Special Collections Fossickings 51: Destruction and Decline (the Pied Imperial-Pigeon Story, Part 1)

After a hiatus in our Special Collections Fossickings, we return to this popular series with another tale from the Jean Devanny Archive. We hope you enjoy what our intrepid explorer uncovered in her fossickings:

Jean Devanny with Stan White and Dr Hugo Flecker examining a nesting site at Woody island. Photographer: Michael Sharland. Jean Devanny Album, NQ Photographic Collection, ID 13965
Author Jean Devanny, the focus of our last two posts, became a keen naturalist while living in North Queensland writing detailed accounts of her observations. One such account, in her memoir Travels in North Queensland, described a 1944 visit to Woody Island (off Port Douglas) to see the colony of nutmeg pigeons (Ducula bicolor) which had arrived in thousands from PNG for their summer breeding season.

Image of pied imperial pigeon
provided by Yvonne Cunningham
These birds – also known as Torres Strait or pied imperial-pigeons – have captured the imagination of generations of naturalists and bird-lovers and fascinated many locals and tourists. Between September and March they can be seen feeding on palm and other native fruits in forests, parks and gardens along the coast before flying out each evening towards the distant islands. But their gentle calls and gleaming white plumage, which closely resembles images of the quintessential peace dove, belie a violent history.

For generations local Aboriginal tribes would have taken advantage of this bounteous food source, which arrived so punctually each year, and in 1901 ethnologist Walter Roth described several methods by which they obtained their catch. But this modest harvest would have had little impact on the birds’ abundant population. When Europeans arrived, equipped with firearms and a tradition of killing for sport as well as food, it was a different story.

Queensland Times, 1865.
Excerpt provided by Trove.
As early as 1865 the “Queensland Times” reported on a cruise taken by Queensland Governor, Sir George Bowen, along the North Queensland coast. In early October the Governor arrived in Cardwell, then the newest and most northerly settlement on the east coast. From here he made an excursion to a small offshore island for a day’s shooting which the newspaper later described: “The sport was excellent – eighty-two birds falling to three guns. The birds were all black and white Torres Straits [sic] pigeons, and afforded dainty food to the company for some days.”

But even this was on a small scale compared with what was to come. The birds were shot in huge numbers, and not just by locals. Steamers that travelled up and down the coast would stop for a day or two so their passengers could enjoy the sport, others came up from the south on specially organized shooting parties. As the slaughter continued some, like E.J. Banfield who had watched what he called “an uncountable host” of pigeons passing by his Dunk Island home, feared for their future.
Pied imperial pigeon playfully perched in a pretty palm tree.
Image provided by Bryony Barnett

Not all shooting was wasteful or wanton. The 1928-29 Great Barrier Reef expedition leader C.M. Yonge found pigeons a more reliable food source than fish (A Year on the Great Barrier Reef) but in 1936, TC Roughley was over-optimistic in claiming that protection had put an end to their “senseless slaughter” (Wonders of the Great Barrier Reef).

In fact, on paper the birds had been protected for most of the century yet despite Banfield’s warning in 1908 of the “immense destruction” that was taking place, it would be another sixty years before anything was done to stop it. Next month’s Fossickings will conclude the story.

Story by Miniata

Sources:


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