New South Wales Albatross Study Group

The origins of the NSWASG lie in the pioneer albatross banding activities started by Doug Gibson and Allan Sefton in 1956 at Bellambi in the Illawarra region, and by Bill Lane and Harry Battam in 1958 at Malabar, some 56 km further north in south-eastern Sydney.

This followed the realisation that large concentrations of great albatrosses appeared in winter off the New South Wales coast not far from Sydney, and raised the possibility among local amateur ornithologists of catching useful numbers at sea for banding.

[1] At Malabar the attraction was the presence of a major submarine sewage outfall which, during the 1950s, discharged large quantities of meaty and fatty wastes from abattoirs and tanneries and acted as a feeding station for albatrosses and other seabirds.

According to local ornithologist Keith Hindwood, "Towards the end of April or early in May there is a large influx [of wandering albatrosses], and for the next six months it is not unusual to record from 100 to upwards of 400 birds close to the sewer outlets or resting on the water near the drift-line extending for half a mile or more from the cliffs".

[5] The group continued to operate for over thirty years despite the deaths of several of its founders and the end of Malabar as a suitable banding site with improvements in sewage treatment.