Compare the Pair, By Patricia Hosking

Concern over the implications for Phillip Island if unfettered development is permitted to continue has prompted a local resident of many years to put pen to paper this week, asserting responsibility and respect for our natural attraction  is essential if Phillip Island is to be protected into the future.

Compare the Pair

By Patricia Hosking

Galapagos Islands (Spanish for Tortoise. Islands of the Tortoises  is an Island group of the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Within it are 13 major and six smaller islands, and many islets. Only four of these are inhabited. There are not many cars or means of transport; but there are inter island ferries, scooters and private transport. The islands cover approximately 1000 kilometres from the Ecuadorian coast and are part of Ecuador. The climate has low rainfall, low humidity and relatively low air and water temperatures.

Here is a timeline of environmental development

• 1936….Galapagos National Park 
• 1964….Charles Darwin Research Station
• 1978….UNESCO World heritage site 
• 1984….UNESCO Biosphere 
• 1986….Galapagos Marine Reserve 
• 2001….Galapagos World Heritage Site to incorporate The Marine Reserve 

It’s famous for its unique, vibrant, pristine  biodiversity and flora and fauna. Thirty thousand people 30,000 people (1 in 4) who live within the Galapagos Islands make their living from a thriving eco-tourism-based economy as well as farming, agriculture and fishing. 

Scientists, adventurers and nature lovers continually find themselves drawn to the Galapagos shores. 

Phillip Island (Millowl) is a special place for the Bunurong people who have deep connections with the land and sea. Phillip Island, on the south coast of Australia, under  the Trewartha system, has a humid, subtropical climate. It has Mediterranean characteristics such as relatively dry and cool summers and a cold windy winter.

Here is a timeline of environmental development

• 1968….Cape Woolamai State Faunal Reserve 
• 1982…Listed in the Ramsar Convention (An International treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands. There are 66 Wetlands of International Importance in Australia).
• 1987….Landcare established and commenced wildlife corridors linking public land and farmland 
• 1996….Phillip Island Nature Park 
• 2002….Churchill Island Marine National Park established  (site of first European garden and wheat crop grown in Victoria in 1801).
• 2003....UNESCO Westernport biosphere managing land and sea on Phillip Island through research, education, community engagement, partnerships and on ground efforts. 
• 2013….National Surfing Reserve  (the only recognised surfing reserve in Victoria)

Fishers wetlands and Newhaven Swamp (part of Phillip Island Nature Park) recognised as Wetlands of National Importance.

Phillip Island is famous for its land and sea environment, native wildlife, agricultural landscapes, and world class beaches that exist in harmony with the Island’s community of 14,000 residents,  and is also recognised as an eco-tourism destination. Phillip Island Nature Park currently employs 125 residents and 35 non-residents.

Galapagos Islands

Home to more than 9000 species, some of them unique and found only in the Galapagos. The list Includes 80% of land birds, 26% of seabirds,95% of  reptiles and 82% land mammals. More than 30 % of the plants are endemic meaning found only in the Galapagos. 

The large tortoise, penguins, fur seals, whales, dolphins, sea lions, marine and land iguanas, Darwin’s finches, blue footed Boobies, flightless cormorants, Sally Lightfoot crabs, waved albatross to name just a few of the 9000 species. 

Invasive introduced species include the feral goat, pigs and the hill blackberry. In 1995 a campaign was launched to eradicate goats and donkeys from Isabella Island, pigs, goats and donkeys from Santiago Island and goats from Pinta Island. In 2006 the field operations ended and the islands were declared free of all introduced mammals.

270,000 visitors a year visit Galapagos and revenue is AUD $550-600 million. 

Phillip Island

Home to 1300 unique marine species and the highest recorded biodiversity of intertidal and subtidal invertebrates in Eastern Victoria, 1000’s of migratory bird waders,5000 plants and 1200 invertebrate animals native to Victoria.

Little penguins, fur seals, koalas, whales, dolphins, sharks, Pacific gulls and short tailed shearwaters. Migratory waders are seasonal birds that undertake annual flights to and from North China, Japan, Korea and Siberia. While mangroves are nurseries for marine life, the grass beds are vital for the overall health of Western Port Bay and the wetlands are vital for the preservation of marine life, carbon sequestration (The Victorian parks network is a major carbon sink with at least 270 million tonnes of carbon stored in land-based parks and 850,000 tonnes in marine. This is around nine times Victoria’s annual greenhouse gas emissions) and with rising sea levels, proves to mitigate the worst effects of coastal storms.

In 2006 a fox and feral cat eradication program was successful in eradicating these destructive species to wildlife. As a result, the Eastern Barred Bandicoot that was extinct in the wild has been introduced back to Churchill Island and Phillip Island.

The Phillip Island Nature Park (PINP) has won the Banksia sustainability and environmental award, which recognises individuals, communities, businesses and government for innovation and excellence in environmental and social stewardship. PINP has also won  the natural environment award for the restoration of the Summerland Peninsula. 

In 2012 the New York Times “52 places to go in 2022 list” included only two places in Australia. Summerland on Phillip Island Victoria at number 24, ahead of the Daintree Rainforest, Queensland,  winding the list up at number 52. 

The Island is 60% farmland, which has been farmed conscientiously for more than 100 years and now contributes to flourishing and serene vistas. It is also part of our regional and national food bowl, and a balance to some of the visual pollution of dysfunctional residential and business developments of the past 50 years,  where residents are not encouraged to plant native trees for birds and wildlife and businesses are not encouraged to landscape. 

Phillip Island needs a caretaker local government where the island’s value is respected.

Three and a half million people visit Phillip Island, and revenue is AUD $529 million annually.

Human Impact and Urban Development 

There needs to be clear rules about where tourism-based buildings can occur, and adhere to   established urban development zones. Townships need to be maintained within their boundaries, fringed by expanses of farmland and nature reserves. The disruptive influence of new developments, such as residential developments and tourist/ theme developments should be contained within already designated areas, in  the Bass Coast Shire, Cowes and Wonthaggi.  

Moving outside current designated town boundaries will potentially create habitat loss and degradation, litter, invasive pests, an increase in pollution, stormwater runoff and wastewater discharge.

Protect cultural, environmental and ecological development. 

The future going forward. 

Stewardship, responsibility and respect for our Natural Attraction  is essential. Enough to protect it from inappropriate developments for the wellbeing of the island, the state and the nation. The Nature Park as well as eco-tourism/conservation cannot be ignored as a continuing and expanding employer of the future and all the subsidiary businesses and employment that will grow as a result of supporting it. 

Many volunteers have worked toward these outcomes as well and their efforts cannot be ignored. 

Phillip Island has received assistance in the form of government funding, been presented with awards, and has international, national and regional recognition for the importance of its wildlife and flora, marine wildlife and flora,  for its important wetland areas, its coastal and rural/ agricultural vistas and its wild oceans. There is a possible opportunity on Phillip Island for a Marine and Wetlands University campus, to be situated in Cowes, with a focus on research, education and management skills, sustainability and conservation.

This would be an appropriate goal and development for the Bass Coast.

‘The baby should not be thrown out with the bathwater anymore ‘