TOM CLARKE’S VOICE soars above the turbulent soundtrack of the waves smashing the cliff base far below. “Oh, look at you!” he says in triumph and exhilaration, as though he’s just found a jewel – which, in a way, he has.
Tom is joined by Alan Stuart, a fellow life member of the Hunter Bird Observers Club (HBOC), and New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) ranger Susanne Callaghan. Together, they are inspecting six nest boxes under a copse on the north-east edge of Broughton Island. The trees cling to a steep slope, just before the land tumbles into the Tasman Sea, and they offer some protection from the elements for the boxes and their contents, which are treasure chests in the eyes of this trio. Alan and Tom have been lifting the lid on each of the boxes and peering hopefully inside, while Susanne has been documenting what they find.
“Number two is empty,” Alan called out just moments earlier, followed by Tom’s declaration of “number one empty”. Then Tom had headed to box number three and carefully prised off the lid, leading to his exultant cry. “Looks like a Gould’s petrel,” he whispers as he tenderly lifts a chick from the nest box. “Still got a little bit of fluff, but you’re getting ready to fly, aren’t you.”
More than grasping a petrel, Tom is holding the hope of an endangered seabird species that’s becoming established on this spectacularly sculpted 132ha island, just off the coast from Port Stephens in northern NSW. Although it may feel gloriously distant from the cares of the world, Broughton Island has been within easy reach of the desires and ambitions of wave after wave of humans that have arrived at its shores, from professional fishers and scientists to tourists seeking to get away from it all. Through the years that impact has profoundly shaped – and threatened – life on the island.
But dedicated teams have been working to not just conserve what is on Broughton, but retrieve what’s been lost.
AS A DESTINATION, Broughton may be alluring, but the journey to the island is – on a calm day, at least – also a joy. The twin-hulled Envision bringing us here slices across the water from the tourist hub of Nelson Bay, then threads between the dramatic headlands of Tomaree and Yacaaba that guard the entrance to Port Stephens before embracing the sea.
The distance from the port’s entrance north-east to the island is only about 14km. So it’s not far, but the prospect of Broughton holds a sense of adventure among those on board, particularly for Susanne.
Broughton is the largest in a small
