No longer a blot on the landscape. The tide has turned for the once degraded New Town Rivulet with a dramatic transformation of the watercourse where it meets the Derwent.
I had always approached the rivulet outlet in New Town Bay with a sense of dread while taking part in the annual gull count for Birdlife Tasmania. The rivulet at this point was channelled through concrete culverts, the stones and boulders of the stream-bed caked in plastic, littered with rusting bikes and, once, a pram.
How birds could survive there was a wonder but the rivulet always had up to 100 silver gulls, smaller numbers of kelp gulls, along with a smattering of Pacific black ducks.
For about 20 years I have been taking part in the annual census to determine not only the health of our three species of gull – the silver, kelp and Pacific – but of us.
Gulls along with other groups of birds are known as “canaries in the coalmine” – their health a barometer of what is right, or wrong, with the state of the environment. The term comes from canaries taken down coalmines in days gone by to alert miners of the presence of deadly methane gas.
Gulls and humankind seem to travel together. Although we give them the generic term of “seagull”, gulls can survive away from the sea, especially if there are humans to provide food.
Next to the town pigeon, the gulls are our most familiar bird, especially as most of the Australian population live on or near the coast.
The life of the gulls strangely mirrors our own. We gather on the waterfront and the silver gulls – the most common of the gull species – gather with us. We indulge in fish and chips at the fish punts, and the gulls indulge with us, noisily fighting over the chips that are thrown their way.
Along with sharing our taste in fast-food, the gulls also share our health ailments associated with a diet high in calories. Research comparing populations of silver gulls on Bass Strait islands with Hobart ones has found the ones here have high cholesterol levels and are prone to obesity and diabetes.
Gulls can also be an early indicator if there is pollution in the environment, sick and dying gulls sounding a warning to all life in the city.
The winter gull count has been taking place for 40 years and in this time gull numbers have increased, although the tally from the latest survey last Sunday is still awaited.
And on my rounds with binoculars and survey sheet in hand I was in for the pleasant surprise at New Town Rivulet. I’d forgotten that Hobart and Glenorchy councils are turning the outlet to its former glory. It is being landscaped with the planting of thousands of native trees, shrubs and grasses.