Cooloola 'BioBlitz' takes Coast to the world

Campaign fires up to have Gympie region's coastline recognised

HERITAGE BID: The Cooloola Coast will be the centre of an intense nature observation blitz in August, aimed at promoting the area's potential as a World Heritage site. Picture: Contributed

A TEAM of people described as "leading naturalists” will mentor novice nature watchers during a 48-hour Cooloola BioBlitz, planned for Rainbow Beach from August 24 to 26.

Organisers are Fraser Island Defenders Organisation founder John Sinclair and Cooloola Coastcare's Lindy Orwin.

Dr Sinclair said the event aimed to develop an inventory of Cooloola's living organisms.

"The BioBlitz has ambitious aims to document all kinds of living organisms discovered in this intense effort of natural history discovery,” he said.

Northern Territory naturalist Ian Morris is among the mentoring visitors and will be especially interested in vertebrate wildlife.

The Cooloola Coast was one of Australia's environmental hot spots, Dr Sinclair said.

The organisers are also assembling a team of invertebrate specialists who hope to add to the list of 280 species of ants in Cooloola, or to discover a whole new genus such as the Cooloola Monster.

Dr Sinclair and Dr Orwin said they were amazed at the enthusiasm of experts and others now involved in the project.

"These leaders were selected because of their experience in Cooloola and their depth of knowledge in their special areas but they are keen to share that knowledge with other BioBlitz participants,” Dr Sinclair said.

In addition to daylight excursions, spotlight tours at night will show what might "slither, crawl, walk or fly during the hours of darkness, so that we can have a more complete picture of what makes Cooloola a candidate for World Heritage listing”.

Some of the specialists have also agreed to present audio-visual presentations, on subjects from spiders and invertebrates to wildflowers and organisms on the forest floor.

Dr Orwin said the organisers were anticipating more than 100 participants scanning the area to list and identify known and possibly unknown species on the Cooloola mainland.