Gina Rinehart and Kerry Stokes get new fly-in friends as endangered cockatoo refuge approved
A stretch of parkland between the Perth homes of Kerry Stokes and Gina Rinehart will be converted into a habitat for the endangered Carnaby’s black cockatoo.
Gina Rinehart and Kerry Stokes are about to get some new neighbours – and in true Perth fashion, they will be fly-in, fly-out residents.
A two-hectare stretch of prime riverfront land on Perth’s most salubrious address – and possibly the most valuable chunk of real estate in Western Australia – will be turned into a sanctuary for the endangered Carnaby’s black cockatoo under an ambitious plan recently approved by the City of Nedlands.
Point Resolution Reserve, an L-shaped stretch of parkland with Mr Stokes’ home at one end and Mrs Rinehart’s sprawling estate near the other, will be restored over the next five years back into a banksia woodland. The banksia is both a major food source and roosting habitat for the Carnaby’s cockatoo.
Massive residential compounds bookend the site where the banksia woodland will be planted. There should be plenty of nesting spots at those private properties too, given the abundance of mature trees in the grounds of the mansions along this stretch of the Swan River.
Mrs Rinehart’s property includes a 1930s home her father Lang Hancock once lived in. Mr Stokes’s is more than 3000 sqm.
The large, raucous birds have been all but wiped out in the WA wheatbelt, where almost 90 per cent of their habitat has been cleared and, according to the Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Conservation Centre, farmers shoot them.
There should be no such threats in Perth’s golden triangle of real estate between the Swan River and the Indian Ocean. There, Perthonalities populate the decks of beachfront restaurants and mining billionaires quietly amalgamate blocks into superblocks. Everyone wants into the triangle.
In 2024, iron ore dollars helped drive up the price of a house in Cottesloe by 41 per cent. Residents may have got in with mining money, but they also vote teal and fight for every tree. A year ago, retiree Caroline Lacy saved a verge tree in the golden triangle by standing in front of a bulldozer in her nightie and waving her walking stick.
Whether residents will support the proposal is to be seen. The council will need to cost the banksia woodland before taking it to them for comments. However, the council is already aware the new woodland will be a fire risk near homes. “This may be a concern to residents in need of addressing to garner support,” the council minutes state.
The proposal has the broad support of Friends of Resolution Point, a group that has cared for the riverfront park for 25 years. The group’s chairwoman, Bronwen Tyson said at least one well-known resident was enthusiastic about the prospect of many Carnaby’s cockatoos as neighbours: philanthropist and child health advocate Christine Stokes. She is married to Mr Stokes, the Seven West media chairman.
“Christine Stokes is very knowledgeable about native plants and we understand she has been making a contribution to this plan,” Ms Tyson said.
Ms Tyson predicted not everyone would be happy about less open space. “At some point I think you need to tell people who love that spot and have been going there all their lives that there are going to be some changes,” she said. “We are very much in favour of this. The park is absolutely gorgeous and we want the best for it.”
The cockatoo plan was championed by Nedlands mayor Fiona Argyle, who said more than 99 per cent of Perth’s banksia woodland had been removed.
“We had to move quickly,” Ms Argyle said. “Their numbers are so low at the moment and they are literally starving to death.”
The Carnaby’s cockatoos will live within squawking distance of the King of Malaysia, Sultan Ibrahim Ismail. The Sultan and his wife Raja Zarith Sofiah often make the almost six-hour flight from Malaysia to Perth in their gold Boeing. In 2015, they snared one of the last remaining waterfront blocks in Dalkeith. It was once the matron’s quarters of the old Sunset Hospital for men. They paid $8.5m for the steep sloping site and built a three-tiered house into the side of the hill.
The address of the birds’ new banksia woodland is Jutland Parade, a street synonymous with 1980s high flyers who got close to the state Labor government and triggered the WA Inc Royal Commission. Winding Jutland Parade is where notorious Rothwells merchant banker Laurie Connell created a superblock by buying six houses and demolishing them. He sold to Alan Bond. After Bond financed Australia’s successful America’s Cup challenge in 1983, tour buses took gawkers to the Jutland Parade home where he lived with his first wife Eileen.
The woodland project is being led by botanist Kingsley Dixon, a former director of science at Perth’s Kings Park. He has secured the $500,000 in funding needed to cover the cost of the restoration.
Ms Argyle has been pushing for tougher restrictions on removal of trees from private properties across the council.
While the sulphur-crested cockatoo and corella have become a problem in many parts of the country as their numbers have soared, the Carnaby’s hasn’t fared as well. Their flocks were once so large that they turned the sky black but conservationists now estimate there are as few as 20,000.
Earlier this year, wildlife volunteers called for permission to provide feed for the Carnaby’s, amid fears of a looming mass starvation.
Carnaby’s are black with white patches on their cheeks. They are classified as a noisy bird with a distinctive “wee-loo” call.
WA Opposition Leader Shane Love in October called for Environment Minister Reece Whitby to intervene after the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions knocked back requests for an emergency feeding program for the birds.
The Weekend Australian understands Mr Whitby has since increased funding for both the Perth Zoo and two cockatoo charities.
Additional reporting: Paige Taylor
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