The natural environment is the source of sustenance, provides the backdrop to the daily life of the Island’s residents and underpins the tourist industry. It is a vital component of the great global web of life.
A project to map the nearshore marine habitats around Norfolk Island under the Commonwealth Government’s Our Marine Parks – Round 2 Community Grants program has been completed. The on-Island project team comprised Margaret Christian, Rob Ryan and Mitchell Graham with external support and project management provided by Dr Kellie (Lorking) Pendoley of Pendoley Environmental PL (Perth). The initial phase of the project produced high-level habitat maps from satellite imagery, merged with high quality LIDAR mapping data (completed in 2021). These drafts were ground-truthed and amended in accordance with feedback from the community.
Fishermen and tour operators especially will find this marine mapping useful: Click on the link to the interactive dedicated page that has been established for this valuable project. A Lidar map of seabed bathymetry with marine mapping survey points is also available. There is a promotional video (26MB) that may encourage you to investigate further!
The Society has been privileged to host Maxime Paradis (L) and Thaïs Bardisbanian on Norfolk since May 2022. We offered to sponsor them for 12 months, and propose an environmental program they could undertake which could benefit the Island, as well as improving their experience and skills. They have been ideal guests here, and manage well with English as their second language, exercising the school level French of most of us, only occasionally.
Their previous studies in environmental management (Maxime) and ecology and corporate social responsibility (Thaïs) enabled them to apply for sponsorship by the Ministère de L’Éducation Nationale in the Government of France as part of a Service Civique program to work for the benefits of global society. Thaïs is from Marseilles and Maxime’s home is Blainville sur l’eau in central-inland France. This is their first travel to Australasia and the South-west Pacific (other than a previous short trip to New Zealand by Thaïs).
The program designed by Flora and Fauna Society members and staff of National Parks and Council, has been to bring together as much knowledge as possible around rodent control, both here at Norfolk Island and in other places where controls and eradications have been undertaken. Some have succeeded and some have failed, and some have succeeded at controlling rodents to a low level. Now that their work here is completed, we have a better understanding of why some methods have been more successful than others, and have gained a broad picture of how individuals manage rodent control on their properties and in their work places here on Norfolk. (Reports of this work will appear on a dedicated page – you can bookmark that page now for future reference).
Thaïs and Maxime created a short questionnaire to collect information about how Islanders manage rodent control on their property. The results of this survey will appear in their final report, which is now (March 2023) being edited for publication. Thaïs left in early March and Maxime on 20 March 2023 for the next stages in their professional and personal journeys. They go with our blessings.
The Australian Museum is mounting a substantial expedition in 2022-2024. More details on our dedicated page or the Museum’s own website.
Website last updated 20 March 2023