Port Hedland receives visit from hang glider circumnavigating Australia

A woman on an amazing 25,000km round trip of Australia in a powered hang glider has stopped in Port Hedland to raise awareness about a threatened species. Zoologist, author and pilot Amelia (Milly) Formby, who works for BirdLife Australia, touched down at the Port Hedland International Airport on Wednesday. Her daring expedition around the country began in the Wheatbelt and has taken her along the Great Australian Bight, over the Eastern States, and now she is venturing back down to the South West. Ms Formby, who co-authored the children’s book A Shorebird Flying Adventure, said she was inspired to take the journey to raise awareness about the threat facing migratory shorebird species. “We’ve got about 37 species in Australia and they fly to the Arctic every year and around eight are endangered or critically endangered and they are vulnerable because of habitat loss of wetlands,” she said. “So the whole idea of the project was to do a big adventure that would grab people’s attention so they would talk about the birds that inspired it.” The project is known as Wing Threads and Ms Formby’s trip around Australia is practice for a much bigger journey where she will track the route taken by shorebird species to the Arctic. While in Port Hedland, Ms Formby delivered classes about her journey and migratory shorebird species to Baler and Cassia primary schools as well as Port Hedland School of the Air. She said Port Hedland was an important stop on her journey. “Port Hedland is an important area for migratory shorebirds,” she said. “They use a lot of the sites around the salt works and Birdlife Australia surveys shorebirds at the Dampier Salt Works because there are thousands of them there. “Port Hedland is one of the important wetland sites for many of Australia’s migratory seabird species.” Her aircraft is called a microlight — a type of powered hang glider which Ms Formby said was like a flying motorcycle. Ms Formby flew in from Anna Plains Station on Wednesday and was due to fly out to Karratha on Saturday, September 9.