Talking Point: Beware of loving it to death

AN influx of tourists risks destroying the things that make Bruny Island so globally unique, warns Rosemary Sandford

Beware of loving it to death

THIS holiday season has seen an unprecedented influx of vehicles and tourists to Bruny.

Thanks to global and national tourism promotions, the operation of two ferries and the Premier’s comments about Bruny being “the jewel in Tasmania’s tourism crown”, business is booming for tourism operators, eateries and accommodation.

There are, however, less positive aspects of this deluge of visitors, which raise the question whether Bruny is in danger of being loved to death.

Residents have concerns about this tourism explosion, in particular the dumping of bags of rubbish from cars and of human faeces and toilet paper in roadside bush, camps and a boat ramp.

Other visible impacts include inattentive, dangerous driving, especially by four-wheel-drives and hire cars, and an increase in roadkill, including penguins at The Neck. As paddocks and bush dry, Bennett’s wallabies and pademelons seek roadside grass and possums scavenge in rubbish dumped from cars.

Endangered quolls, birds of prey and forest ravens are often secondary roadkill, as are the occasional echidna, blue-tongue lizard and masked lapwing and chicks.

On The Neck, little penguins have been casualties as they cross to burrows above The Neck surf beach.

Tourists often flout Parks and Wildlife Service signs about no dogs and exercise them at low tide on sandy flats on the channel side. These flats are feeding areas for black swans, pied oystercatchers and other seabirds and waders.

Penguins are already under threat from feral cats and cars on The Neck and now the State Government plans to construct a wider sealed road on the western side.

The Department of State Growth has asked BirdLife Tasmania for advice on minimising penguin roadkill. It is likely culverts will be constructed, but if penguins fail to use them successfully, their dark plumage will be impossible to see against a black asphalt road at night. Penguins freeze when dazzled by headlights and camera flashes.

Some tourists ignore PWS signs and ranger requests not to climb over barriers into the penguin colony and not to use camera flashes at night to take photos and selfies of penguins, shearwaters and their chicks. I’ve seen tourists in the carpark turn their headlights on penguins to get a photo.

The Neck is not the only Bruny location where protected birdlife is at risk.

The threatened hooded plover, its nests and chicks on sandy beaches in Bruny’s national park, are not immune from being disturbed and run over. It should be mandatory that vehicles and amphibious craft are not permitted on sandy beaches on Bruny.

Tourists are encouraged to come to Bruny for its unique natural environment, its forests and seascapes and its tranquillity and its wildlife.

Nature photographers, whose works hang on gallery walls and are published in magazines in the US and Europe, are regular visitors.

International ornithologists come to study endangered birds such as the swift parrot, the forty-spotted pardalote and hooded plover. These Bruny birds are now priority birds on the nationally endangered Threatened Species List announced recently by the federal Environment Minister.

Poorly managed tourism may bring short-term financial benefits, but at what cost to the future of Bruny as the jewel in the tourism crown? We are in danger of killing the goose that laid the golden egg.

What can be done to ensure the qualities that make Bruny a tourism drawcard are not overwhelmed and destroyed? How do we ensure Bruny remains an oasis of relatively unspoilt natural beauty and haven for protected and threatened species in an increasingly developing world?

I have been coming to Bruny for 35 years and have had a shack here for six. Here are my suggestions about how we might address these issues.

Install rubbish collection points and large skips at key tourism gathering points such as Kettering and Roberts Point ferry terminals, Adventure Bay and Alonnah. There used to be large green rubbish and yellow recycle bins at the Roberts Point ferry terminal, boat ramps and some camp grounds. Their lids are now unable to be opened beyond enough space to squeeze in a dog poo bag or a small, plastic bottle. This was to discourage people from using them for domestic rubbish, but the litter and bags of rubbish now along the roads suggest this issue should be revisited.

Bruny should be a plastics-free zone or, at the very least, no plastic shopping bags as per Coles Bay. The public’s understanding of the risk to wildlife of plastic in the environment, especially marine environments, is increasing. It would be helpful if the tourism industry could educate its national and global patrons as part of its civic responsibility under a tourism operators code of conduct, and develop products for social media and for use by travel agents, in buses, hire cars and accommodation venues.

Ingestion of micro-plastics by shearwaters, gulls, albatross and their chicks is a worldwide problem. It is fatal. Bruny could become a world leader in nature tourism though public education and a reduction of plastics used by tour operators.

Notification of rubbish disposal points on Bruny should be in promotional material in buses, hire cars, ferries and accommodation. In South Bruny, disposal points could be advertised by Bruny Island Cruises, the Adventure Bay shop, the Adventure Bay caravan park, the Alonnah Pub, the Alonnah shop, and in North Bruny, at Dennes Point and Barnes Bay or wherever North Bruny residents consider most effective.

Does South Bruny need more public toilets. If so, where? Alonnah? Adventure Bay? Do heavily used camps or the Cape Bruny lighthouse require more toilets?

Speed limits across Bruny should be cut to an 80km/h maximum and 60km/h from dusk to dawn. Speed cameras and a fulltime police presence on key roads is needed in peak periods. Camera and mobile phone use while driving are noticeable, especially among hire-car users.

Road conditions and traffic limits must be standard information in all tourism, hire-car and accommodation brochures. Information should be in relevant languages, with use of international symbols, and it should be distributed by incoming airlines and travel agents in the country of origin as well as in Tasmania.

Sealing roads is no answer. It will detract from the Bruny experience and accelerate roadkill.

Tasmanian author Don Knowler, in his book Riding the Devil’s Highway, describes Tasmania as the roadkill capital of the world. He draws on field surveys done by Tasmanian scientist Alistair Hobday who compared the roadkill rates of Tasmanian endemic species based on variables such as shape, colour, mass of animal/species, speed and colour of road surface. Given these findings, common sense dictates State Growth’s new, sealed highway over The Neck should have reduced speed limits and a light-colour road surface.

The limit of 80km/h (except at dusk to dawn when it drops to 45km/h) is excessive for a wildlife destination with the added attraction of Truganini Lookout. The huge numbers of tourists trying to enter and leave the carpark in four-wheel-drives, monolithic camper vans and hire cars, and tourists with cameras wandering across the road oblivious to oncoming traffic, are a hazard to themselves and other road users, especially vehicles travelling at 80km/h in their rush to catch the ferry.

60km/h should be the day speed at The Neck, irrespective of new road surface, and 40km/h should be the dusk to dawn speed.

Ensuring compliance is a problem, but speed cameras at peak seasons might be useful.

There is an inadequate number of PWS rangers on-island to be effective over the summer holidays. Ranger resources must increase commensurate with the rise in tourists and visitors. This would enable better assistance to, and monitoring of, users in national parks, on crown land and in nature reserves.

A 24-hour, peak holiday season PWS presence at The Neck is essential to protect penguins and other wildlife, especially after dusk. Rangers could prevent illegal poaching of mutton birds that occurs annually.

It may sound draconian, but rangers could note the numberplates of vehicles used by people who blatantly breach PWS signage and ranger instructions.

Dog walking, climbing barriers to intrude on penguin and shearwater colonies, and use of camera flashes and car headlights to get better photos should attract financial penalty. It is usual practice in most states and overseas for hire-car companies and accommodation businesses to ask customers to record their registration number as part of check-in procedures. Perhaps breaches could be tracked in this way and a levy extracted?

Bruny’s ecosystems are vulnerable to fire. With the inappropriate use of fires by campers, boat-users, fishers and yachties in isolated areas of Bruny, wildfire is a serious risk. Visitors regularly camp in unofficial campsites off the beaten track and in dunes behind beaches. Campers may lack knowledge of local weather, Tasmania Fire Service and PWS fire permit requirements, and may be careless with campfires and ensuring they are extinguished before they leave. The wildfire hazards for Bruny are real.

These views are my own, not of any group. Others may have a different perspective.

Tourism benefits many on Bruny and I am sure there are ways the negative impacts could be better managed by tourism operators, state and local government, PWS and the Bruny community.

If tourism continues to be portrayed by the Tasmanian Government as a core sector of the state economy, it must not be left to residents and local governments to pick up the tab for its more negative, long-term impacts.

Bruny is being stretched beyond its tourism carrying capacity and the island’s natural environment, wildlife, water supplies, community, infrastructure and services are being pushed beyond their limits. Unless appropriate management is in place, we will lose the Bruny we know.

Nature and people are remarkably resilient, but they have limits. The key is being able to recognise and anticipate how and when the tipping point is to be reached, and to act well before this.

Proactive efforts are easier and cheaper than reactive measures.

Rosemary Sandford is a University Associate and regular visitor to a Bruny shack.