2006 Forum presentations
Anthony Rohead, from CASA, spoke about the origins of the working group; the achievements so far; and the activities planned for the future.
Introduction to the Australian Aviation Bird and Animal Hazard Working Group (362kb)
Dr William Steele spoke about his 10 years of Wildlife Hazard Monitoring at Melbourne Airport. Dr Steele also spoke about the risk based approach used at Melbourne and the fact that they had been studying bird strikes and bird numbers for a long time. He summarized by saying that it is hard work and there are no simple answers.
10 years of Wildlife Hazard Monitoring at Melbourne Airport (1.2Mb)
Peter Pallot from Australian Airports Association, spoke about the development of the National Template for bird and animal hazard management.
The Development of the National Template (1Mb)
Dr Rebecca Johnson, from the Australian Museum, updated everyone on the DNA research project undertaken jointly by the Australian Museum and the Museum Victoria. Dr Johnson spoke about how the research was conducted and how this was of direct practical benefit to airports.
Update on the DNA research and how this benefits an airport (1.9Mb)
David White, from Virgin Blue, and Michael Doherty from Qantas gave an Airline Perspective of Managing Wildlife Strike Risk. David and Michael spoke about the increasing threat for airlines because of a number of factors, including, quieter engines, faster aircraft and the increasing number of aircraft movements. They both spoke about the cost to the airlines of bird and animal strikes. David and Michael were at pains to stress that they wanted to work co-operatively with airports to understand the problem and reduce the hazards.
Managing Wildlife Strike Risk - An airline perspective (1.2Mb)
Alex Ananain-Cooper from Canberra Airport gave a presentation on the way Canberra Airport has gone about checking the integrity of its bird strike data. Alex explained that mismatch of data between the airport and ATSB lead them down this path. Alex said the end result was that they had a much better working relationship with ATSB and the airlines.
Data Checking (264kb)
Bird & Wildlife Challenges: Present and Future Initiatives was the theme for Paul Lamont from Cairns Airport. Paul spoke about the many different things being done at Cairns to reduce the attractions form birds. Paul's echoed William's thoughts of… you need to understand very clearly what the issues are at your airport before you could put in place a successful strategy for dealing with them.
Bird & Wildlife Challenges: Present and Future Initiatives (542kb)
Training was the subject of the presentation by Phil Shaw of Ecosure. Phil gave an overview of what he thought would be a syllabus for airport staff involved in bird monitoring, assessment and harassment.
Training (92kb)
Ray Waters from Mackay Airport spoke about the Hazard management plan that has been put in place at Mackay Airport. Ray stressed the need for habitat modifications to reduce attractants in the long term.
Treatment of plovers & Damage Mitigation Permit Acquisition (1Mb)
Jen Parsons a researcher from James Cook University spoke about the Mega Bat study she is currently undertaking. Jen stressed that bats are mammals, not birds, and therefore needed a different approach to birds. She said that her study had only just started and that she needed to collect a lot more data before any conclusions could be drawn.
Mega Bat study (734kb)