The town of Moora, about 180km north of Perth in Western Australia’s wheatbelt, has a new landmark: a pair of Carnaby’s black cockatoos standing 11.5 metres tall in Apex Park. ABC News reports that they were unveiled on Sunday as the state’s newest Big Thing, in the tradition of Queensland’s Big Pineapple.
The male is named Wally, after Wally Kerkhoff, an 84-year-old local who has spent more than 40 years building and installing nesting hollows for the threatened birds, which breed around Moora in old salmon gum and wandoo trees. He picked the name for the female himself: Mrs Carnaby.
The idea was first floated in 2019. The project cost $540,000, with 74% of it coming from community donations and 240 donors named. A retired truck driver, Erich Juhren, volunteered to haul the sections across the country from Queensland, where they were made. Rachel Walmsley of the Moore Catchment Council, who has worked alongside Mr Kerkhoff for 14 years, said: “If it wasn’t for Wally, we wouldn’t have Carnaby’s in Moora anymore.”
Source: ABC News