Charles Sturt University researchers have been congratulated for their work into wildlife ecology on Montague Island in a recent report on research and management in the NSW south coast nature reserve.

The report arises from an independent inquiry into an accidental fire that burnt four hectares and killed 42 Little Penguins on the island in June.

Both the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, which was managing the Montague burn, and CSU have been cleared of any wrong-doing by Australian wildlife experts.

The report’s author, Dr Peter Dann from Victoria’s Phillip Island Nature Park, found CSU’s research on seabirds and weed control on Montague Island to be rigorous and important for future penguin conservation. Fire was also considered an important likely tool for weed control on the island.

Leader of the CSU research team on Montague Island, Associate Professor Nick Klomp, said he and his research team, which includes a number of postgraduate students, were very saddened by the event.

“A fire, being used in a weed control experiment, became temporarily out of control overnight, spreading over a number of penguin nests which were overgrown by noxious Kikuyu grass,” Professor Klomp said.

“We have been studying penguins and other seabirds on Montague Island for eight years – it is never pleasant to lose wildlife under any circumstances.”

The number of deaths in the accident were, however, very small compared to the ten to12 thousand penguins that nest annually on Montague, with hundreds of chicks and adults dying naturally every year.

“Fire is an integral part of conservation and management in Australian national parks, despite its inherent dangers. The trick is to minimise the risks wherever possible, but then accept that there are some things you cannot predict,” Professor Klomp said.

CSU is developing a revegetation plan for the burnt area on Montague Island. It will involve some spraying of kikuyu, planting 20 000 trees and shrubs and deploying 200 penguin nesting boxes to investigate the best method for controlling the invasive Kikuyu grass.

Professor Klomp’s team will survey the whole Little Penguin population on Montague Island during November, a huge task of crawling on hands and knees across the island to determine the total number of breeding pairs. The Montague population is one of the largest in Australia and New Zealand and is becoming a model for conservation and management worldwide.