Current view: Text account
Site description (2008 baseline):
Site location and context
This IBA consists of four neighbouring but discontinuous sites around St Helens in north-east Tasmania. These are St Helens and Paddys Islands, the adjacent 9 km open oceanic Maurouard Beach and Peron Dunes inland of the beach, and the inner reaches of Georges Bay. These are included in the same IBA as they are neighbouring areas in or adjacent to the St Helens Conservation Area and distant from other similar seabird or shorebird sites. Intertidal flats along the whole northern shore of Georges Bay from St Helens bridge to Granite Rock/Blanche Point and the southern shore as far as Stockyards Flat are important for Pied Oystercatcher. St Helens Wastewater Treatment Plant is excluded as it only supports small numbers of birds but the Medeas Cove wetlands have supported Australasian Bittern and Lewin's Rail and are worthy of further fieldwork (Binns 2008). St Helens and Paddys Islands are composed of granite with rocky shorelines, no beaches and plateau-like summits. The vegetation on St Helens (51 ha) varies from
Poa poiformis dominated coastal areas to areas of dense shrub; Paddys (4.6 ha) is dominated by
Poa poiformis with scattered
Disphyma crassifolium and
Atriplex cinerea. Maurouard Beach is an open exposed sandy beach - the entire beach and dunes are included in the IBA for their populations of Hooded Plover and breeding Fairy Tern.
Breeding seabirds include an estimated 10,000 pairs of White-faced Storm-Petrel, 2350 pairs of Short-tailed Shearwater and 10 pairs of Common Diving-Petrel at St Helens Island, and small numbers of Kelp Gull and Caspian Tern at Paddys Island. The 18 species recorded at St Helens Island include Lewin's Rail, Brown Quail and Brown Goshawk. In 1998/99, 11 shorebird species were recorded on Maurouard Beach: Bar-tailed Godwit, Curlew Sandpiper, Sanderling, Hooded Plover, Pied Oystercatcher, Red-capped Plover, Fairy Tern, Crested Tern, Pacific Gull, Kelp Gull and Silver Gull. Occasional sightings of Green Rosella, Tasmanian Scrubwren, Tasmanian Thornbill, Yellow Wattlebird and Yellow-throated Honeyeater recorded in Atlas of Australian Birds surveys from 1998 to 2008 (Atlas of Australian Birds database).
Non-bird biodiversity: Metallic Skink occurs. Poa poiformis is the dominant plant at Paddys Island and at lower elevations at St Helens Island, notably areas where scrub has been reduced by fire. Acacia sophorae, Leptospermum scoparium and Leucopogon parviflorus scrub, Pteridium esculentum and a thick covering of Tetragonia implexicoma are other features at St Helens Island, while Disphyma crassifolium and Atriplex cinerea are scattered amongst Poa at Paddys Island.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
St Helens and Paddys Islands should be managed to minimise the impact of human visitation. Recreational activities on the beach (walking, driving and dog-walking) should be controlled. Consider eradicating rabbits from St Helens Island. A management plan should be developed and implemented for the whole conservation area.
Conservation responses/actions for key biodiversity
Regular monitoring of Hooded Plover by Birds Tasmania. An investigation of the threats to beach-nesting shorebirds was undertaken by Birds Tasmania (Jones et al. 2002).
Several - see separate section.
St Helens = Parks and Wildlife Service; Paddys Island = unallocated Crown Land.
Site access / Land-owner requests
Although access is unregulated, visitors should minimise disturbance to breeding seabirds.
The nomination was prepared by Peter Britton and Eric Woehler with assistance from the local Coastcare group. Rachael Alderman and Rosemary Gales of DPIW kindly commented on the nomination.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: St Helens (Tasmania) (Australia). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/st-helens-(tasmania)-iba-australia on 22/11/2024.
