As a schoolboy in Tasmania, David had an early introduction to Australian rainforests and its wildlife with Tasmanian Field Naturalist Club trips to the foothills of Mt Wellington behind Hobart and occasional excursions to Mt Field National Park in the Derwent Valley. But these were cool temperate rainforests and although visually stunning – with cathedral-like stands of Antarctic Beech, luxuriant layers of Soft Tree Ferns and amazingly diverse carpets of mosses, liverworts and lichens – they were mostly silent. Walking through these forests, the stillness was only occasionally broken by the metallic, ringing calls of a Black Currawong or the soft “tic, tic” of a Pink Robin.
However, coming to the mainland and working at the Australian Museum in Sydney in the 1970s, David was soon introduced to the amazing complexity and lush soundscapes of eastern Australia’s tropical and subtropical rainforests. In 1976 the Museum was asked to undertake a broad survey of the birdlife of rainforests from northern New South Wales to Cape York, where recognition of the multitude of bird calls was an essential skill for identification of species usually hidden in the canopy.
Photos captured at Terania Creek (left) and Snows Gully (right) by David Milledge.
The Museum surveys led to a focus on lowland subtropical rainforests, with their mix of Gondwanan and Irian (New Guinean) bird species and on Terania Creek Basin in particular, where the threat of logging was imminent. David’s involvement in writing about the significance of its birdlife and subsequent evidence given to the Terania Creek Inquiry caused the forestry agency some irritation, but the question of logging was resolved later in 1982 by the Wran Government’s courageous decision to subsume the bulk of the rainforests and associated tall wet eucalypt forests across far north-eastern New South Wales into the National Parks system.
At the end of 1977 David and his family moved to the Kendall district on the NSW Mid North Coast to undertake a study funded by Dick Smith of the impacts of logging on birds and small mammals in the timber-production forests of the area. Here, subtropical rainforest elements were more in evidence compared with the Sydney sandstone, with Logrunners, Pale-yellow Robins, Green Catbirds and Regent Bowerbirds frequently observed and Topknot Pigeons, fruit-doves and Noisy Pittas regular seasonal occurrences. An introduction to the identification of subtropical rainforest trees in the area’s wetter forests was also provided by legendary rainforest botanist Alex Floyd.
But more extensive rainforests beckoned and in 1980 David and his family moved to live in a pavilion in Snow’s Gully on the edge of the Nightcap Range, convinced that the only way to really get to know rainforest birds was to live with them. Familiarity was soon gained with the ecology and behaviour of many iconic rainforest species, as their close presence was a regular occurrence. During the day, Wompoo and Rose-crowned Fruit-doves feasted on the prolific crops of emergent Small-leaved Figs opposite the pavilion, Paradise Riflebirds raked through the debris held by epiphytic Crow’s Nest Ferns on canopy tree trunks, White-eared Monarchs hover-pecked about the lush foliage of Yellow Carabeens lining the creek below the deck and an Albert’s Lyrebird displayed from a mound off the end of the outside bath. Autumn and winter evenings were marked by hundreds of Top-knot Pigeons thundering in to roost on the surrounding escarpment, with Sooty Owls bomb-whistling later into the night. Pre-dawn spring mornings were often punctuated by the bubbling calls of Marbled Frogmouths, terminated by their characteristic bill clap.
Sooty Owl (left) and Marbled Frogmouth captured by David Milledge.
Living on the edge of the rainforest provided many photographic opportunities and David was able to capture images of some poorly-known bird species that included the Marbled Frogmouth, Sooty Owl and White-eared Monarch. The brilliance and intensity of flowering and fruiting rainforest trees also created scope for numerous striking photographic compositions, with coral pink Durobby flowers drifting across creek pools in spring and scarlet Red Boppel Nut fruits contrasting against the dark glossy green, pinnate foliage in summer.
Syzygium moreii (Durobby or Coolamon) flowers shot by David Milledge.
Familiarity with the subtropical rainforest bird fauna led to frequent surveys and studies of rainforest bird communities in the region, including a comparison of rainforest and tall moist eucalypt forest birds on Mount Nardi, investigation of the rainforest avifauna of flying-fox camps and surveys for the North East Forest Biodiversity Survey and the Comprehensive Regional Assessment process. David was also engaged by Taronga Zoo to capture a selection of rainforest birds for their walk-through rainforest aviary, resulting in fascinating insights into the behaviour of species such as the Paradise Riflebird, which eagerly accepted banana from the hand within minutes of capture.
Snows Gully Nature Reserve shot by David Milledge
With some sadness, David and his family moved from Snow’s Gully to the coast in 1997, although this did not sever the rainforest connection. The diverse littoral rainforest of Broken Head adjoins the “Araucaria” community where he now lives and provided the opportunity for participation in rainforest restoration planning, with the ultimate aim for a rainforest corridor linking the coast through the Big Scrub back to the Nightcap Range. He is currently lending his expertise to our Big Scrub Bird Monitoring Project, the first long-term consistent monitoring project of birdlife in the Big Scrub for many years.
When you think of the Big Scrub and the people working tirelessly to preserve its remnants, David Milledge is a key figure in the fight – a lifelong protector of the wild, working to ensure that the beauty and biodiversity of Australia’s rainforests endure for generations to come.
