“It’s a mess”, said Wayne, the administrator of the Facebook group for the Agnes Water community. I ran into him as I was photographing an amazing sight that I stumbled across when I decided to cruise up the coast from my home on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland. The towns of Agnes Water and 1770, which adjoin each other, are famous for the annual migration of rainbow bee-eaters. The incoming birds seem to have nominated this pair of little villages as having the perfect sandy soil to dig out their burrows.
It’s an amazing phenomenon to watch dozens and dozens of bee-eaters soaring, diving and digging in a large grassy council-owned field, and an exciting photo opportunity. Each pair will dig down and at the end of a meter-long burrow, lay their eggs. The adults arrive as tight pairs as early as August to begin the nest-building; their chicks are raised during the summer months, and by February the whole lot have returned to their winter grounds in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
So what could be so messy about this situation?
Residents apparently love the birds, judging by the signs and logos displayed all around the villages. Three specific areas are the most nest-worthy, according to the choosy little bee-eaters: the SES grounds where I came across them, Workman’s Beach, and strangely, Grahame Colyer Drive which is a simple residential street. In this last place, the home-owners are fiercely proud of their fluorescent feathered friends and many have erected signs in their lawns to make sure vehicles and pedestrians are aware they should keep off so as not to squash any burrows.
The messiness really comes into the picture when the bee-eaters have to share their prime nesting site with a “Stompem Festival”. In the weekend of October 4 and 5th, 2025, hundreds of visitors have been invited to the very same SES grounds to celebrate the “1770 Cultural Connections” event hosted by the Aboriginal Gudarjil Development Corporation from Bundaberg. Dancers, live bands, rides, food trucks will all ensure that the bee-eaters’ nests will be thoroughly stomped into the ground.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DOX1AGRkbIT/
https://www.facebook.com/people/1770-Cultural-Connections-Immersion-Festival-2025/61579591763641/
And there’s more to the mess. Naturally the Agnes Water-1770 community cried out against such an environmental desecration. They pleaded with the Gladstone Regional Council who had originally granted the permit. Alternative venues were offered but to no avail. The Gudarjil people wanted their festival on the SES grounds and nowhere else.
Upon scrutiny, the community groups discovered that the Gudarjil organizers had not fulfilled the environmental conditions of their permit. The community groups, like “Agnes Water & Town of 1770 Community Group” say their complaints to the Council have even ignored.
The ABC also reported on the outrage. You can see photos of the hideous barrier mesh the organizers have laid down on top of the nests in the report:
There are many more details to this situation of incredible stubbornness. I was only in town for a few days and did not have time to do interviews or proper research. But the whole debacle is outlined in empassioned and well-researched letters, including some by Wayne, one of the community group admins, which can be read at these Facebook posts:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/626179845605552/posts/1391152269108302/
In this day and age where we lobby and fight for situations that are a win for all, for different communities, for governments, for the environment, this is a case of win / lose / lose with the biggest loss going to the bee-eaters.
Does this get you worked up? You can publish or share your protest at the Facebook or Change.org links above.
