Have your say on the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary

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This engagement has now closed.

Join the conversation about a management plan for the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary to help shape the future use and enjoyment for the area.

The Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary is a globally recognised conservation area for migratory shorebirds as well as a great place to get outdoors. Just north of Adelaide, the Bird Sanctuary stretches up the coastline for 60km from its Southern Gateway at St Kilda to its Northern Gateway at Thompson Beach.

To conserve a core area of the Bird Sanctuary, the State Government recently created South Australia’s newest national park, the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary National Park - Winaityinaityi Pangkara (pronounced Wee-nay-chi-nay-chi Pan-ker-a), meaning ‘Home for all Birds’.

As its name suggests, the Bird Sanctuary has been created to protect migratory shorebirds, many of which are endangered, and fly from as far as Russia and Alaska to Adelaide’s northern shores every year. The Bird Sanctuary has recently received global recognition, through the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Network, as a site that is critical to the conservation of migratory shorebirds.

Over the past two years the Bird Sanctuary team from the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources, have been working closely with our Kaurna and local communities to begin the development of a Bird Sanctuary that conserves nature while providing real outcomes for people.

With the National Park in place we are now embarking on developing a management plan for the whole of the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary.

We invite you to join the conversation about a management plan for the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary to help shape the future use and enjoyment for the area.

What is being decided?

A management plan for the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary is being created, which will cover:

• Where the boundaries of the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary and National Park will be, to ensure we are protecting shorebirds while encouraging use and enjoyment.
• What the management plan should outline, such as public access, recreational use and enjoyment and cultural practices and conservation of plants and animals.

We have been engaging and listening for more than two years on how to create a vision and sustainable future for the Bird Sanctuary and now we’d like to hear about how you want to use the Bird Sanctuary for the things you love:

• What would you like to see more of?
• What’s concerning you and your family?
• What do you think needs protecting?

We want to hear it all. From there we’ll work towards balancing the needs of people and nature through the creation of the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary Management Plan.

Get involved

Join the conversation online or come along to one of our public information sessions listed below. View all the dates and venue location details here. Can’t make it in person? You can also send your thoughts via:

• email: dewnr.aibs@sa.gov.au
• written submission: Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary, DEWNR, PO BOX 147, Adelaide, 5000

How can your input influence the decision?

Your voice will help us to shape the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary’s Management Plan.

Background

The Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary is a unique safe haven for shorebirds, many migrating each year between Australia and the northern hemisphere. It is now officially recognised as a globally significant site as part of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Network.

The Bird Sanctuary offers a landscape where local communities, volunteers, government, non-government organisations, and land managers can work together towards shorebird conservation, enhancing community and ensuring that tourism is also protecting this valuable place.

For many years activity in this area has ranged from traditional Aboriginal land use practices to salt production and farming alongside landscape conservation.

The Bird Sanctuary sits right at the southern end of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF) and is one of the key feeding and roosting sites for migratory shorebirds who use the flyway each year. It is an area of crucial habitat on this migratory route which is used by more than 5 million birds a year, 27,000 of which call Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary home.

Whilst being one of Adelaide’s longest continuous conservation areas, the Bird Sanctuary is home to 263 unique fauna and flora species. In particular, the Bird Sanctuary helps protect resident and migratory shorebirds, including threatened species such as Curlew sandpiper, Ruddy turnstone, Red knot and Eastern curlew as well productive mangroves, marine and coastal assets, river systems and many significant terrestrial species and ecological communities.

A northern section of the Bird Sanctuary has recently been proclaimed the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary National Park - Winaityinaityi Pangkara and is the state’s first new National Park in a decade. The national park, which covers 2457 hectares of land, is part of the South Australian Government’s commitment to conserve these shorebirds.

Over the next year, the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary National Park - Winaityinaityi Pangkara, will expand further and we now need to establish a sustainable Management Plan to give people guidance on how they can access and enjoy it.

Visiting the Bird Sanctuary

At the Southern Gateway to the Bird Sanctuary, the St Kilda foreshore is a food bowl for many shorebirds and at times can draw in over 3000 foraging banded stilts. The Northern Gateway, located at Thompson Beach, gives you access to kilometres of pristine coastline including samphire and intertidal mudflats.

For ideas on what else you can see and do in the bird sanctuary, including brochures and maps, visit Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary National Park - Winaityinaityi Pangkara.