Port Campbell Overwintering Project – Raising Awareness of Migratory Shorebirds and their Habitat
Port Campbell Community Group Inc. raised awareness of migratory shorebirds, the threats to migratory shorebirds, and our responsibility to preserve their habitat with an exhibition at Port Campbell Artspace over the Easter 2018 weekend. The opening night was well attended with Cr Simon Illingworth opening the exhibition. Over 200 people attended across Easter Saturday and Sunday, with the exhibition closing early Sunday afternoon when the tragedy at Sherbrook River became known.
BA Breen_Flying Curlew 
Laura Fazz_Feeding Time 
L Fazz_My Aussie Home 
L Fazz_sandpipers 
L Fazz_World Travellers 
L. Fazz_Shorebird Model 
Jodie Honan_Sanderling 2 
Jodie Honan_Sanderling 1
The exhibition was preceded by two printmaking workshops where artists created linocuts and etchings. Eighteen artists participated in the project, many coming from Warrnambool, Port Fairy and Melbourne. The project was supported by a Council grant and Coastcare.
The exhibition highlighted that there are 37 species migrate regularly to Australia and New Zealand for their non-breeding season, and breed in the northern hemisphere. This southern habitat is particularly significant as it is where these birds spend the greatest portion of the year. The route they take between their breeding and non-breeding grounds twice annually is called the East-Asian Australasian Flyway.
Marion Manifold_Camouflaged Latham’s Snipe Princetown Wetlands 
Marion Manifold_Plastic Nest 
Marion Manifold_End of Flight 
Marion Manifold_Crested Terns 
Marion Manifold_Coastal bric-a-brac 
Lyndall Jones_Lathams Snipe 
John Irving_Curlew sandpiper 
Jodie Honan_Three Ruddy Turnstones
The countries that comprise the Flyway are: Alaska; Siberia; Mongolia; China; North Korea; South Korea; Japan; the Philippines; Vietnam; Laos; Thailand; Cambodia; Myanmar; Bangladesh; India; Malaysia; Singapore; Brunei; Indonesia; Timor; Papua New Guinea; Australia and New Zealand. Our Port Campbell coastline is a highly significant, integral part to the birds’ survival.
Jodie Honan_T-zero Jodie Honan_Three Ruddy Turnstones 
Ian McConnell_Snipe Peterborough 
Jill Quirk_Endangered Eastern Curlew 
Ian McConnell_Arrival 
Delia Crabbe_Hooded Plover Chick _detail 
Helen Langley_4 Snipe 
Helen Langley_Bittern 
Helen Langley_The last Curlew Departs 
Delia Crabbe_Camouflage
The Port Campbell Overwintering Project is an extension of a greater Australian and New Zealand project created by Melbourne artist Kate Gorringe-Smith. Many of the Port Campbell works will join the greater project which raises funds to save these birds. Overwintering exhibitions have previously been held in Portland, Warrnambool, Werribee and most Australian states and capital cities. Details can be found on the Overwintering Project website: https://www.theoverwinteringproject.com/
Some of the prints highlighted the impact of plastics on birds and the threats of losing habitat to development, including the threats to the Latham’s Snipe from development of the Princetown wetlands.
For further information on Port Campbell Community Group Inc. environmental projects and membership. Contact: Marion Manifold, Secretary, Port Campbell Community Group Inc. A0051688U
Andrea Radley_Across the waves 
Andrea Radley_Feeding Time 
Andrea Radley_The Visitor 
BA Breen Lathams snipe 
BA Breen_Bar-tailed Godwits 
BA Breen_Sandpiper by night 
BABreen_Bar-tailed Godwits 
BABreen_Curlew Running 
BABreen_Curlew Standing Jill Quirk_Endangered Eastern Curlew
Overwintering: a Sonnet
Cutting the blank linoleum with sharp steel
tracing the shapes, the knobbly knees, long legs,
big feet, the shorebirds from the other world,
great bills curved to probe, or flat-tipped
like spoons to sweep sideways, short
stabbing bills, thin delicate bills, emerging now
on this lino, birds that can fly around the world
and do, or halfway anyway and back, riding
air currents and prevailing winds, resting
in traditional tracts, lakes and littorals, reeds
and coastlines, whatever has been left for them,
coming in on formidable wings to winter here
and I like to think that I may conjure them
to rest a little longer on my linoleum.
B.A. Breen
