Masses of waterbirds flock to inland sea

TENS of thousands of waterbirds have flocked to nest on the floodplains of southwest Queensland to take advantage of what experts describe as the best conditions in 20 years.Many more will be arriving soon at Lake Eyre in South Australia as it fills with floodwaters from Queensland rivers. At Lake Machattie north of Birdsville this week, an estimated 30,000 pelicans massed on two sand bars, tending eggs and chicks of varying sizes. Simpson Desert National Park indigenous ranger Don Rowlands said the extent of waterbird nesting on the floodplains of Eyre Creek and the Georgina and Diamantina rivers was the greatest in memory. "We've just been through the biggest drought in whitefella history and now we've got one of the biggest floods ever," Mr Rowlands said. "The birdlife is unreal. There's an explosion of thousands and thousands of birds of many different species, and they're all over the place." Mr Rowlands said the pelican colonies were particularly impressive. "It's a sight to behold to be amongst this great mass of pelicans, a once-in-a-lifetime experience." Mr Rowlands said 80,000 ibis had gathered to nest at one colony. Numerous ducks, spoonbills, egrets, cormorants and other waterbirds were taking advantage of the floodwaters to breed. University of NSW waterbird expert Richard Kingsford said that in addition to the southwest Queensland colonies, tens of thousands of pelicans and banded stilts would soon be heading from all over Australia to Lake Eyre to nest. Professor Kingsford said the waterbird breeding event in Lake Eyre was shaping as the biggest in 20 years. "These flood-related events are becoming more and more critical to the survival of waterbirds," he said. "A combination of drought and the over-allocation of water in the Murray-Darling Basin for irrigation has deprived waterbirds of nesting opportunities." Professor Kingsford said how waterbirds knew when and where to head inland remained a mystery, but the landscape was probably imprinted on them when they hatched there. Annual nestings of species such as the straw-neck ibis and royal spoonbill in locations such as the Macquarie marshes in NSW no longer took place because the water had been diverted to irrigators. "Without occasional floodings of the type we are seeing now in western Queensland, the future of many of these species would not be assured," Professor Kingsford said. Diamantina Shire Mayor Robbie Dare said much of the shire's 96,000sqkm had been under water at some time this wet season, with up to 300mm of rain falling over several weeks and storms continuing. "People were really on their knees with the drought and now they've got a spring in their step," he said. Mr Dare said vast areas that had been bare earth for years were now meadows of lush grass. "It was so bad we were losing trees, and even the spinifex on the sand dunes was dying. Now we've got enough cattle feed for a couple of years." Major roads in the shire remained cut this week. Mr Dare said locals were looking forward to a boom in tourism as people travelled to the region to see the waterbirds and the verdant desert.The Australian