KWINANA/ROCKINGHAM/MANDURAH BRANCH APRIL MEETING REPORT

At the April meeting we viewed the documentary Houtman Abrolhos Islands—Wilderness Regained, which was produced by Bob and Ann Goodale in the early 1980s. For many of the audience this was the first time they had seen the film. Bob Goodale gave a brief introduction: it was filmed in 16 mm over a two-month period and had a budget of roughly $500,000. The production crew was based on a boat for the duration of the filming, allowing them to access many of the islands in the group. Susannah Carr, a newsreader who needs no introduction to viewers in WA, narrated the film. The film has been sold in over 50 countries and has been showed on the BBC and National Geographic TV networks. It has won several awards. Originally available on videotape, Bob had one converted to DVD so that it could be viewed through a digital projector.

The film gives some background of the Houtman Abrolhos Islands, a chain made up of 122 islands, located 80 km off Geraldton, including their history, which includes shipwrecks and impacts of human occupation such as guano mining (for phosphate production), the introduction of feral species and the development of settlements to support the Western Rock Lobster fishery.

The documentary then shows why the island chain is one of the world’s most important seabird nesting sites. Footage of groups of Lesser Noddy, Common Noddy, Roseate Tern, Bridled Tern and Wedge-tailed Shearwater was first-class.

The film also shows the beauty of the marine environment with some spectacular underwater sequences showing coral reefs found off the islands. The reefs surrounding the islands host the most southern coral reefs in the Indian Ocean, made possible by the warm Leeuwin Current that flows down from the tropics.

The islands are home to a number of species of reptiles and some memorable sequences were captured on film. These featured Carpet Pythons moving through the branches of low trees and Kings Skinks, one of which was filmed eating eggs from the nest of a tern.

The film then discussed how the impacts of human occupation were being corrected, such as limiting the number of lobster fishery personnel and the time that they can reside on the islands, removal of all waste from the settlements to the mainland and that programs to eradicate feral animals were commencing. Islands were being set aside as conservation areas. It is from this that the film gained the second part of its title: ‘Wilderness Regained’.

This was truly a high quality, informative and interesting documentary of which Bob and the rest of his production crew should be very proud. The audience gave Bob an appreciative round of applause.

Colin Prickett