The general public was fascinated by the nightly 'Penguin Parade' on Phillip Island. Many articles have been written about the birds and the Penguin Parade attraction since the 1930s. So many people spent their summer holidays on Phillip Island in one of the many guest houses, then caravan parks and holiday homes and a visit to the Penguin Parade by them and their visitors was very common during their holidays. Articles tended to be a mix of basic penguin behavior information and anthropomorphic descriptions. Accompanying photographs were almost invariably taken by flashlight (now illegal), or of penguins taken from their burrows during daylight hours for photo opportunities. The article provides evidence of the level of knowledge about Phillip Island's Little/Fairy Penguins at this time. (approx 1960?)Photocopy of 2 page magazine article. Black print. Images poor quality due old photocopy.little penguins, fairy penguins, eudyptula minor, phillip island penguin parade, dorothy vernon, penguin rookery, penguin behaviour, phillip island tourist attractions

The general public was fascinated by the nightly 'Penguin Parade' on Phillip Island. Many articles have been written about the birds and the Penguin Parade attraction since the 1930s. So many people spent their summer holidays on Phillip Island in one of the many guest houses, then caravan parks and holiday homes and a visit to the Penguin Parade by them and their visitors was very common during their holidays. Articles tended to be a mix of basic penguin behavior information and anthropomorphic descriptions. Accompanying photographs were almost invariably taken by flashlight (now illegal), or of penguins taken from their burrows during daylight hours for photo opportunities. This article, written in the 1950s, describes the management of the Penguin Parade at that time as being run by the Penguin Preservation Committee. This was before the Phillip Island Council took over running the Penguin Parade. The article provides evidence of the level of knowledge about Phillip Island's Little/Fairy Penguins at this time. (1957)single full-page magazine article, black ink on white paper. Photocopied from original, so photos appear as black and white.little penguins, fairy penguins, eudyptula minor, phillip island penguin parade, dorothy vernon, penguin rookery, penguin behaviour, phillip island tourist attractions

Short tailed shearwaters and Little Penguins, nesting in burrows on the coast during the warmer months of the year, are extremely vulnerable to fires. Phillip Island had a history of fires on foreshores – either deliberately or accidentally lit. This article describes 2 accidentally lit fires on consecutive days at the Phillip Island Penguin Parade rookeries during the height of the breeding and tourist season in January 1967. The vital importance of volunteers such as the country Fire authority members and the local surfing community, is alluded to in this article by well-known naturalist and author from the time, Graham Pizzey. The Victorian government’s chief secretary, Arthur Rylah, reported here seeking an investigation into the fires at what he terms: “one of the best conservation projects we have done”, was a prominent Victorian politician for many years.This article is significant for demonstrating a growing awareness of the vulnerability of ground nesting birds, of the importance in volunteers such as members of the local country Fire authority and Phillip Island surfing community partnering with wildlife management bodies to protect ground nesting birds, in particular the Penguin and short tailed shearwater rookeries at the Phillip Island Penguin Parade and other parts of Phillip Island. The article also reflects the growing awareness by the Victorian government of the importance of the Phillip Island Penguin Parade to the Victorian tourism economy. Written by naturalist Graham Pizzey, wrote regularly for the Melbourne Herald, the article is another example of how this journalist frequently emphasised Phillip Island’s flora and fauna in his newspaper column.Photocopy made in 1980s of newspaper cutting. Black print and black and white images of original photograph of author Graham Pizzey within the article.5/1/67little penguins, fairy penguins, eudyptula minor, phillip island penguin parade, graham pizzey, penguin rookery, penguin behaviour, phillip island tourist attractions, short tailed shearwaters, phillip island conservation society, arthur rylah, victorian government, phillip island cfa, phillip island surfers, fires on foreshores

With the establishment of the large heavy industrial zone at Hastings in the late 1960s, which included the BP oil refinery using the Port of Hastings at the north-western arm of Western Port, a number of environmental problems predicted by both scientists and conservationists arose. The main shipping channel on the western arm of Western Port was dredged, causing suspended particles affecting seagrass beds. With inadequate regulation around discharge of bilge water within the bay, and oil spillage, oil pollution affecting both seabirds and coastal areas was not uncommon. This report of 40 penguins actually known to have been killed by an oil spill event was typical of reports at the time. The 2 men quoted – Vernon Johnson and Ken Pound – were well known conservationists. Vernon and his wife Nora owned the Kingston Gardens picnic and zoo business where they cared for many injured wildlife. Ken was a Phillip Island counsellor for a few years, and instrumental in the establishment of the Phillip Island conservation Society. He also contributed various documents and newspaper cuttings to this archive.This article is significant for being a record of an exact number of penguins found dead from oil spill pollution in Western Port. Also as a record of conservationists in the early years of community and environment movements both locally and in Australia. The article further gives evidence of linking tourism with wildlife.Photocopy of newspaper cutting. Black print with very dark black and white photo of Fairy (Little) Penguin. Poor reproduction due to older photocopy machine.(indecipherable) - late/1960s.little penguins, fairy penguins, eudyptula minor, penguin behaviour, phillip island tourist attractions, phillip island conservation society, oil spills, bp refinery hastings, port of hastings, western port, marine pollution, oil tankers, vernon johnson, ken pound, phillip island promotion association

Cr J Gall was a councilor on the Borough of Wonthaggi Council. The Borough included Cape Paterson, where Cr Gall saw 5 little penguins on the beach. He described them as looking for somewhere to nest – that is, to dig burrows in the coast adjoining the Cape Paterson sandy beach. At that stage, the Wonthaggi state coal mine had been closed for 4 years and Wonthaggi had more emphasis on attracting different industries. There was little interest in flora and fauna of the area at that stage. Cr Gall’s unusual sighting of the Little Penguins possibly nesting at Cape Paterson attracted derision from the other councillors, and also a sarcastic Editor's Note from the newspaper's editor - none of which was not surprising for that era. The Borough of Wonthaggi was later amalgamated with the shires of Phillip Island and Bass, plus other areas of a couple of others local shires in 1994 to form Bass Coast Shire Council, which quickly moved to a heavy emphasis on flora, fauna and the tourism industry related to the environment generally.The article clearly demonstrates the disinterested if not dismissive attitude of the Borough of Wonthaggi councillors and the local newspaper editor at the time towards observations of flora and fauna. However, the article is also an interesting record of 5 Little Penguins being sighted at a beach where they were not known to have previously been seen.Photocopy of Single column newspaper article, black print on white paper. Article has curved line border design on top, sides. Cut off in copy at bottom edge. Five paragraphs in main article, and 1 paragraph at bottom marked: Editor's noteSEN 13 - 7 - 72 (South Gippsland Sentinel Times newspaper, 13th July, 1972)little penguins, fairy penguins, eudyptula minor, penguin behaviour, borough of wonthaggi, cr j gall

Article written in Wonthaggi newspaper giving up to date information about facilities, visitation and numbers of Little Penguins at the Phillip Island Penguin Parade in 1966.The information in the article is a very valuable record of the population of the penguins, (small compared with 2023); the huge numbers of visitors permitted per night - 10,000 compared with maximum of about 2,500 per night 2023; facilities available then and how funded.photocopy cutting of newspaper article. 4 columns text but right hand column cut in half. large photo of penguins above text. Poor photocopy20/1/66phillip island, phillip island penguin parade, tourist attraction., a h bert west, souvenirs, little penguin behaviour

This article was written by an English visitor named Elsa Christian who was touring Australia and New Zealand with her husband Frank in their own small van. The article was published in the Australian Women’s Weekly, magazine, March 1966. Elsa writes she wanted to visit four Australian locations before she died: Ayers Rock (actually Uluru), the Snowy River project, dolphins at Coolangatta and the Penguin Parade at Phillip Island. These destinations were all very popular in the 1960s for both Australian residents and overseas visitors. Because the roads were becoming better too many locations, self guided tours in small vans for cars towing bond would caravans were becoming more popular means of seeing AustraliaThe article is significant in many ways. 1. Indicates the places English visitors commonly wish to see in Australia. 2. Describes the growing trend to self- drive van/camping holidays. 3. Gives the route taken from Melbourne to Phillip Island during the 1960s. 4. Describes the appearance of the roadsides and locations visited. 5. It is written in a descriptive and lyrical style designed to appeal to Women’s Weekly magazine readers, who were probably wondering how they could visit Phillip Island with their husbands or families themselves, and what there was to see there. 6. Gives the visitors’ view of how the Penguin Parade operated at the time. 7. Includes a description of potter and artist Eric Juckert’s renowned garden at Grossard Point, Ventnor. 8. Indicates how introduced plants such as Hawthorn pushes and Kate weed were common in the area. 9. Describes Phillip Island as “a place to fall in love” because of its natural beauty, fauna and coastal seascapes. 10. As a visitor Elsa describes the housing estates as a blot on the landscape, but also sees the value as a way of their owners escaping from the hustle and bustle of Melbourne. 11. Gives the visitors’ interpretation of the behaviour of wildlife the RC in the wild, as well as Elsa’s knowledge about some of the species she encounters.Photocopy of full page article with 5 columns of text, a map and 2 photographs. Black ink on white paper. Photographs blackened in photocopying processphillip island, cape woolamai, penguin parade, seal rocks, nobbies, township of rhyll phillip island, princes highway, dandenong, pakenham, kooweerup, carinya creek, officer, san remo, gippsland highway, holiday homes, fort dumaresq, kitty miller's beach, wreck of the speke, hereford cattle, fleetwood manor, koalas, ventnor, eric juckert, little penguin behaviour

Description by author of a visit to rookeries of the Little Penguin at the Point Grant end of Phillip Island, Victoria, Australia, during nesting season, 1920. Includes one photograph of 4 penguins. The author, Tom Tregallis, refers to the birds as moulting, but this takes place in March-April, so the article must have been written at that time, before its publication in November, 1920. Or Tregallis was mistaken in thinking some of the birds were moulting, as they do not go to sea during the moult. Tregallis also describes the penguin rookery at the Little Nobby and Shelly Beach nearby.Few accounts of the Little Penguin rookeries on Phillip Island during the 1920s exist in publicly accessible form, so this is a valuable description of the physical area, the numbers of penguins there at the time, feral animals such as foxes, cats and rabbits, perceived behaviour of these animals at the time.Photocopy of Magazine or Newspaper cutting, black and white/greyscale print, 10 paragraphs. Article includes single greyscale photo of four penguins. Photocopy has darker shading towards top and bottom of image.little penguins, phillip island, nobbies, penguin rookeries, penguin moult, tom tregallis

By 1966 when this poem and article were written by these state school students, the Phillip Island Penguin Parade had become famous and was a regular excursion destination for groups. The poem in rhyming couplets of 4 lines per stanza is typical of its time with human-centric description of the penguins in 'coat and tails', but both the poem and essay also indicate a growing interest in the evolution and behaviour at sea and on land of the Little Penguins. The Gould League of Bird Lovers, Victoria branch, which published these pieces in their 1966 edition of the Bird Lover magazine, was established for both children's 'nature studies' within school curricula, and for adults. The League published many booklets, posters and newsletters for schools and naturalists. The article demonstrates a growing interest in state schools in teaching students about Australian wildlife at the time. Little Penguins are very appealing to humans and given the accessiblity for viewing them at the Phillip Island Penguin Parade, provided teachers and students an ideal springboard for learning. Encouraging both poetry and essay form also indicated a broad approach to allowing students to express their knowledge and attitudes in various ways within the school setting.Also demonstrates the influence of the Gould League of Bird Lovers within the Victorian Education system.Photocopy of article. Black print on white paper with single greyscale image. Three-stanza poem "The Penguin" by Janice Ah Kee, followed by 4-paragraph description of life in the rookery by Diana Joseph. Both from Victorian state schools.litte penguin, fairy penguin, , bird lover, state school 3125 eagle point, state school 4655 morwell, janice ah kee, diana joseph, christine ryan photo, phillip island penguin parade, gould league of bird lovers, gould league of victoria, phillip island nature parks