MORE than a quarter century rehabilitating an island ecosystem earned National Parks field officer Boyd Hastings the informal title of “Mayor of Montague”.
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His recent farewell event on the island saw him donning the mayoral robes and a banner declaring him mayor was hung from the lighthouse.
While it was a chance to have some fun, the event also recognised his accomplishments and a last chance for him to pass on his knowledge.
“It was highly valuable,” National Parks area manager Preston Cope said.
“He has a lot of knowledge in his head that’s not on paper and this was a chance to pass it onto other staff members.”
After living on the island in shifts for around 27 years, he perhaps knows best what it is going to take to keep on top of the program to get the island back to its original vegetative state and improve the habitat of all its seabirds.
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Boyd was working with the local council in the Braidwood area when a job came up with National Parks and his first shifts on Montague began just after the island’s herd of goats was shot.
Next he assisted with the elimination of rabbits and rodents and started working on the revegetation.
The Kikuyu grass became an issue and Seabird Habitat Restoration Project was instituted to specifically assist the little penguins, petrels, shearwaters, terns and other birds that nest and breed on the island.
Weed spraying and even burn programs saw Boyd and the other field officers taking on the introduced grass.
This was then backed up with the planting of native species such as lomandra grasses and Banksia trees.
But Boyd is concerned that after the 10-year habitat restoration project and its funds dried up a few years back that the weeds are clawing their way back in the areas not revegetated.
There has been some considerable success with the walk from the wharf to the lighthouse now almost unrecognisable with now tall shrubs and trees complete with quails and rail birds in the clean undergrowth replacing the tangles of Kikuyu that once ensnared penguins and blocked access to nesting areas.
While there was a new focus on tourism on the island with live-on guides that greet visitors, it was going to take the dedicated focus of well-equipped field officers to keep on top of the revegetation work and continue habitat restoration.
The good news for Boyd and the island’s seabirds is that National Parks is in the final stages of developing the next 10-year Seabird Habitat Restoration Project.
Area manager Preston Cope, who himself was the first parks ranger in the Narooma area, said phase two of the program would focus on northern part of the island.
This part of the program would not cheap because of the inaccessibility of the north and the plan was calling for a mobile herbicide unit and a special helicopter-mounted boom sprayer.
While Boyd is off a new adventure prospecting for gold and gems in Queensland, he does planning on coming back.
“It’s been a fantastic experience and I certainly will never forget this place,” he said.
“If I’m ever back, I’m certainly going to stick my nose out there to make sure things are going the right way.”
Boyd thanked Darryl Stuart from Narooma Charters, who up until recently had the sole contract for the island, for his assistance over the years.
He credited the National Park’s Seabird Program coordinator Amy Harris for driving the restoration projects over all these years.
The thing he would miss most about the island would kicking back and watching the sunsets after knock-off time.
Another highlight was being picked up by a helicopter to go remote area firefighting and then backed drop on the island to continue his shifts.
His usual shift on the island was nine days on and five days off, although that sometimes stretched out to two weeks when rough weather prevented safe passage off the island.
He had also met some really interesting scientists and biologists such as the petrel expert Dr Peter Fullagar, who had spent a lifetime studying seabirds and who been coming to the island for twice as long as he had worked there.
