Karen Graham

Published Adore, December 2006- February 2007.

During spring, hundreds of seals perch on the rocks of Montague Island in southern NSW. In the surrounding waters, Humpback Whales breach and perform acrobatics during their annual migration, while thousands of Little Penguins waddle ashore to breed.

Montague Island is a gazetted nature reserve situated nine kilometres off the coast of Narooma. The island has cultural significance – 125 years of lighthouse and maritime history and evidence of Aboriginal campsites, thought to be at least 4,500 years old. It’s also an important breeding ground for 15 bird species, including Little Penguins, shearwaters and silver gulls.

For many years, the island’s visitors were restricted to people working at the lighthouse station, but today, Montague Island is accessible via guided tours run by NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) or through Naturewise conservation holidays with Conservation Volunteers Australia (CVA).

CVA is a non-profit organisation whose mission is to attract and manage a force of volunteers in projects for the betterment of the Australian environment. On these Naturewise holidays, people spend a few hours a day doing hands-on work for conservation. The Montague Island project is seabird habitat restoration, which involves clearing the island of weeds and replanting native species.

‘I fell in love with Montague the first time I came here,’ says Mark Westwood, NPWS ranger and Montague Island tour guide coordinator. ‘I was walking through the old museum house when I glanced through an open doorway and saw a whale breaching to the east. I thought, wow, that’s pretty amazing, and immediately realised the island’s uniqueness.’

In the early 1900s, lighthouse keepers introduced non-native plants to Montague Island to stabilise erosion around the lighthouse station and to provide feed for their cows and goats. When NPWS took over management of the island in 1986, one of their first tasks was to remove the feral goats. This had an unintended consequence. Kikuyu grass, which the goats kept in check, spread rapidly across the island, strangling native plants.

A recent Charles Sturt University study found that the spread of Kikuyu is the single greatest threat to seabirds on Montague Island, displacing and reducing traditional breeding areas on the island. Little Penguins that would normally nest in burrows have to nest in the grass, and many end up strangled or entrapped in the thick, tangled weed. In addition, during summer Kikuyu is particularly dry and susceptible to bushfires. A single bushfire could wipe out thousands of seabirds.

It’s predicted without preventative measures, Kikuyu would cover the island in ten years. The solution is spraying and controlled burning of the Kikuyu, and its replacement with native species – a project that the Naturewise holidays helps fund. Holiday volunteers also help remove the Kikuyu and undertake other valuable work such as the removal of other weeds, planting of native seedlings, and assisting researchers with penguin monitoring or bird and whale counts.

‘We’ve also had people painting penguin box lids for temporary nests, to reduce the temperature for the penguins in summer,’ says Mark. ‘It doesn’t sound glamorous, but everyone enjoyed it, and it’s good fun putting the lids back out in the field, because often you get to see a penguin up close in one the boxes.’

Naturewise holidays attract a variety of participants, including wildlife enthusiasts, retirees, and even specialist groups, such as bird watchers or photographers.

'There’s been a great variety of people participate in the program,’ says Mark. ‘As well as the specialist groups, we’ve had students from Canberra College, a corporate group, and even a surprise fortieth birthday party for a local family including everyone from the grandmother to the young children.’

Mark says that people are also free to pursue their interests on the island, whether it is photography or sketching or simply enjoying the solitude. ‘We just ask people to do a few hours of conservation work while they are on the island. Then, as long as the activity has minimal impact on the environment, we provide options for individual pursuits. Actually, a lot of people go back and do more conservation work in their free time. They just can’t help themselves.’

Other activities include exploring, visiting the lighthouse, learning the history of the island at the museum, or taking time out to watch the wildlife.

Declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1953, Montague Island is arguably one of the best places on the east coast of Australia to watch the southerly migration of Humpback Whales during October and November. Other species of whales also frequent these waters and include Fin Whales, Bryde’s Whales, Blue Whales and Killer Whales, while pods of dolphins are a common sight. In spring, the island is home to the largest Australian and New Zealand Fur Seal colony along the NSW coast.

More than 90 bird species have been recorded on the island, including approximately 5,000 pairs of nesting Little Penguins, 1,000 breeding pairs of Crested Terns and 30,000 shearwaters, or as they’re commonly known, mutton birds. In September, when the Silver Gulls come to breed, the island is a cacophony of high-pitched squealing, especially in the evenings when the cries of penguins and other birds form part of nature’s symphony.

In contrast Mark says, ‘In the dead of winter there’s not a sound here except the wind and the sea breaking on the rocks, and it’s got another kind of beauty.’

Other Naturewise holidays include monitoring mammals at the Grampians National Park in Victoria and surveying penguins at Bicheno in Tasmania. For information free call 1800 032501 or visit:
http://www.conservationvolunteers.com.au/volunteer/naturewise.htm

Karen Graham travelled with Conservation Volunteers Australia and NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.

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© Karen Graham 2006