Former Noosa Mayor Tony Wellington has a morning ritual. Up at six and out the door with his high-quality Nikon camera and 600mm lens. Clothes are beige and khaki. Keeps him reasonably invisible but never entirely.
“Critters always know you are there. Don’t want to alarm them too much,” he says.
Three years ago Tony’s book, Wild About Noosa, went on sale in local bookshops and was an instant hit, a sell-out.
“The booksellers asked me for more copies but rather than go to a reprint I thought it would be much more fun to do a whole new book,” he told Noosa Today.
The result, The Nature of Noosa, is a mesmerising photographic collection of 350 plates of local (and some visiting) wildlife at work and play.
“The emphasis in the images and the text is on animal behaviour. It’s all about what birds and animals do when they are not being watched, breeding, fighting, whatever.”
So where does he find the “critters?”
“There are a few secret spots in the hinterland where I go regularly, sometimes daily or for weeks on end. Wildlife is always changing, animals coming and going, particularly the areas around Lake MacDonald.
“There are seasonal birds that arrive there, unusual birds that appear once in the shire and rarely or never again.
“In my new book I have images of those birds like the great crested grebe, the rose robin, cotton pygmy goose. I call them FIFO birds.”
In recent years Tony’s life as an author has gone from bird songs to pop songs.
As well as the Noosa wildlife books, he has written two on rock and pop music, Freak Out: How a musical revolution rocked the world in the ’60s, and Vinyl Dreams: How the 1970s changed music.
“Writing my first wildlife book was a sort of therapy for me. When my time as Mayor of Noosa came to an end, I needed a task to focus on.
“I felt I had to get out into nature and since then it has been a wonderful therapy to wander the wilds of Noosa with a camera, especially after writing the music books and the promotional work that followed.”
“My wife Judy Ditter is also hooked which is fabulous. It means we can share birding expeditions together.”
Tony is a devout conservationist and in a tribute in The Nature of Noosa, he applauds the work of “environmental warriors who fought off unfettered development in deference to the natural environment — Nancy Cato, Arthur and Marjorie Harrold, Max Walker, Jim and Cecily Fearnley, Bill and Mavis Huxley, Michael Gloster, Heather Melrose and Noel Playford”.
He said: “We are very fortunate that close to 45 per cent of the shire is now in some form of conservation land or national park.
“It means half the shire is protected in its environmental credentials and has the ability to withstand the impact of climate change and so on.”
Asked if Noosa people believed in this conservation effort, he said: “I think lots of people move to Noosa because it is environmentally friendly. Whether they are personally dedicated to the environment is another issue.
“I think they are pleased that Noosa has a low key approach to development but it requires serious dedication to ensure Noosa remains a wonderful place to live.”
Did he feel there was a move to threaten Noosa’s uniqueness?
“There’s always been a threat and these threats never end. It requires vigilance.
“I’m not sure that we will be able to vote in councils in the future that will maintain that vigilance. There are many threats to Noosa and threats to the environment, not the least being over-tourism.
“It’s those day trippers into Noosa that clog the roads and don’t really provide a great deal of economic benefit for the shire. Managing tourism is going to be the key to Noosa’s future.”
The Nature of Noosa by Tony Wellington. Available at all local booksellers. Price $59.95.
