Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip from the late 1970s begins with ornithologist John Waugh, in a boat with the filmmaker Tom Zubrycki, describing the bird life in the Towra wetlands of Botany Bay. Bernie Clarke from the Botany Bay Planning and Protection Council then discusses the effects of the seawall on the Towra ecology and oil pollution in the Bay. In the next scene Eric Silva from the Maritime Services Board explains how the Board is planning to address beach erosion. The interviews are interspersed with footage of bird life, oil tankers and the industrial skyline of Botany Bay.

Educational value points

• The Towra Point wetlands, listed under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, is the largest and most diverse estuarine wetlands in the Sydney basin and is situated on the Kurnell peninsula at the south-eastern end of Botany Bay, approximately 15 km from Sydney’s central business district. Declared an Aquatic Reserve in 1987, the wetlands is now a designated conservation area, supporting endangered and migratory wading birds.

• The Towra Point wetlands have become even more important since Sydney Airport’s third runway destroyed the last substantial habitat for migratory wading birds on the northern side of Botany Bay. The dredging of a channel to allow bigger ships to enter Botany Bay, along with the runway structure and the changed wave energy that Bernie Clarke discusses, caused beach erosion and sand to be deposited on seagrasses.

• The wetlands at Towra Point are the last of the large tidal and estuarine wetlands in the Sydney region and include extensive areas of mangroves and seagrass, saltmarsh and sand flats. Mangroves are among the world’s most productive ecosystems and are critical for the fishing industry as a breeding ground for fish, to stabilise shorelines against erosion, to filter pollutants and to increase biodiversity.

• Towra Point’s biodiversity includes 400 species of native plants and fauna, 200 species of birds, 230 species of fish and invertebrates and many species listed as ‘vulnerable’ or ‘endangered’, such as the green and golden bell frog, little terns and the peregrine falcon. Botany Bay was originally named Stingray Bay by Captain Cook, but he renamed it in 1770 because the botanist Joseph Banks was so impressed with the ecological diversity.

• Bernie Clarke, a campaigner for the environmental conservation of Botany Bay for over 50 years, is interviewed in this clip. He has protested against the building of the Caltex Oil Refinery at Kurnell and the proposal to build Sydney’s second international airport at Towra Point, and lobbied the Australian Government to buy the land at Towra Point in 1975. Clarke received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 1989 and the Serventy Conservation medal in 1999.

• In this observational style of documentary the narrative is developed through the perspectives of the various protagonists. They enunciate the central dilemma, which in this case is development versus conservation. Port Botany: A Planning Dilemma was Tom Zubrycki’s first commissioned documentary after several years making ‘agit-prop’ (agitation–propaganda) videos for inner-city residents’ groups.

• Tom Zubrycki developed a filmmaking style that he calls ‘verite narratives’, a term related to ‘cinema verite’ coined by French filmmaker Jean Rouch, which aims to depict ongoing events with minimal interference. Zubrycki’s stories evolve from his relationship with his subjects and the wider social issues they represent, such as his Australian Film Institute (AFI) award-winning film The Diplomat (2000) about José Ramos-Horta and East Timor.

Tom interviews John in a boat on the Towra wetlands of Botany Bay. All the interviews in the clip are interspersed with footage of bird life, oil tankers and the industrial skyline of Botany Bay.
Tom Zubrycki, filmmaker John, how abundant is the bird life here in Towra?
John Waugh, bird lover and ornithologist It’s particularly abundant in shore birds and wading birds. Because of the mangroves and the seagrass beds there’s a great deal of food available for them. You saw the swans on Weeny Bay this morning. They come here to moult each summer after breeding and they like a quiet refuge. Weeny Bay provides it for them. In addition, the mudflats are particularly suited for the wading birds for feeding. They come from the Arctic during the Arctic winter – our summer – and Towra Peninsula generally is very suitable for them.

Bernie is interviewed in a boat on the wetlands.
Bernie Clarke, Botany Bay Planning and Protection Council On the bay, as a result of the revetment wall, we’re getting redirected energy cast upon the very delicate ecological set-up of Towra Peninsula, or the south-east corner, the southern corner, of Botany Bay, a very vital part of the bay. During heavy storm conditions it can’t dissipate all of the energy that’s coming to the bay as a result of wave trains or swell conditions. The swells are repetitive, of course. They’re pretty big and you get such a bounceback or rebound from the revetment wall l that you’ll get two or three swells form into one and you get one massive formation of water come through.

Eric is interviewed in an office.
Eric Silva, Maritime Services Board There has been an erosion. The wall, the face of the beach has retreated. In the sort of broad scale, these were fairly small events, however important they might be to Towra Point, but the hydraulic model we would have used to determine the modified wave heights at Towra Point. The Board is involved because we quite freely admit that we have changed the way of action there. We’ve been doing quite detailed studies both here, also in the field. At this time we’re just finalising the remedial works that we propose to carry out there.

We return to the interview with Bernie.
Bernie The oil tankers have in the past caused enormous amount of oil pollution that’s gone up onto the shores, pollution of the oil that has spread over the water and detergents have been used to send this to the bottom. Now, all of this area – the south-east corner of Botany Bay – is covered in seagrass. The seabed itself is covered in seagrass. Seagrass is a very integral part to the whole marine environment of Botany Bay.

Other discharges into the bay that are very harmful, very detrimental, are the underwater dis, seabed discharges. Several of us took samples from the ocean waters of oil and left it down on the steps of the Maritime Services Board. We couldn’t get anyone to do anything about it and the discharges are still going on.