Saving the Amazing Brolgas

Inka Veltheim is a PhD student currently studying southern Brolga distribution and migration at the University of Ballarat.

Inka spoke last night at Basalt to Bay Landcare Networks AGM. During her talk, Inka highlighted that the sothern Brolga population currently has an threatened status, with only some 750 birds, with many of these birds located at 4 major sites. This is in stark contrast to the northern population of Brolgas, who are thought to number between 75,000-100,000. The southern Brolga has an ageing population with only 3 % of flocks being immature birds. Inka confirmed that unless significant steps are taken to mitigate ongoing losses, the Brolga may reach a tipping point, beyond which they may not recover.

Inka said that current threats to the Brolga include the Red Fox, disturbance from wind farms and powerlines and a loss of wetland habitat due to clearing and over grazing by land holders. It is thought that threats can be mitigated by :

• Culling of Red Foxes
  
• Identifying how much space is required by Brolgas, so that disturbance by windfarms is reduced
• The creation of large scale artificial wetlands with diverse wetland flora
• The protection of known flocking and nesting sites, using barbless wire
  
• Creation of large buffer zones around wetlands - the larger the better
• Creating wetlands between grain crops
• Reducing the presence of Powerlines near known Brolga flocking and nesting sites.

Inka also suggested that the Brolga is an ideal indicator species for the overall health of wetlands. As the presence of Brolgas usually indicates high levels of general biodiversity and wetland bird biodiversity.

Brolgas are found across the south west of Victoria from Corangamite to Mount Gambier. The most significant populations are found in Penshurst and Willaura but birds have also been recorded across in areas such as Portalnd, Warrnambool, Mt Richmiond, Kaladbro and Glenthompson.

Inka would like to hear from anyone in the south west of Victoria who has seen any Brolgas or any landholder who knows of any Brolga sites or has any knowldge about the history of local Brolgas.

You can contact Inka by email on inka_veltheim@yahoo.com.au or you can call her on 03 9877 5342. You can read about her project here : http://victorianbrolgastudy.com.au/

Further information on Brolgas can be found here :

• http://bird.net.au/bird/index.php?title=Surveys
• http://ozcranes.net/index.html
• http://ozcranes.net/research/proj.html#brol
• http://www.boca.org.au/
• http://www.savingcranes.org/brolga.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brolga .