Arrested for birdwatching
Rob Blakers, internationally-renowned wildlife and landscape photographer, will today appear in Burnie Magistrates Court facing charges of trespass on Pilitika / Robbins Island. Rob was birdwatching and photographing the vast birdlife threatened by a proposed wind farm with 100 212-metre-high turbines across two-thirds of the island.
Rob Blakers photographed the threatened shorebirds from the coast of Robbins Island to advocate for their protection from the proposed industrial wind farm, which is opposed by environmentalists, the Tasmanian Aboriginal community, members of parliament and locals due to the island’s globally significant cultural and natural heritage values.
“Robbins Island supports more shorebirds than the rest of Tasmania combined. Throughout peak times, the area hosts upwards of 30,000 waterbirds, including more than twenty migratory species that travel tens of thousands of kilometres each year, flocking from Tasmania to their Arctic breeding grounds in April and returning for the southern summer in September. Over their lifetimes, these birds will fly further than the distance to the moon. The route that they follow is called the East Asian – Australasian Flyway, and Tasmania lies at its southern end. Due to the hazards of migration, populations of most of these birds have dropped 80% or more in recent years,” said Rob Blakers.
“The public land that surrounds Robbins Island extends up to the mean high tide mark. The coast of Robbins Island may be legally accessed by walking along the sand, which is what I did in June, whilst observing shorebirds and looking for vulnerable Blue-winged Parrots and critically endangered Orange-bellied Parrots. These birds forage in salt marsh areas at the very edge of the privately owned land, and across the publicly owned sand flats that surround the island,” said Rob Blakers.
“Rob Blakers is a Tasmanian treasure. It is appalling that the blinkered owners of Robbins Island, another Tasmanian treasure, should have him in court for simply taking photos to share with all other Tasmanians,” said Bob Brown.
Contact
Jenny Weber
0427 366 929
