission Beach community has lost yet another precious female endangered Southern cassowary.
Here is her email:

Subject: Another adult cassowary death on Mission Beach roads

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Easter Holiday Brings more Foreshore and Dune Damage by Vehicles at Cowley Beach

Cowley Beach Scientist Mr Richard Piper has been an advocate for coastal protection and management at Cowley beach for many years now.After working with Richard (conducting chemical trials in the field under extreme and arduous conditions) I was highly impressed by his cool headed thoroughness and commitment to excellence. I can see why he is so highly regarded by both his scientific and business associates.

As we both have a strong interest in damage to this beautiful beach by totally uncontrolled/unregulated dune and beach driving we often are in touch via email.

I was saddened to be informed by Richard and others of the damage inflicted on this beach over the Easter holidays and am grateful that adverse weather conditions would have reduced the damage to some degree.

I will share a recent letter with you which highlight the frustration we feel as bystanders watching the desecration of this beach whilst council watches on.

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Cassowary Coast Regional Council Mismanagement at Cowley Beach receives damning report card from DERM Principal Coastal Scientist Sel Sultmann

I sometimes strongly disagree with the management practices of the Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management. In my story ‘Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service Upset Ma:mu Traditional Owners and Conservationists at Ella Bay’, I was mightily unimpressed with their beach driving antics and lack of consultation with traditional owners.

Well there is another side to the coin and after reading a recent report by DERM Principal Coastal Scientist Sel Sultmann I was very (read extremely) impressed with his work. It seems like DERM have some staff that are well and truly on the ball and Mr Sultmann is one of them.

This report was prepared for the council after Mr Sultmann’s inspection of damage to Cowley Beach on the 15 October 2009. Sadly the document disappeared like a fart in a fan factory and despite repeated requests by Cowley Beach scientist Mr Richard Piper to council for access to this document it never materialised. I was carbon copied in to these emails to councillor Jennifer Downs and other council representatives but for some reason Mr Piper was never given a copy of this report.

Smelling a rat Mr Piper obtained the report via other means and I thought in the interest of transparency and fair play you good people might like to see the contents so here it is… enjoy!

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Green Turtles, Crocodiles and Ella Bay

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted a new story but trust me I have had a few big fish to fry lately!

Today Ma:mu/Mandubarra traditional owner James Epong and I were fortunate enough to be invited to give a joint presentation on local turtle nesting to the Cassowary Coast Regional Council.

The star of the show was a turtle we called 108 as it was the 108th green turtle hatchling to make its dash for the ocean from a nest only metres away from the Ella Bay Road.

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