Tide Gauge Restoration for Lord Howe Island
Following the retirement of 3G services late last year, the Lord Howe Island (LHI) tide gauge at the jetty was unable to transmit data.
However, through a successful collaboration between the Manly Hydraulics Lab and the Lord Howe Island Board (LHIB), the system has now been reconnected via the LHIB’s Starlink network, restoring its operation.
As an added benefit, the tide gauge now transmits near real-time data every 15 minutes a major improvement from the previous 3+ hour delay.
The LHI tide gauge at the jetty provides real-time tide levels, which can differ by up to 50 cm or more from predictions. These variations, including extreme low tides observed in May last year, are driven by broader oceanic processes and can impact local operators and services.
Accurate tide data is especially critical for the Island Trader, which relies on precise tide heights to determine when it can safely enter the lagoon.
Please note that the online tide gauge is in Eastern Standard Time (EST). Therefore, it will be 1 hour behind local time in summer and 30 minutes behind in winter.
Tide data is available on the Manly Hydraulics Lab LHI Tide Gauge webpage: https://mhl.nsw.gov.au/Station-240402
If the page does not load, try refreshing with F5 or opening it in an incognito browser window.
We’d like to thank Manly Hydraulics Lab for delivering this upgrade in tidal monitoring for the Island.
Woodhen survey results
The Woodhen survey conducted between 18 November and 6 December, 2024, has resulted in yet another record high count.
The survey covered key areas including the Settlement Area, Far Flats (Little Island track and nearby vegetation), North Bay, and Smoking Tree/Boat Harbour/Muttonbird Point. Mt Gower was excluded from this survey due to concerns around the potential spread of Phytophthora. Despite losing a day and a half of surveying to rain, most areas were thoroughly covered, and follow-up visits were made to account for any missed birds.
A total of 1,535 adult and juvenile woodhens (weighing over 250g, including birds seen or heard) were recorded, alongside 26 chicks (weighing less than 250g). The total includes 672 new birds that were caught and banded for the first time, confirming high rates of breeding success since the April, 2024, banding exercise.
In the Settlement Area alone, 1,420 woodhens were recorded. While Mt Gower was not surveyed this time around, data from the 2022 survey (which documented 77 birds) was included in the total. Given the continued population growth, it is likely the Mt Gower population has also increased further in the last two years.
These findings bring the minimum known woodhen population to at least 1,638 birds, up from 1,147 birds in 2022 – a staggering increase from the 208 individuals recorded in 2019 – when birds were released from captive management following the REP.
Future survey methodology
Alongside the traditional census survey, an alternative monitoring technique was trialed whereby a number of transects located in key areas were surveyed to sample a proportion of the population. Data from these surveys is still being analysed, but it is hoped that the proposed new methodology will enable woodhen population trends to be detected without the need to catch and band birds, while also minimising resources required to monitor this iconic species.
Operating hours for Easter and Anzac Day
The LHIB Administration Office, Liquor Store, and WMF will operate for reduced hours during this Easter long weekend and Anzac Day.
The following table outlines our operating hours during this period:
Thompson Family Graveyard update from Deb Thompson
LHIB recently supported the work led by Deb Thompson, Karen Wilson and of the members of the community to identify additional resting sites in the Thompson Family Graveyard. Please find below a detailed update from Deb on the progress of the Thompson Graveyard project. A copy of the geophysical survey report can be found on our website.
By Deb Thompson
Finally, we have some results on this long-awaited project concerning the identification of more resting sites in the Thompson Graveyard.
Four and a half years ago, I contacted Associate Professor, Ian Moffat, from Flinders University regarding his archaeological work finding unmarked graves using ground-penetrating radar equipment. His PhD student, Andrew Frost, who is a GPR expert and has a special interest in finding graves in family burial sites in rural areas, agreed to take on the challenge of surveying our Heritage and National Trust listed graveyard.
A couple of months of preparation was needed, in the way of removing old oleander trees, fences and slashing/mowing the area where for many years, arum lillies and jonquils have emerged every winter. As you can see in the photos, flowers were traditionally planted on the graves and continue to show us where to look!
This is a picture of ‘Nanny Bella’s’ grave with the flowers coming up next to her. Andrew found two graves next to her!!
The blue/red flags show the positions of the unmarked grave sites.
Andrew arrived on the Island in early December ’24, with his equipment and was very excited to get started.
Wow! What a great (and very educational) day spent with Andrew from SEE Geophysics. With his years of experience and research from thousands of similar surveys (including Norfolk Island), Andrew has successfully made an educated assessment of the area, and we believe has found possible grave sites. Of course, without the invasive option of excavation, it is hard to be 100% sure and obviously impossible to tell who is who! Therefore, with the help of family stories and information from historical records, I am pretty confident that we have discovered quite a few “resting places” to mark and acknowledge.
Andrew has supplied quite a comprehensive report to me and the LHI Board. His “conclusion” reads: “Thanks is given to the Lord Howe Island Board for supporting this geophysical survey. Thanks also to Debra Thompson who initiated this survey and helped to prepare the site prior to the survey. Thirteen possible burials were detected in this survey, with Grid 2 possibly adding two more”.
This was of course, very exciting news! I also would like to reach out to any of the Islanders who may have information or photos etc, that could possibly help identify WHO we have found! Also, many thanks to Macca and Karen for their support of me in this venture and thanks to Karen’s research skills, we are well on the way to identifying people who may be buried here. I am happy to share Andrew’s report with anyone that is interested.
I am still looking for the original, or a copy of the Thompson graveyard map, which seems to have gone missing. I urge anyone who remembers anything or has any information that we could use to please get involved and let us know. This is after all, a “family” effort!
Thanks again to all who helped prepare the survey site: Nobby, Deon, Blake, Samuel Filetti, Craig Thompson, Tia Makiiti and the Van Gelderens for the use of their big slasher. A big shout out to Somerset Apartments for accommodating Andrew and Penny (who was also working with us). Cheers to Anthony Riddle for treating our guests with a turtle tour on their last day here and last, but not least, the Lord Howe Island Board who made this survey possible with their generous funding of the project. Sophie Powell was an amazing help to me by confirming the GPS positions for our marking in the outer areas of the graveyard.
She was also probably the only one that could understand what Andrew was saying technically, haha.
We have plans for a nice entrance fence and also wooden crosses to mark the positions of the unmarked graves.
