Celebrating successes: RVGA and BirdLife WA
The Rottnest Foundation is one of the five key volunteer organisations that work on Rottnest Island. We are proud to support the achievements and milestones of our fellow organisations, and we’ve been privileged enough recently to attend two very special events; the Opening Ceremony of the Rottnest Voluntary Guide Association’s 40th Anniversary and the launch of the Birds of Wadjemup Bush Book.
The RVGA has a long and storied history, sharing several parallels with the Rottnest Foundation, including the same founder, Pat Barblett AM.
At the Opening Ceremony, RVGA President, Yvonne Smellie, shared that at present the RVGA currently includes more than 300 active guides, and in 2024/25 RVGA guides have guided 66,000 visitors and supported 151,000 others. What an achievement!
Ryan Mossny, award winning tour guide, and co-founder of Two Feet and a Heartbeat and Metagarup Zip+Climb, gave an inspiring keynote speech encouraging the RVGA to conserve, to share and to celebrate stories of the Island, to embrace the benefits of technology and partnership and to continue building the legacy of volunteer guiding on Rottnest.
The celebrations the RVGA has planned over the course of the year will honour the organisation’s past, including the launch of “Ask a Guide: A history of the Rottnest Voluntary Guides Association” by Mike Murray. This incredible book tells the story of the guides from their pioneering days in 1986, through the challenges of Covid and beyond.
There is no doubt, this 40-year milestone is a momentous occasion for the RVGA, and we, the Rottnest Foundation, congratulate them on their tremendous success!
The new book Birds of Wadjemup is the latest Bush Book; a series of practical field guides designed to help people discover WA’s unique plants, animals and special features by region. Launched earlier this year, the book is proudly supported by volunteer organisation, BirdLife Western Australia, and the Rottnest Island Authority and produced by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions
Of the 300 species of bird found in south-west WA, 110 have been seen and recorded on Wadjemup. The island provides a safe and secure environment, abundant in food and with no introduced predators. This incredible new book covers 44 of the most abundant and distinct birds most likely to be seen on the island.
As author Suzanne Maher spoke about the development of the book, it was wonderful to hear the positive impact Rottnest Foundation projects have had on the bird life of Wadjemup. Our Woodland and Coastal Restoration project has been focused on planting trees and a bushy undergrowth in the centre of the island, which is vital to ground and tree dwelling birds, such as the Painted Button Quail and the Red-Capped Robin, providing a source of both food and shelter. The Wadjemup Bidi Trails have also been instrumental in regulating visitor movements, allowing bird feeding and nesting to occur with minimal human disturbance, particularly for the Wedge Tailed Shearwaters at West End and lake dwelling waders like the Red Capped Plover and the Pied Stilt.