There was a piece in Melbourne’s The Age newspaper last week in which Associate Professor David Paton from Adelaide University was quoted calling on the Federal Government to start actioning its pledge to put 500 gigalitres of water back into the Murray.
The piece also stated that:
“Bird numbers at the Coorong have fallen from 250,000 in the 1960s and 150,000 in the 1980s to an estimated 50,000.”
This is an incredibly dramatic decline. I wondered which species and why?
So I emailed David Paton on 29th September with the following text:
“I noted your piece today in Melbourne’s Age newspaper and reference to declining numbers of birds in the Coorong.
I was wondering whether or not this information is published and/or how I might access it. Could you possibly send me a copy of any reprints and/or reports with some of the data you quote. I am particularly interested in which species of birds are in decline and what the trend looks like on an annual and seasonal basis back to the 1960s.
I write for NSW rural weekly The Land and also the IPA.”
There was no reply.
The next day I phoned and left a message on his answering machine. No response. Yesterday I phoned again and again left a message on his answering machine.
In the afternoon Associate Professor Paton phoned me.
I explained that I had emailed, that I was interested in the reports and/or research papers on which the piece in The Age was based. I said I was particularly interested in information on the dramatic decline in bird numbers.
He said he was too busy to put together that sort of information for me.
I said I had previously tried to find information on bird numbers at the Coorong – unsuccessfully. The names of the reports and research papers would do – I could track them down.
He said he would send me the report on the plants of the Coorong. I said I would appreciate that, but I was particularly interested in numbers of birds.
I also suggested at some point that if he had time to talk to The Age, he should have time to provide me with some information.
He said that the information was provided to The Age by the Australian Conservation Foundation. The information in the newspaper article was not his responsibility but he would nevertheless send me an email with the relevant information later in the afternoon.
I am still waiting.
I phoned the journalist responsible for the article, Adam Morton. I said I had been speaking with David Paton and asked whether the information in his piece titled ‘Salinity killing Murray River Wetlands’ was from the Australian Conservation Foundation. Morton said it was based on a media release from the Australian Conservation Foundation and Environment Victoria but that he had phoned Paton to run the figures past him – that is the bird numbers as quoted in the media release. He said he had phoned Paton because he is the recognised expert in the field and has been working in the area for 20 years. He said Paton had confirmed the numbers were accurate.
David Paton has time for Kerry O’Brien, Alexandra de Blas and a 30 part series for radio 5UV, but not it seems to send me an email with references supporting information published in The Age or to put any of his publications up at his university homepage.
Some other University of Adelaide faculty members have lots of information at their homepages, for example Nicolas Stevens.
In December 2003 the IPA published my review of some key indicators of Murray River health, the Backgrounder is titled ‘Myth and the Murray: Measuring the Real State of the River Environment‘.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.