Enclosure 6 - ESP Letter

                                                               Ecological Service Professionals
                                                                                   Sustainable Science Solutions

The presence of extensive oyster banks through the lower estuary including previously on
Hays Island is further supported by a more recent quote from the Nambour Chronical (Cited
in Thurstan 2015).
“The [midden] is at Hay's Island at Noosa Heads where a heap of oyster shells rising on a
small piece of elevated ground amongst the mangroves bears testimony to the feeding habits
of the former natives of the Noosa River estuary. An effort should be made to preserve this
small piece of history when the development of Hay's Island eventually takes place, before it
becomes buried or torn apart by the sand pumps and bulldozers...” Nambour Chronicle, 9
Feb 1967.
An existing hand drawn map from the fisheries inspector in 1934, shows the presence of
historical oyster leases in the Noosa River and Weyba Creek (Figure 1: Thurstan 2015).




   Figure 1    Sketch drawn by the Fisheries Inspector in 1934 highlighting the areas in the Noosa
               River closed to net fishing. The red numbers indicate the Noosa oyster sections at the
               time. Source: Queensland State Archives.

A historical photo of intertidal oyster beds from Moreton Bay (Figure 2) and an oyster reef
from Keppel Bay (Figure 3), demonstrates that where ambient conditions were suitable,
oyster habitats historically covered vast areas of the intertidal area in Southern Queensland
estuaries. There are no historical photos of subtidal reefs available due to a lack of suitable
technology at the time to record these. Oysters have been located growing in dense
aggregations on mangroves on Moreton Island on sand (Figure 4). Oyster aggregations
have also been found on rock, rubble and on artificial surfaces in the Noosa estuary as
outlined below.




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