Life in aged care could become a whole lot cooler thanks to an innovative new research project led by University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) and Griffith University.
Researchers will investigate the impacts of greenery, like shrubs and trees, on aged care facilities and their residents, and use this information to develop a model for Queensland’s aged care industry.
Dr Tony Matthews.
Lead investigators Professor Claudia Baldwin (USC) and Dr Tony Matthews (Griffith University) will use a $127,493 Queensland Department of Environment and Science grant — part of the Strategic Adaptation Priorities Program – for a joint research project named Green Infrastructure for Mitigating Heat Stress in Aged Care Facilities.
Landscape architects Dr Chris Boulton from Griffith and Dr Sylvia Tavares from USC are also involved in the project.
The team will conduct research and develop heat adaptation plans for industry partner UnitingCare’s Queensland facilities, something Dr Matthews said had been largely overlooked by the aged care sector.
“Heatwaves have killed more Australians than fires, floods and all other natural disasters combined,” Dr Matthews said.
“Remarkably, very little attention has been paid to the role of urban greenery in reducing heat stress for seniors.
“This innovative new research will tackle this crucial issue, with direct benefit for some of our most vulnerable populations.”
Dr Matthews, from Griffith’s Cities Research Institute, said adding greenery, like shrubs and trees, to reduce heat loads in aged care facilities would be the key focus of the study.
Professor Baldwin said smart technology would be deployed to record baseline heat loads, target areas for heat reduction and to track improvements in greenery and heat stress over time.
Professor Claudia Baldwin.
“This project involves providing leadership and capacity building for climate change adaptation in the aged care sector,” she said.
“Reducing heat in aged care facilities will have multiple benefits for health, economic and social benefits for aged care providers, residents, staff and visitors, as well as contribute to biodiversity.”
UnitingCare welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with USC and Griffith University in taking a lead role to address the impacts of climate change through the first evidence-based heat adaption plans within the aged care sector in Queensland.
A Griffith University Health trained Emergency doctor who is also the Project Co-lead on the University’s innovative Biospine project has been awarded the title of 2021 Queensland Australian of the Year.
Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM was given the prestigious honour at a ceremony in Brisbane, ahead of the national Australia Day awards in January.
Dr Palipana on the set of ABC’s Q & A program this year, where he spoke about the challenges of being disabled, particularly in a pandemic.
In a year of pandemic, Dr Palipana has spread himself thin, working at Gold Coast University Hospital, leading globally relevant Griffith research into the rehabilitation of spinal injury patients, being admitted as a lawyer and developing a growing reputation for his advocacy in the area of disability.
As the state’s first quadriplegic medical graduate and intern he knows firsthand the multitude of challenges faced, challenges amplified during COVID.
His advocacy for equitable treatment for people with disabilities included presenting as a witness to the Disability Royal Commission.
“I hope that this incredible honour allows me the opportunity to give more back to our community,” he said.
“2020 has been a big year for the world. We’ve had a pandemic, big elections, and many wild things happening.
“Just like everyone, all this had an impact on my personal, professional, and academic life. Through having a spinal cord injury with impaired lung function, COVID-19 has been an all too real threat for me. For many things, like research, we’ve had to pivot. To adapt.
“Still, I count my blessings. I’ve been able to work to play a part in our community’s response to the pandemic. I’ve lived in a place that the virus hasn’t touched as much. I’ve had the opportunity to do some rewarding things.”
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk congratulated Dr Palipana on the achievement.
“Dr Dinesh Palipana knows no barriers,” the Premier said.
“He speaks, writes and advocates for the equitable treatment of people with a disability, and he has contributed significantly to the advancement of treating spinal cord injuries and restoring functions for people with paralysis.
“As co-founder of Doctors with Disabilities Australia, he helped create national policies for inclusivity in medical education and employment.
“He is a truly inspiring person and a much-deserved recipient of the Queensland Australian of the Year Award.”
Dr Dinesh Palipana and Biospine research partner Dr Claudio Pizzolato
As Co-lead of the Biospine Project being conducted from Griffith’s Gold Coast campus, Dr Palipana has also contributed significantly to scientific advances in treating spinal cord injury and restoring function to people with paralysis.
“Imagine using your mind to drive movement in your muscles despite previously insurmountable obstacles like quadriplegia,” Dr Palipana said.
“BioSpine puts together some of the most promising advances in human history for spinal cord injury.
“We are using thought control, electrical simulation, and drug therapy in an attempt to restore function in paralysis.”
His national and global impact has been recognised with numerous awards, including Junior Doctor of the Year and the Order of Australia.
Griffith well represented
The Queensland Senior Australian of the Year Award went to Torres Strait Islander Elder Aunty McRose Elu for her community advocacy and climate change work.
Focused on bringing about change to better the lives of children and families, McRose is committed to reconciliation and sharing the traditional practices of her people at local, state and federal levels.
She was instrumental in negotiations to legally recognise the traditional customary adoption practices of Torres Strait Islander families, which led to the introduction of a landmark Bill to the Queensland Parliament.
Since 1980, McRose has also been drawing global attention to the impact of climate change on the Torres Strait, including speaking at the UN and to business and political leaders.
McRose also provides essential translation for Torres Strait Islander communities to help them access services and lobbies for funding to support community capacity building.
Louise Hardman. Image courtesy of Plastic Collective
Griffith graduate Louise Hardman was also nominated as one of four NSW Local Heroes in the Australian of the Year awards.
Completing a Graduate Certificate in Environmental Education at Griffith in 2006, the founder of Plastic Collective Co is a leading plastic educator, zoologist and science teacher, regularly speaking at international conferences and events about the need to address the global plastic waste epidemic.
“We’ve got a fundamental flaw in our language; we’re calling it plastic waste,” Louise said.
“Every time we call it plastic waste, we don’t give it value. To change behaviours, we need to change the perceived value of materials.
“I call it resources; plastic resources.”
Louise’s Plastic Collective business is now global and helps the world’s most vulnerable and remote communities, whose lives and environments are being destroyed by plastic waste and where waste collection is mostly non-existent and plastic pollution isrampant.
Griffith’s MBA program was identified as the top program in the world for the first time in the 18 year history of the Corporate Knights ranking, the agency recognising its clear focus on sustainability across course content and faculty research, and an improvement in gender and racial diversity among faculty staff.
Griffith achieved the stellar ranking ahead of a field of 150 MBA programs around the world, having previously ranked in the Top Five for the last two years.
Pro Vice Chancellor Business Professor David Grant said the number one ranking was testament to the quality of Griffith’s MBA.
“Griffith Business School is delighted to have its expertise and excellence in this area recognised in this way,” he said.
Professor David Grant
“The journey towards number one position has been a long and sustained effort by the school and we are committed to ensuring our vision, mission and values remain at the forefront of our MBA offering.
“It is incredibly pleasing to see that the unique perspective we offer is highly valued by industry and rankings agencies.
“The Griffith MBA is values driven, with a core focus on responsible leadership, sustainable business practices and an Asia-Pacific perspective and this is what has driven its success and made us renowned for producing talented graduates of impact and influence.”
MBA Director Associate Professor Stephanie Schleimer said Griffith’s MBA program attracted talented leaders from all sectors of industry, including government, services, engineering, mining and more.
Associate Professor Stephanie Schleimer
“Our graduates are highly sought after, and many make substantial career changes as a result of their MBA studies.
“Our current student group represent leaders from over 70 different industry sectors across Australia, which means that our graduates become leaders of change in almost every industry sector in the nation.
“Our graduates often speak about a transformational learning journey throughout their MBA and the realisation that a value-based and sustainable mindset is key to their professional (and often personal) growth and fulfilment.
“Our graduates often speak about a transformational learning journey throughout their MBA and the realisation that a value-based and sustainable mindset is key to their professional (and often personal) growth and fulfilment“
“We look to develop responsible leaders with the highest levels of integrity and ethical behaviour.
“We are creating value through social, financial and environmental approaches that lead to sustainable businesses and communities. and we are preparing global citizens, with a special focus on the Asia-Pacific region.
“Our MBA embraced sustainability as the core of business thinking and acting long before the majority of businesses realised it was crucial to operating successfully.
“The coronavirus pandemic has given society a renewed awaking about the fragile eco-system of our planet and the role we all play in this system.”
To determine the ranking, Corporate Knights evaluated 150 business schools (up from 146 in 2019), including all of the 2020 Financial Times top 100 Global MBA programs, every program that made the 2019 Top 40 in the Corporate Knights Better World MBA Ranking, and select MBA programs accredited by AMBA, AACSB or EQUIS, and/or signatories of the Principles for Responsible Management Education that opted in for evaluation.
In 2019, Corporate Knights uncovered a noticeable uptick in faculty research and core courses centred on sustainability — a trend which has continued in 2020.
The agency believes these developments reflect ongoing demand from students to train for meaningful work in the business sector, as well as demand from employers to help solve the serious social and environmental problems that threaten the future of businesses.
“Every MBA should be a sustainable MBA, and the Better World business schools are showing us how,” Toby Heaps, CEO of Corporate Knights, said.
A Griffith University report has estimated that the ecoBiz program has saved Queensland businesses more than $7.4 million.
Dr Rob Hales, Director of the Griffith Centre for Sustainable Enterprise.
Delivered by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland (CCIQ), the ecoBiz program provides small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), one-on-one coaching sessions and a tailored action plan identifying energy, waste and water eco-efficiencies.
The report by the Griffith Centre for Sustainable Enterprise found on average businesses saved $80,434 per year and productivity increases averaging over 20% per annum across energy, waste and water consumption. These savings also reduced CO2 emissions by about 30,000 metric tonnes.
The report evaluated energy, waste and water consumption from 92 businesses which participated between 2017 to 2020, comparing their base year of consumption to a year after implementing the recommended eco-efficiencies.
Report co-author Dr Robert Hales says the program is a tangible example of how government and businesses can build back better using sustainability.
“We found energy use above water and waste the dominant cost of doing business, participants in the program recorded savings of about $6.7 million from energy efficiencies alone. Over 90% of businesses recorded an increase in productivity and savings.
“The idea that it always costs money to do something for the environment should be considered extinct with this report’s findings.”
Dr Hales said future regional assistance may see the program deliver its largest benefits.
“Our report found the increases in energy efficiencies from manufacturing in the Darling Downs Maranoa region contributed the greatest savings in terms of absolute and average costs avoided.”
He says a scaled up ecoBiz could contribute positively to the future economic resilience of Queensland.
“With the costs avoided and the large increases in productivity, a scaled up ecoBiz program could significantly impact on the Queensland Gross Domestic Product, but the challenge will be deciding how to scale the program to maximise the benefits of the increase in funding needed.”
ecoBiz is a fully subsidised program delivered by CCIQ and funded by the Queensland Government.
Financial and resource performance of small to medium sized businesses (SMEs) in the ecoBiz program 2017-2020 is available online.
Disclosure statement: Dr Robert Hales, a co-author on the report is a member of the EcoBiz advisory board.
An exciting collaboration between Griffith University and the Kombumerri people will ensure local students develop a greater understanding of the Kombumerri’s custodianship of the land on which the Gold Coast campus is located.
In development for two years, the project has delivered a range of engaging video and other cultural tools for use by educators in local schools in a partnership between the University’s School of Education and Professional Studies (EPS), the Kombumerri Traditional Custodians, and the Queensland Department of Education.
The content features interviews with Kombumerri custodian Uncle Graham Dillon OAM, three of his grandchildren and two great nieces, all of whom are members of an extended family network and descendants of Andrew and Jenny Graham.
Dean and Head of the School of EPS Professor Donna Pendergast said the unique collaboration would bring a new perspective to locally relevant stories.
“This project has been driven by Gold Coast educators who were curious about how to respectfully embed Kombumerri histories and culture sensitively into the classroom”
“This project has been driven by Gold Coast educators who were curious about how to respectfully embed Kombumerri histories and culture sensitively into the classroom,” Professor Pendergast said.
“The knowledge and stories shared by these contributors have been passed down through generations of families and provide insight into how Country has always been a place of teaching, research and learning for Kombumerri people.
“Teachers can now utilise their professional expertise to embed this knowledge into unit planning relevant to their year level, learning area and school context.
“Griffith University also aims to incorporate these perspectives into teaching practices and increase awareness and appreciation of local cultural knowledge and recognise the Kombumerri people’s custodianship of the land that is home to our Gold Coast campus.”
Justine Dillon said the project gathered Kombumerri knowledge and stories in a series of fifty short videos.
“As custodians of this land we have shared our personal perspectives, passed down through generations of families.
Justine Dillon speaks in ‘Predicting the weather’
“The shared vision of this project has been to engage Gold Coast students in reconciliation, respect, and recognition of the world’s oldest continuous living culture.
“We are incredibly thankful to Griffith for providing this opportunity to our people as well, because it is also building our cultural heritage capacity for people and our family who don’t know a lot about local culture and have had a disconnect.
“I didn’t realise that I held so much knowledge and a lot of my family didn’t, which was a little sad for me but at the same time, its why we’re doing this project, to help everyone learn more about our culture and history.”
The stories, shared through digital and classroom resources, have relevance to teaching opportunities across Science, English, Maths, Humanities and Social Sciences, Technologies, The Arts and HPE.
One video features Justine Dillon speaking about the number of ways used by Kombumerri to predict the weather, which was important for tasks like gathering food.
“I think it goes back to that flora and fauna relationship as well as telling from the elements,” she explains in the five-minute resource, which relates to the learning areas of Science and Humanities and Social Sciences.
“Looking at the Sun, the Moon, the wind, everything they could tell to capture what was going on.
“We’d be going fishing and we’d always look at the Acacias, the orange and yellow. So, the orange when they were flowering, to us it means the mullet’s running, time to go hunt the mullet.
“The yellow means the whiting’s running. And there’s certain things flowering, tea trees and that, that mean different things to people in our tribe.”
Emerald Brewer’s contribution about Dreamtime stories provides a unique insight into the way generations learned about the dangers of the land or where they might find food.
“Dreamtime stories were important to the Kombumerri People of the Gold Coast because they were a way of sharing history that’s thousands of years old and they were also a way of telling our children and passing on to our children and their children’s children, different values that we held within our mob,” Emerald explained.
“For example, one story that speaks of a Bunyip in the river, is a way of passing on to our children and their children’s children, keep away from the river because you might drown.
“These stories were a way of sharing these values, giving warnings and they were also a way of letting our children know and other members of our mob, where different food sources were, where different significant sites were as well.”
In another video, Kombumerri custodians Madeleine Pugin and Tess Blundell share a story from their grandmother, the Nerang River Love Story of Muyim and Yimbin.
Max Dillon speaks in ‘Plant Resources’
It explains why, today, on Gold Coast waterways, you will see water lily and bulrush close together.
Another video features Max Dillon speaking to the Kombumerri use of plants for medicine.
“I suppose the number one for salt-water people is the paperbark, the tea tree, you know, for many different reasons but it’s like a number one medicine that covers a lot of things: stings, bites, the ability to breathe,” he explained.
“I tend to look at three different things you can get from trees and plants and shrubs and they connect with each other as well. You can have a food resource, you can have a resource for spears and practical things, useful things like trade things, fish nets these types of utilities or you can have medicine.”
A video featuring Uncle Graham Dillon OAM is played at the event to launch the unique project on November 9, 2020.
A sense of community connection and a desire to support local producers has seen shoppers ditch the supermarket for the farmers’ market, according to new research by Griffith University nutrition students.
Nutrition and Dietetics students Courtney Robinson, Tatjana Warners and Amy Moores with their supervisor Narelle Greenlees at Summit Organics in Tumbulgun.
Bachelor of Nutrition and Dietetics student Courtney Robinson said students discovered the market played a vital role in creating a sense of community connection.
“It really holds a place in people’s hearts,” she said.
“One of the shoppers called it their ‘happy place’.
“Everyone commented on the sense of community connection that it brings them and keeps them coming to the market every week.”
The students’ research also found that farmers’ markets had gone from strength to strength during the pandemic.
“We did find anecdotal evidence from stallholders that sales and numbers of shoppers had increased throughout COVID,” Courtney said.
A stallholder at the Murwillumbah Farmer’s Market
“I think people feel more confident about the food supply chain when they buy from local producers and shoppers are keen to support local businesses.”
Griffith University clinical educator Narelle Greenlees said the research project had helped identify a range of benefits provided by the humble farmers’ market.
“The students interviewed a range of people for this project – from teenagers to elderly residents, newcomers and long-term locals, some coming for breakfast, some doing their regular weekly shop,” she said.
“We found that people visited the market for a variety of health, social, environmental and economic reasons.
“It is a great way to promote healthy eating, and the fact that farmers’ markets support local producers, cut down on our carbon footprint and help boost the local economy makes it a win-win.”
Ms Greenlees said the study gave students a broader perspective on nutrition and dietetics.
“It’s not just about diet, it’s looking at health holistically – this project has given our students an awareness of environmental sustainability to the mental health benefits of shopping local.”
The research study was a collaboration by Griffith University, Murwillumbah Farmers’ Market, Destination Tweed and NSW Health.
A community partnership between Griffith University’s Institute for Glycomics and Sanctuary Cove precinct has raised $31,299 during Breast Cancer Awareness Month to aid vital breast cancer research.
A series of pink-themed events and promotions across the month of October were hosted by the Sanctuary Cove precinct to raise funds and awareness for the devastating disease, which impacts more than two million women every year globally.
“This is a remarkable achievement and we are extremely grateful to Sanctuary Cove for their support and outstanding fundraising efforts,” said Director Professor Mark von Itzstein AO.
“This outcome really illustrates just how powerful local partnerships can be when a community bands together with a shared vision.”
The funds raised will be used by the Institute’s Australian Centre for Cancer Glycomics (A2CG), a unique national resource dedicated to cancer glycomics research. The Institute’s unique approach to breast cancer research, combined with some of the brightest researchers in the field of cancer glycomics, provides great hope in the battle against breast cancer.
The Institute for Glycomics comprises more than 200 multidisciplinary researchers and support staff who work tirelessly every day to find new ways to diagnose, prevent and cure cancer.
Executive General Manager of Sanctuary Cove Golf and Country Club, Paul Sanders said that many of the events were a sell out with Sanctuary Cove members and locals alike, eager to step out to support such a worthy cause.
“The Sanctuary Cove precinct’s golf, fitness, fashion, business and social events were extremely well supported. Additionally, more than 400 people contributed to the raffle that saw over $15,000 in prizes being won.”
An Australian-first rehabilitation trial considered the next crucial step in treating paralysis will proceed after a record donation from the country’s leading spinal injury research foundation.
The $450,000 commitment from the Perry Cross Spinal Research Foundation will allow five people with paralysis to complete an intensive 16-week training program at a state-of-the-art facility to test the feasibility of a planned Griffith University human clinical trial.
Once the program is completed, participants will return home and continue a personalised program of rehabilitation activities for another10 weeks, supported by app and online consultations with service providers, health experts and peer groups.
“We’ve been working towards this for a long time and are very excited to be at the stage now where we can start this clinical trial,’’ Professor St John said.
“It all came about because of the initial vision and funding from the Clem Jones Foundation in 2016.”
The Spinal Injury Project is one of the world’s best hopes of finding a cure for paralysis and focuses on delivering a revolutionary nasal cell transplantation into the spinal cord injury site of victims.
SIP team member Dr Mike Todorovic said the essential philanthropic funding guarantee would allow researchers to test whether people with paralysis could meet the intense physical and mental demands of an intense rehabilitation program following cell therapy treatment.
“We are determined to find a quality model for the rehabilitation aspect of the Spinal Injury Project and the incredible generosity of our donors means we will now be able to do that.”
He said before embarking on a human clinical trial of the Olfactory Cell Transplantation, it was important to know what people with paralysis could achieve in an intensive program and how best to support them.
“It is a crucial step in our journey to find a cure for paralysis and it is exciting to know we will soon be working closely with five people with paralysis to evaluate their physical and emotional responses to an activity-based program.”
“There are significant costs involved in undertaking a research project as complex as SIP and we cannot thank the Perry Cross Spinal Research Foundation enough for helping bring us closer to changing countless lives.”
The donation will enable the SIP team to appoint a contract research organisation to scope the trial, including the establishment of a database and protocol development and approvals.
An independent body will then recruit five participants from south-east Queensland and northern NSW to commence the trial at Making Strides on the Gold Coast, one of Australia’s most highly regarded spinal injury rehabilitation specialists.
Perry Cross Spinal Research Foundation Executive President Perry Cross said his organisation was committed to raising a further $916,000 to fund the addition of 10 more participants to the Intensive Rehabilitation Trial.
“The SIP researchers need a robust data set to work from and that means more people with paralysis will be required to complete the program in coming months,” he said.
“As the trial has to be accessible to all Australians, the next intake will include five people from other states, border restrictions permitting, and given the substantial costs involved, we need to raise more than $900,000 to ensure this incredible work can continue.
“Our foundation has helped fund more than eight research projects and initiatives across the past 10 years and raised more than $12 million and our belief in the ground-breaking work being done by the SIP team is evident by the fact this is our largest individual donation to date.”
Griffith University researchers have secured a $2 million grant from Cancer Council Queensland (CCQ), paving the way for the final phase of an ongoing trial that aims to bolster survival rates for women with ovarian cancer.
The research, led by Professor Sandi Hayes of the Menzies Health Institute Queensland, is delving further into a wealth of evidence that shows the benefits of exercise therapy during recovery following certain cancer treatments.
Ovarian cancer is the sixth most common cause of death from cancer in women with a five-year survival rate of less than 45 per cent.
Professor Hayes, a world-leading exercise oncology scientist, said it was an essential area of research as there is limited research on the benefits of exercise to women with ovarian cancer, which has a higher mortality rate than other more common cancers typically due to late-term diagnosis.
“RCT (randomised control trial) evidence demonstrates that exercise can improve lives during and following treatment for our common cancers, such as breast, colorectal and prostate,” Professor Hayes said.
Professor Sandi Hayes
“Our preliminary findings show that exercise is safe, feasible and acceptable during chemotherapy for women with ovarian cancer. We now have the opportunity to extend our research and to determine the extent to which exercise can improve and extend the lives of women with ovarian cancer.”
CCQ’s annual Accelerating Collaborative Cancer Research program, in collaboration with Griffith University, provides $2 million over the next four years to support the final and most crucial phase of a national, randomised controlled trial, which is poised to assess the effect of exercise on survival following ovarian cancer.
“Investment in innovative, ground-breaking research in Queensland is vital for reducing the burden of cancer in our community,” said Chris McMillan, the CEO of CCQ.
“We have implemented the highly competitive Accelerating Collaborative Cancer Research grant scheme so that we can fast-track the most innovative, high-quality projects put forward by Queensland researchers,” she said.
“Grant recipients are at the forefront of cancer research and their teams’ research provides hope for the 29,000 Queenslanders diagnosed with cancer each year.”
Professor Hayes and her research team are undertaking the exercise oncology ECHO trial in collaboration with the Australia New Zealand Gynaecological Oncology Group and the NHMRC Clinical Trial Centre.
The first phase of ECHO involved 300 women. The CCQ grant will allow the research team to extend the scale of the research to include 200 more women, and in doing so enable the evaluation of the effect of exercise on survival following cancer.
“The first phase of our study demonstrated that it was safe to use exercise therapy during ovarian cancer treatment, and that women were able to exercise during chemotherapy,” said Professor Hayes.
“While we are currently evaluating the effect of exercise on function, quality of life and ability to adhere to chemotherapy, with CCQ funding, the final phase of the ECHO trial can commence in 2021. This final phase allows us to evaluate survival — the key, practice-changing outcome.”
CCQ CEO Chris McMillan and Health Minister Steven Miles at Nathan Campus in 2018
The ECHO trial is one of only four randomised, controlled trials worldwide evaluating the effects of exercise on survival following cancer, and is the only one to also evaluate health resource usage, which will determine whether exercise is a cost-effective cancer therapy.
The trial garnered international attention during the 2018 International Exercise is Medicine Roundtable in the US.
“We welcome the support of Cancer Council Queensland for Griffith University’s world-leading cancer research programs,” said Professor Hayes.
“If we can prove exercise enhances the quality and quantity of life of those with ovarian cancer, while reducing health care and personal costs, it will influence clinical practice guidelines internationally because this can be implemented into standard cancer care quickly and inexpensively.
“The outcome will ultimately have a flow-on effect to other cancers as well.”
Griffith University has joined forces with the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital Foundation (CWHF) to track the movements of coastal birds of prey after rehabilitation.
While the CWH has proven techniques for bringing injured for birds of prey like sea-eagles, kites and osprey back to health, their success after release remains largely unknown.
Vicky Thomson, PhD candidate and founder of Coastal Raptors of Australia
Professor Darryl Jones, Deputy Director of the Environmental Futures Research Centre and Vicky Thomson, PhD candidate and founder of Coastal Raptors of Australia are collaborating with the CWH to fill this knowledge gap and find out how well these bird species can readapt and survive in the environment after rehabilitation.
“Rehabilitation can often take months and cost thousands of dollars per bird, with major surgeries often required,” Ms Thomson said.
“It is very expensive and time consuming, and previously we didn’t know whether or not these efforts were actually working or indeed suitable for these large birds.”
To determine the success of current rehabilitation efforts for coastal raptors at CWH, the researchers are following detailed movements of the birds after release with GPS tracking and are using leg banding as a cost effective way to discover if birds are being reinjured and readmitted to the wildlife hospital.
“So far, we have banded 22 coastal raptors and have successfully GPS-tracked two white-bellied sea-eagles,” Ms Thomson said.
“It’s exciting work. This is the first study to track the success of rehabilitated raptors at CWHF, and to extensively GPS track white-bellied sea-eagles post-rehabilitation and release beyond a few weeks.”
“Having tracked the two white-bellied sea-eagles for five and seven months, we were able to show that the rehabilitation efforts work. Far from having to come back to the hospital and humans for food, these birds when released, are able to survive and in fact thrive on their own.”
Yet as Professor Jones noted, it’s not all smooth sailing for rehabilitated birds of prey as they still face a host of human threats.
Professor Darryl Jones – urban ecologist.
“Unfortunately one of the sea-eagles was killed in an illegally set drift net. The whereabouts of the other remains unknown after device failure, but she was doing well before we lost signal from the GPS.”
“The birds that we have put bands on can give us information in a number of ways. The condition of any banded birds re-admitted to the hospital and the length of time after release will tell us whether or not they’re coping in the wild.
“Perhaps surprisingly, photographing the banded coastal raptors at close range can actually lead to their identification, without them having to be recapture. For example, an Osprey we named Pippin was photographed by the Tweed Osprey Group and reported it to us for identification. This is an exciting development as he bred this season and the Tweed Osprey Group is actively monitoring his progress.”
To help ensure the wildlife hospital’s raptor recovery program and this successful collaboration can continue into the future, the Griffith research team has made a donation $1000 to the CWHF.
Griffith’s MBA program was identified as the top program in the world for the first time in the 18 year history of the Corporate Knights ranking, the agency recognising its clear focus on sustainability across course content and faculty research, and an improvement in gender and racial diversity among faculty staff.
“Teachers can now utilise their professional expertise to embed this knowledge into unit planning relevant to their year level, learning area and school context.
