My sister and I from Sydney went to Bruny for the sole purpose of viewing
the penguins. We were only on the island for one night so made our way
down to the neck to view the penguins. It would have been around 09:00ish
that we arrived. Around 10:00pm we had heard voices coming from further
up the boardwalk. We being "Tourists" naturally presumed other
people were there to view the penguins, this was not to be the case.
A bit uneasy about the voices we could hear but could not see, we deceided
to leave.
Upon making our way back
up we came across an extremley intoxicated man, who greeted us and then
followed with the next line "Have you young ladies every tried
mutton bird it's delicious", I being the nature lover replied "No,
aren't the shearwaters protected?". "No No they're just muttonbirds"
Becoming extremley uncomfortable
by this man capable of walking but carrying a sharp ended walking stick
(or so it appeared at the time). We made our way quickly to the car,
but parked near our car was theirs. It contained another two men, one
trying to conceal something in the boot. Then I heard the other voices
which were coming from the dunes themselves, I shone the torch I had
on the dunes and higlighted a man who was in the dunes. It was extremely
obvious now what was going on, he had his
arm down a burrow, I heard another voice and spotlighted another man
in the dunes who had a hesian sack and was placing the shearwater he
had just stabbed with the walking stick into the bag, all up there were
five men.
The word horrified wouldn't
do any justice to the sickening feeling that came over me. Because of
me discovering what was going on the man near our car yelled out to
the others I'm over this lets go, but it appeared the others just ignored
him.
My sister and I becoming extremley uneasy, got in the car. I was not
able to see the license plate so we drove past again in order to get
it.
I contacted many many wildlife
groups, National Parks and even Judy Jackson. Continuosly the matter
was ignored, I had also provided them with the license plate, make,
model and colour of the vehicle involved. I had by this time made contact
with a lady on Bruny who operates a wildlife conservation tours who
personally knew the local Bruny Ranger, and the Ranger in his own words
had told her that his superior had told him to treat the issue as low
priority.
I then wrote to his superior
who basically said that the community on Bruny Island is small and I
should basically avoid causing trouble for the local ranger and it being
a small community word gets around and I should back off. From which
direction I was not now sure what to take because every time I emailed
Judy Jackson she would refer my emails back to this Senior Ranger of
NPWS.
