Since 1978, the Queensland Police Service Wildlife Response Unit (WRU) has successfully apprehended and prosecuted offenders and broken up illegal poaching rings. Individual operations required inter-institutional co-operation, however, these concerted efforts were occasionally undermined by human error and bureaucratic mazes.
Illegal poaching resulted in the deaths of many and varied bird species.
Image courtesy of Senior sergeant Michael Butler.
Members of the Unit were generally not expected to physically handle the wildlife, but deliver it to the nearest Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service officer at the first available opportunity. Functions of the Wildlife Response Unit included coordinating police initiatives and investigating offences relating to the taking and/or commercial exploitation of wildlife throughout Queensland, as well as assisting police in matters relating to wildlife upon request. A member of the police service who suspected offences relating to commercial exploitation of flora and fauna was to forward to the WRU all information on the offence. As the failed Operation Birdman demonstrated these regulations were not always followed through.
In August 1993, the Department of Environment and Heritage involved one of the local police stations when it launched an Operation under the codename ‘Birdman’ to investigate alleged fauna smuggling in the north. Although a number of offences under the Nature Conservation and Wildlife Protection Acts were suspected, the Wildlife Response Unit was not contacted for assistance. Although the Operation resulted in 35 fauna charges brought against the target of the investigation, after a three day hearing, all charges were dismissed. The defendant pleaded guilty to three minor book-keeping offences for which he paid a $600 fine, and was placed on a twelve month good-behavior bond. The failure of the Operation did not end there.
A Chondro Python, confiscated during an operation and later released back into the wild.
Image courtesy of Senior Sergeant Michael Butler.
During the Operation, the defendant’s 27 Chondro pythons were seized. Chondro pythons, indigenous to Cape York and New Guinea, are extremely rare and valuable. The estimated commercial value of these snakes was approximately $150,000. During the ten months it took to bring the case to court, nineteen pythons died in holding cases at the zoo. The whereabouts of the six additional snakes was unknown. According to the newsprint trail, neither of the parties involved had any comment on the matter.
An investigation was launched by a local police officer, by-passing the Wildlife Response Unit, when a man from Shelburne Bay was believed to be in possession of a stuffed crocodile, a protected animal. The embarrassing outcome revealed the item to be, in fact, a wooden carving.
Carved timber crocodile.
Image courtesy of Senior Sergeant Michael Butler.
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This information has been supplied by the Queensland Police Museum from the best resources available. The article was written by Museum Volunteer and Crime and Policing Historian Dr Anastasia Dukova.
The Police Museum is open 9am to 4pm Monday to Friday and 10am to 3pm on the last Sunday of the month (Feb-Nov) and is located on the Ground Floor of Police Headquarters at 200 Roma Street, Brisbane. Contact: E: museum@police.qld.gov.au
“FROM the VAULT – Operation Birdman” by the Queensland Police Service is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (BY) 2.5 Australia Licence. Permissions may be available beyond the scope of this licence.
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