Magpie Goose Breeding on the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales

Abstract

Observations at Dangars Lagoon near Uralla in 2008 indicate that Magpie Geese 'Anseranas semipalamata' have bred for the first time on the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales. At the time of European settlement the Magpie Goose 'Anseranas semipalmata' was widespread in south-eastern Australia, including parts of New South Wales (Marchant & Higgins 1990). It bred in swamps around the Murray, Lachlan and Murrumbidgee Rivers, on the north coast south to Grafton, and probably around Sydney and occasionally on the south coast. Nye et al. (2007) provided a detailed account of the species' retreat from southern Australia, with the last breeding in New South Wales recorded in 1921 near Moree. From that time until the early 1980s there were very few records from New South Wales of the species (Clancy 1985), and it apparently did not breed south of Townsville (Nye et al. 2007). Sightings increased in the 1980s, especially on the north coast of New South Wales, with breeding recorded in 1983 near Moree, in 1985 at Shortland and in 1987 in Seaham Swamp, the latter two in the Hunter Valley (Clancy 1985; Murray 1990 cited in Nye et al. 2007). Numerous Geese were released in the Hunter Valley in the late 1980s, and they now breed regularly in the Macquarie Marshes, elsewhere in the Murray–Darling Basin, in the Hunter Valley and on the north coast of New South Wales.