Orange-bellied parrot photographed in Melaleuca, Southwest Conservation Area in Tasmania, Australia by JJ Harrison (Wikimedia Commons/ CC BY-SA 3.0)
An acclaimed wildlife photographer has pleaded guilty to trespassing on a private island to photograph critically endangered orange-bellied parrots.
Rob Blakers, an internationally recognized wildlife and landscape photographer, was charged with one count of trespass after camping overnight in June on Robbins Island, located in the Bass Strait in Tasmania, Australia. The privately owned Robbins Island is also the proposed site of a contentious 100-turbine wind farm.
Blakers had been birdwatching and photographing species that he says are threatened by the planned development. He was particularly hoping to photograph the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot, one of Australia’s rarest birds.
Tasmanian photographer Blakers appeared before the Burnie Magistrates Court on Monday to face the trespassing charge.
According to a report by ABC News Australia, the court heard that Robbins Island’s owner launched a land and air search after Blakers was seen walking to the island via a tidal passage on 19 June. Vehicles and an aircraft were used in the search, but Blakers was not found.
The photographer was found by the island’s owner the following morning. Blakers initially denied trespassing, claiming he had stayed below the high-tide mark, which defines public land access. He later admitted to camping above the high-tide line overnight, saying the area he intended to camp on was “wet underfoot.”
The island’s owner offered Blakers transport off the island, which he declined. They then followed the photographer as he walked back to mainland Tasmania, where police were waiting. Blakers was arrested and told officers he had been birdwatching and photographing wildlife, and had camped overnight in scrub just inland from the high-tide mark.
Blakers pleaded guilty to trespassing. In court this week, the photographer described Robbins Island as “the most important place for birdlife and wildlife in Tasmania,” explaining that he had been searching for the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot.
The judge accepted his guilty plea but recorded no conviction, on the condition that Blakers not commit any offences punishable by imprisonment for the next six months.
Plans for the Robbins Island wind farm have reportedly drawn ongoing opposition from community and environmental groups, who say the project threatens key habitats for the orange-bellied parrots, wedge-tailed eagles, and Tasmanian devils.
In a statement, Bob Brown of the Bob Brown Foundation, an organization that runs campaigns for the protection of the natural environment, criticized the prosecution.
“Rob Blakers is a Tasmanian treasure,” Brown says in a statement to the Tasmanian Times. “It is appalling that the blinkered owners of Robbins Island, another Tasmanian treasure, should have him in court for simply taking photos to share with all other Tasmanians.”
Image credits: Header photo by JJ Harrison (Wikimedia Commons/ CC BY-SA 3.0) .