The Glossy Black Cockatoo is now considered vulnerable in NSW due to fragmentation of its range as corridors between Morton NP and the Blue Mountains are being broken up by clearing.
National Park's Technical Officer Pat Hall wondered if a Sheoak corridor could be created to allow Glossies to travel between the mountains and the coast as they used to.
This idea was picked up and enthusiastically supported by Lauren Hook, the National Park Coordinator.
The most encouraging aspect of this project is that it is largely being carried out on private land by local land holders who are the essential link. Their support has made this project a real success with a promising future.
Menai Wildflower Group and Glossies in the Mist
MWG has for many years used a site on the Suez Resource Recovery Park at Lucas Heights to grow native plant tube stock to revegetate the Recovery Park site.The requirement for this work had slowed and the MWG led by Lloyd Hedges were looking for alternative work.
One such project was for the Royal National Park where we provided plants for their very popular coastal walk.
As this work proceeded our name was passed on to Rowena Morris, the Ranger in charge of the Dharawahl NP and the 5 Islands NP off Port Kembla. This project was being led by ornithologist Chris Lloyd.
The MWG involvement in the Glossies in the Mist came about when Rowena Morris passed Lloyd Hedges name on to Pat Hall.
As a result, MWG has to date provided some 7000 tube stock Sheoak plants to help with the re-establishment of the corridor for the Glossies to move between the coast and mountains. Many more plants are required and MWG is actively re-stocking to add to the already significant Sheoak corridor.
Thus began the Menai Wildflower Group involvement with the Big Island regeneration project in another article on this website.
Because of our involvement the Australian Plant Society was considered a co-sponsor of the Glossy project.
Australian Geographic magazine joined in and raised funds to support all those involved.
As a consequence MWG received a grant to mitigate our costs.
