The Tasmanian Greens and conservationists are calling for the Sand Enduro motor race at St Helens to be moved outside the shorebird breeding season, citing the threat of bird flu.
The race, run by the Tasmanian Offroad Car Club, is held at the end of October at Peron Dunes, in the St Helens Point Conservation Area, when threatened birds are nesting on the beach.
Greens MP Tabatha Badger said moving the date was “such a simple risk mitigation fix”.
“There are already threatened birds on this beach. Now they’ve got the additional threat of bird flu coming down upon them,” she said.
Badger said Parks had told the Greens it would work with organisers to change the date, but later said a reserve activity assessment already covered the event.
She said that assessment had been done retrospectively, after the event’s permit was renewed.
“It is completely reckless if the department continues to allow this race to happen,” she said.
Badger said the June long weekend had been suggested as an alternative.
Independent bird ecologist Eric Woehler, a former chair of BirdLife Tasmania, said a 2002 report had found it was critical to change the race’s location or timing.
He said the number of breeding birds on the beach had since fallen by 60%, including two-thirds of its breeding hooded plovers.
“We’re down to the last few pairs of hooded plovers on that beach,” he said.
He said the breeding season started in early September and birds were already on eggs.
“Having a race in the middle of a breeding season is a discretionary activity that we can just stop and change and take one threat away from these birds,” he said.
H5 bird flu was first confirmed in Tasmania in August.
Woehler said seabirds and shorebirds were among the species most at risk.
North East Bioregional Network member Graeme Beech said vehicles on the beach during breeding season were “completely incompatible with the objectives of a conservation area”.
The Parks and Wildlife Service (PWS) said the club was granted a licence to hold the race until December 1 2029, following a “comprehensive” reserve activity assessment.
It described Peron Dunes as a “long-established and year-round vehicle recreation area”.
The service said licence conditions included shorebird monitoring before the event, vehicle exclusion zones, education for participants and spectators and hygiene requirements for vehicles and equipment.
“H5 bird flu remains an important consideration for PWS, which will continue to monitor the event and review mitigation measures with the Tasmanian Offroad Car Club, particularly during the shorebird breeding season,” it said in a statement.
