Black Cockatoo Monitoring and Cultural Tour – Binjareb Park, Pinjarra

During November 2020, Landcare SJ and Birdlife WA presented a Black Cockatoo monitoring workshop at Binjareb Park in Pinjarra, supported through funding from the Alcoa Foundation and the Shire of Murray.

Francis Smit, Landcare SJ Executive Officer, introduced the session by discussing the history of the Cockatube design and recent results at CSIRO/DBCA Coomallo Creek research site.

Adam Peck, Black Cockatoo Project Coordinator from Birdlife WA, continued with a presentation on the ecology of Black Cockatoo breeding and described different natural and artificial hollows. He instructed over 30 enthusiastic participants on how best to monitor both types of hollows, including resources required and methodology used.

After an intermission for morning tea, including damper cooked by the Murray Districts Aboriginal Association (MDAA), the participants went out into Binjareb Park for a practical monitoring demonstration.

On the walk through Binjareb Park bushland, Mark and Jedda from MDAA provided a guided tour, which included cultural insights on the six Noongar seasons, and described life as it was on the Aboriginal Reserve located in the park, still occupied by Binjareb people up until the 1980s.

There are three Cockatubes located in Binjareb Park. These were installed around 2009, and are of and older design using recycled thick pvc pipe sourced from BHP Billiton when the project was in its infancy.

They were placed as breeding habitat for Red Tailed Black Cockatoos often seen in the bushland. Adam Peck demonstrated monitoring methods including tap and flush, and a telescopic pole with a ‘cocky cam’. Two of the three hollows contained possums.