Act Now to Save Middle Percy Island, OZ

[svstrider]

The National Parks Dept in Queensland Australia have their sights set on "nationalising" aka alienating Middle Percy Island off Mackay as the private lease has expired. Except for the 1% of the island which is West bay & the old homestead the rest of the island will be National Park.

This means no dogs, no fires and the feral goats will be slaughtered by shooters in helicopters as they did on South Percy Is. Weeds will then take over and the chances of huge bush fires will increase. Yachties have been stopping here at least since WW2.

What about OUR traditional rights of use. In Australia aborigines get to kill dugong and turtles TRADITIONALLY using rifles and outboards. A few weeks ago, a Torres St islander from Badu Is, 1800 nm north, turned up at a BBQ on the Gold Coast I was at with a slab of meat from a dugong that he had shot in Hervey Bay about 100 miles away. Hardly his traditional hunting ground - but perfectly legal.

Please voice your disapproval if you think the whole idea sucks by emailing the local policy makers at the addresses as detailed in the latest Coastal Passage magazine.

http://thecoastalpassage.com/papers/tcp38.pdf

There are too many bloody laws & regulations in Australia and they are just multiplying.

[rusky]

Many great memories of the Percy's.
2 of our boats' plaques are in the shed. (From the 70's and the 80's)

A few years ago, we were in Dolphin Bay and enjoying a beach bbq for the yachty's. We were eating fish caught or speared and I was the only Aussie - [A french girl called me the 'odd Australian']

We swapped cruising tales of qld and the Sth Pacific and Sth America. We only caught up with one of the yachts 'Blue Lady' later. Their ships cat tried to seduce our ships cat and was sent packing.

SVSTRIDER is right - this part of the world is of significant cultural heritage to the yachting fraternity in Australia. Everyone catches up at Percy.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by svstrider

What about OUR traditional rights of use.

LOL Some crappy anchorage with lousy holding at a denuded island with sub-standard snorkeling... I wonder why so many Aussies are Percys?

But I do agree that anything the National Parks Nazis get hold of will be destroyed in our hearts forever.

Last time we had a camp fire on the beach was Tonga...


Woe!

[svstrider]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

LOL Some crappy anchorage with lousy holding at a denuded island with sub-standard snorkeling... I wonder why so many Aussies are Percys?
Last time we had a camp fire on the beach was Tonga...
Woe!

Just HOLD ON 1 SEC, pardner - my grand-daddie was named Percy and if my alcohol soaked memory serves me correct, there was a really cute pelican called Mr Percival who starred in a great tear jerker of an Australian movie in the 70's called "Storm Boy" AND my boat is called Pelican. THEREFORE by the three degrees of separation law, you are not only throwing dispersions at my grand-daddy (God rest his soul) but slagging off (sorta) at my floating home.

Furthermore - Just cause you don't have a Rocna anchor - don't blame the holding at Middle Percy if your home went drifting.

AND the snorkelling around Pine Islet, east of Wests Bay (if you can follow that) is pretty good. I always manage to spear a coral trout for dinner when ever I snorkel there.

AND - we have a fire on the beach at Whites Bay every night cause it is SO romantic, keeps the dog (who will now be illegal) warm and the sandflies away at dusk.

THERE YA GO. Middle Percy Is = Heaven on a stick IMHO

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by svstrider

Just HOLD ON 1 SEC, there was a really cute pelican called Mr Percival who starred in a great tear jerker of an Australian movie in the 70's called "Storm Boy"

If the film pulled on the heart strings canna I tell you reading the book was a real blubberthon for a teenage boy! I had to rip the pages out to soak up the tears!

The other one ya gotta read is Colin Thiele's other book Blue Fin. Damn fine book of the sea.


Mark

[MarkJ]

Actually Pr Percival just died!

Storm Boy pelican dies

Posted Thu Sep 3, 2009 5:17pm AEST
Updated Fri Sep 4, 2009 8:37am AEST
Mr Percival the pelican, Adelaide (ABC News)



A much-loved pelican used in the South Australian film Storm Boy has died.
The pelican, Mr Percival, had been living at the Adelaide Zoo since the late 1980s and died overnight.
The bird was aged in its mid-30s.
In 1976 the bird was used in Storm Boy, the film based on Colin Thiele's novel about a boy who raises three pelicans.
The boy is forced by his father to release them, but one bird, Mr Percival, returns.
The Coorong near the Murray mouth was the setting for the movie.
Bird keeper Brett Backhouse says Mr Percival lived a low-key life after arriving at the zoo.
"He was one of the nicer pelicans. He was definitely an individual," he said.
"He was quite willing to accept a pat here and there sometimes, but then as well he could be quite feisty to us and give us a bit of a slap with his beak if he was hungry."
Mr Backhouse says Mr Percival had a good life, with similarities to the film.
"I think the ending of it, you know, saying that Mr Percival never dies, he lives on in other younger pelicans would be a sort of nice memento to him," he said.
"And Mr Percival does have a few children around the place so yeah, he'll live on."

[svstrider]

Talk about three degrees of separation OR is it the "Butterfly Effect". Always get them two mixed up.

ANYHOW - Here we were gamming on about that particular feathery dude and he up and dies on us.

I THINK I AM GOING TO BURST INTO TEARS.
Now where did I hide that half empty (or was it 1/2 full?) bottle of Bundi Rum.
I need to toast Mr Percival and the soon to be nationalised Middle Percival Island.

At least Mr Percival will get to have a good chin / beak wag with my ol' grand pappy in Percy Heaven.
I think we need to collect funds to buy pullet proof vests for all those goats on the island, for when the National Park rangers come a gunning for them. Bless their smelly hides.

Gotta go and have a good cry / drink.

[barnakiel]

Too bad for the goats but probably good for other species on the island.

I believe about the only way of protecting nature efficiently is by what you called alienating. One has to decide whether they want to protect the nature OR the 'traditional' (according to what tradition?) rights of use. Say the rights were given to you when they made sense and now they are taken from you when it makes sense.

I am sorry if it sounds off-thread but I come from a place where most nature has already been destroyed and I have been to Australia and seen how beautiful and unspoiled some of the continent is. So I say protect it.

b.

[ViribusUnitis]

Makes me wounder what an island like that is actualy worth.

It can't be all that much, can it?

Would the AUS parks service let someone buy the island, istead of lease?

[why me?]

hey ViribusUnitis

Actually these islands can be worth hundreds of millions if allowed for residential development. There was quite a stink a few months ago about Great Keppel island. Seems the state and Tower Holdings had cooked up a scheme to convert some kind of nature reserve adjoining an old resort to freehold and residential development but were blocked by the commonwealth government. Peter Garret stepped in to quash it. Parks is a division of state controlled EPA.