The price of a parrot - birds, sacred ancient ground and twitchers

In early 2010 the Australian birding community was abuzz with news that large numbers of the Princess Parrot, Polyetis alexandrae, had moved from their traditional breeding and foraging grounds in the remote deserts of western Australia to an area within 4 hours drive of Alice Springs in central Australia.

In this presentation I will examine the issues and conflicts that arose between local Aboriginal owners and custodians of the land, land managers and birdwatchers over access to the site where the birds were found, near to the oldest site of recorded human occupation in central Australia.