Concerns that a light festival in central Australia could affect a vulnerable population of rock wallaby has led to more than a thousand people signing a petition calling for it to be stopped, and to the federal Department of the Environment and Energy examining the festival’s plans.
Parrtjima – A Festival in Light is planned to go for 10 days at the end of September. Each night a four-hour light show will project Indigenous art onto a 2.5km stretch of cliff in the MacDonnell Ranges.
The festival is run by the Northern Territory Major Events Company, which is owned by the NT government. It describes the light show as one of the biggest ever.
“The sheer scale of the lighting on the MacDonnell Ranges makes Parrtjima Australia’s longest-ever light show installation,” the official website for the festival says.
The MacDonnell Ranges are home to a distinct “race” of the black-footed rock wallaby – the MacDonnell Ranges race, which is listed as “vulnerable” under federal law, with “disturbance by tourists” listed as one of its main threats.
A federal recovery plan has been in place since 2013, which aims to increase the increase its population.
A petition on the site Change.org has called for the light show to be stopped. At the time of writing, it had just over 1,000 signatures.
Mark Eldridge, a mammalogist at the Australian Museum who has researched the rock wallabies, said the description of the festival’s action sounded like it could have a serious impact on the populations of rock wallabies that live there.
“I imagine it would certainly be a disturbance to the wallabies,” Eldridge said. “It’s going to be pretty much the entire home range of some of these animals.”
He said these wallabies had very tight home ranges, which they defend aggressively. They move out of them if scared, but can then encounter aggression from other wallabies.
However, he said it was impossible to fully judge whether the festival would have a serious impact without investigating properly. “They do tolerate some disturbance,” he said.
“But what we do know is the MacDonnell Ranges are a really important habitat for this species. It was formerly very widespread, but has now collapsed back. It’s really only common around Alice Springs and in the MacDonnell Ranges.”
If a project is likely to have a significant impact on a species listed as vulnerable under federal law, it needs to be referred to the Department of the Environment and Energy.
When asked, the department said it had not been contacted by the festival.
“The department will examine the festival’s plans against any obligations it may have under national environmental law,” a spokeswoman said.
Andrew Hopper, general manager, Northern Territory Major Events Company said: “Wildlife scientists from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources have provided advice that there is a very low risk that the light show will have a significant impact on the population of black-footed rock wallabies in the MacDonnell Ranges. This is due to the fact that a very small proportion of their habitat will be potentially disturbed for a limited period of time.”
He said they had not referred the matter to the federal Department of the Environment and Energy because “the festival is not likely to have a significant environmental impact”.
He said there was strong evidence the animal’s range in the NT was similar to what it was “at the time of European settlement”.
