Rocket company plans to build launch pad on home of tiny Aussie bird on the brink of extinction

Plans to build a rocket launch site on the home of a tiny bird that's on the brink of extinction has sparked a furious debate.

Southern Launch has applied to clear coastal heathland at Whalers Way, west of Adelaide, which conservationists argue is “critical” habitat for the Eyre Peninsula Southern Emu-wren — just 750 survive in the wild.

“The bulldozing of habitat, shock waves, noise pollution and potential rocket fuel fires would be a disaster for this beautiful little bird,” Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) nature campaigner Darcie Carruthers said. The non-profit group has issued a joint warning with BirdLife Australia saying approving the project would “erode the public’s trust” in federal laws designed to protect wildlife.

It's not the first time a rocket project has sparked environmental concerns. A separate venture by billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX littered the home of rare plants and animals in Texas with debris. But Southern Launch's CEO Lloyd Damp told Yahoo News the success of the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, which provides sanctuary to 1,500 plants and animals shows rockets and wildlife can "work in harmony".

“Southern Launch is determined to develop a sustainable operation that delivers a net environmental benefit to the region,” he added.

Damp argues the project will improve other areas of the site, creating a net win for the species. And he maintains the sound of blasts at the site will last for less than a minute and only impact three per cent of bird habitat.

The privately owned Southern Launch will fire much smaller rockets than SpaceX. It has just 30 employees but Damp believes the new venture will bring new jobs to the Eyre Peninsula.

Ecologist warns rocket plan could fragment endangered bird's habitat

The project’s future lies in the hands of environment minister Tanya Plibersek, who must assess its impact on the wren and other species including the endangered Mallee whipbird, Australian sea lions and southern right whales. “All projects submitted for assessment under the [Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC)] Act are considered through a rigorous and transparent process,” a spokesperson for the environment department told Yahoo.

Damp has welcomed the project’s assessment under the EPBC Act saying his company is only applying to clear a “tiny fragment” of the wren’s habitat and that it will offset the impact.

“The lower Eyre Peninsula has over 140,000 hectares of native vegetation and 41,000 hectares has been identified as Southern Emu-wren habitat. The Whalers Way facility proposes to remove less than 24 hectares of vegetation,” he said.

But ecologist Ashwin Rudder who independently assessed the wren’s distribution across the region in 2023 for Nature Conservation Council of South Australia, thinks the project could further fragment the species’ remaining habitat. “Anything that could lead to further fragmentation is not a good thing,” he told Yahoo.

“A pair of birds will occupy only a single hectare of habitat, so if you clear 24 hectares, you’re looking at almost 50 birds, so when you’ve only got an estimate of 750 birds, it’s a pretty significant impact.

He describes the species as behaving more like a mouse than a bird, moving low to the ground, and struggling to cross large areas of unsuitable habitat. Because the bird is so sensitive, after a large fire destroyed the north-eastern Eyre Peninsula range in 2005, it appears not to have returned to the site despite the habitat recovering.

Rudder isn’t against bringing a project like Southern Launch to South Australia, particularly because it could result in new jobs, but he can’t understand why the company doesn’t build its project on farmland, rather than endangered species habitat.

Concern Australia's nature protection laws are 'broken'

Birdlife Australia and Australian Conservation Foundation argue a major problem in preventing the extinction of Australia’s wildlife is that current laws designed to protect them are “broken”.

Problems with the nation’s environment protection laws were identified by Plibersek when she became minister. “Australia is the mammal extinction capital of the world. The need for action has never been greater,” she said in 2022.

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While the Albanese government has introduced some changes to environment laws, conservationists argue more reform is urgently needed.

“Australia can’t afford to set this dangerous precedent and further erode the public’s trust in the laws that are supposed to protect Australia’s nature from destruction,” BirdLife Australia’s campaigns manager Andrew Hunter said.

“This is exactly why we need a strong EPA, so that clearly unacceptable proposals like this one, which blatantly contradict national conservation advice, can be firmly rejected to protect our most vulnerable birds and the places they live.”

A decision from Plibersek on whether to allow Southern Launch to clear the Eyre Peninsula Southern Emu-wren habitat is expected on September 7.

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