Who’s Counting?

Including art by one of our art group's founder members - the late Margaret Thorsborne AO & an exhibition about the North Brook Island and other stunning islands off the coast of Cardwell.

Art, History & Science of Cardwell – Cassowary Coast Qld

November’s Cardwell Gallery Foyer Exhibition is now on display ‘Who’s Counting’

Hosted by the Cardwell Gallery for Wildlife Queensland who are members of Hinchinbrook Regional Arts Assoc Inc – Cardwell Gallery.

The late Margaret Thorsborne AO was an artists and founder member of the art group in Cardwell and a copy of her artwork graph of the ‘Pigeon Count’ is part of the exhibition – every year from 1965 till her death in 2018 the graph recorded the numbers of the pigeons counted each year – a work of art & science.

The exhibition is all about the Brook Islands and the stunning Great Barrier Reef Islands just off the Cardwell coast.  It includes graphic designed information panels, artwork and information talking about the count.

The exhibition showcases a Citizen Science Project that has been running for over 50years on North Brook Island. It is the longest running bird study in Australia.

On Saturday November 9th from 1pm to 4 pm there will be an information afternoon at the library about this historic citizen science project that began in 1965.  Arthur Thorsborne and Margaret Thorsborne AO began the Pied Imperial Pigeon Count when pigeon numbers on the Brook Islands had plummeted to just over 1000 birds. The population had been almost destroyed by shooters who at that time enjoyed the then popular “sport” of shooting the birds off their nests. The shooting was stopped and the population monitoring began and it has continued every year since. The data collected by volunteers provides important population trend data for this migratory species and also for the tern rookeries on north Brook Island – Dr John Winter, ecologist and the project’s chief scientist has been maintaining the scientific record for over 40years. He and members of the team will be available to chat to visitors during the afternoon about the science, the trends and the count.

The project is seeking a new generation of counters to join this historic count.

Come and meet Dr John Winter and members of the team, have a chat about this exciting project and enjoy the exhibition.

The exhibition will be open Nov 1 – Nov 30th