Black Cockatoo Crisis | Dir: Jane Hammond | ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 

Western Australia is home to three breeds of cockatoos and they are found nowhere else on the planet. You’d think that having custodianship of such unique wildlife treasures, we would be doing everything in our power to protect them, but all three species of black cockatoo in Western Australia’s southwest are under threat.

With the extinction clock ticking, Jane Hammond takes a closer look at the White Tailed (Carnaby), the Red Tailed Forest and the Baudin cockatoos and the changes in their habitats that have brought about the drop in numbers … and their possible extinction in the next twenty years if issues are not urgently addressed.

Cockatoos mate for life and make their nests in hollows of 200 year old trees – trees that are being felled for urban sprawl and mining. Although protected, the birds are also being killed by orchardists and dying as available water is increasing in salinity. Other enemies include drought, pesticides and busy roads.

Even adapting to alternate habitats, such as the pine plantations that have replaced native trees, has not managed to save them as the pine plantations are being cleared and not replaced … leaving a wasteland.

Director/producer Jane Hammond does more than document the reasons for the dramatic drop in numbers in the southwest of WA over the past few decades. She gets up close and personal with them and looks at ways that we can reverse the decline in numbers.

“The film aims to move audiences to demand action from our political leaders to stop these beautiful creatures slipping into extinction. With so little time left to turn the situation around we need to act now” she has said.

With mining companies creating devastation courtesy of rights given to them in the 1960s, protests that been fought and lost by concerned citizens and National and State environmental laws that are being ignored, greater pressure needs to put on governments before it is too late.

Jane Hammond is correct when she says that this really is a story that needs to be told. It is also a call to action to become a foot soldier for a worthwhile cause.

Lezly Herbert

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