Media release – Dr Eric Woehler, 24 February 2025
Robbins Island critical habitat for migrating orange-bellied parrots
Independent analysis of the Tasmanian Government’s orange-bellied parrot migration tracking data has revealed for the first time the critical role of Robbins Island in north-west Tasmania for the species.
Robbins Island is the site for a proposed 100 turbine wind farm now under consideration by the Federal Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek. Her decision is currently due by 7 March 2025.
Exhaustive analysis of data gathered in the radio-tracking survey was undertaken by Dr Eric Woehler OAM, an independent bird ecologist and winner of the DL Seventy Medal, Birdlife Australia’s highest science award. Dr Woehler examined all of the data collected by the NRE tracking of parrots fitted with tiny nano radio tags ahead of their 2024 autumn migration from Melaleuca in the south-west to mainland Australia.
His analysis focussed on the use of north-west Tasmania by these birds, where he found clear evidence of extensive use of Robbins Island:
- Six tagged orange-bellied parrots were detected at Robbins Island on their northward migration after the 2023/24 breeding season. These 6 birds represent half of the 12 parrots detected in Tasmania on migration.
- Detections at the island spanned up to 33 days, with one tag detected for 8 consecutive days.
- There was extensive overlap of these detections with the proposed layout of the windfarm.
“The distinct overlap between the proposed windfarm and the detections of tagged orange-bellied parrots on their northward migration on Robbins Island is a major concern,” Dr Woehler said.
“Robbins Island is clearly vital habitat for these parrots, as proven by the numbers detected on the island and the time span of these detections,” Dr Woehler said. “The impending conflict between these critically endangered birds and wind turbines is undeniable.”
“There can be no doubt that the data for the 2024 northward migration clearly show that the original requirement for a 5-month shutdown of the proposed Robbins Island windfarm would be insufficient in light of the extended residency times shown by these data,” Dr Woehler noted.
“The transition to renewables must not come at a cost to Australia’s remarkable biodiversity, and certainly must not threaten a Critically Endangered species,” Dr Woehler concluded.
Statement – Craig Garland, independent MHA for Braddon, 25 February 2025
The Orange-bellied Parrot – Labor’s next extinction?
Robbins Island has long been known as a crucial stopover for migratory birds. But thanks to a new report from Dr. Eric Woehler OAM, we now have proof that it’s even more than that—it’s a home for one of Tasmania’s rarest and most critically endangered species: the orange-bellied parrot (OBP).
Last December, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE) released an interim report from its two-year OBP migration tracking program. It was supposed to help us “understand more about timing, flight paths, and risks to OBPs during migration.” Except they left out some of the most crucial data.
While their report acknowledged in 2024 twelve tagged OBPs were detected at multiple locations along Tasmania’s northwest, including Robbins Island on their migration north, they only focused on data from late March to early April. When Dr. Woehler analysed the full dataset, he discovered eight out of the twelve tagged OBPs didn’t just pass through Robbins Island. They stayed. For months.
In fact, there’s reasonable evidence to suggest that some OBPs remained in the area around Robbins Island even after June 6, meaning they may not have migrated to the mainland at all. And yet, the NRE report made no mention of this. Why was that?
Robbins Island is slated to be the site of a massive wind farm—100 giant turbines, covering nearly two-thirds of the island. The foreign-owned company behind the project, ACEN, successfully fought against a planning condition that would have required the turbines to shut down for five months each year to protect migrating birds. That decision is now tied up in a Supreme Court appeal.
The Government are desperate to make this wind farm happen. They even passed special legislation last year to retrospectively exempt the project from parts of the State Coastal Policy—rules that if applied would have prevented the development from being approved in the first place.
So, are we really surprised that the Government’s report failed to mention how important Robbins Island is for the OBP? I’m not.
Just over a week ago, we watched Prime Minister Albanese promise to legislate to save a handful of jobs in Macquarie Harbour at the expense of the critically endangered Maugean skate.
Next month, it’s Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s turn to decide on the Robbins Island wind farm. Will she act on this new evidence and reject the project? Or will she greenlight yet another environmental disaster, effectively signing off on the extinction of the orange-bellied parrot?
Ben Marshall
February 25, 2025 at 17:47
What’s critical about the Robbins Island project is not that it’s probably the worst exemplar of where not to put a wind farm, nor that a single species will be adversely impacted or that the two major parties are fully complicit in ignoring the adverse impacts on the island, and the surrounding waterways, the wetlands, the local fisheries, the marine and terrestrial ecosystems, and tourism. It’s that both major parties are ready to ditch the democratic process in order to push a rotten project through to benefit the island’s owners, the Hammond family, and the Filipino billionaire family owners of ACEN. Why not tell ACEN to set up elsewhere?
Because to both major parties, Robbins Island is the last ditch for us to show the international renewables investors (looking for places to set up with guaranteed profit via a PPA deal with TasHydro) that ‘Tasmania is open for business’ and in effect, showing that Tasmania is For Sale – at any price, no matter how low, and that our State government just wants a tiny cut of the money flow.
So Robbins Island isn’t about renewable energy or action on climate or jobs and growth or any other bollocks. It’s really just a cheap political Game of Mates ready to sell us, and our wilderness, out for cold hard cash.
Sure, be concerned and angry about the risks to birdlife – as indeed you should be. But really we should all be even more worried that both our major parties, Liberal and Labor, are tossing us under a bush for a cash grab.
We really need to stop voting for them!