• Status in NSWEndangered
  • Status nationallyCritically endangered
  • Gathered at Bateau Bay this year40+
  • Biggest Coast gathering since2019
  • Comment period13 Jul to 10 Aug 2026

On 13 July, Central Coast Council opened public consultation on its draft Swift Parrot Species Management Plan, inviting the community to have their say until Monday 10 August 2026. The Swift Parrot is listed as endangered under the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016, and it carries a higher listing again at the national level: it is critically endangered under the Commonwealth EPBC Act 1999. It is a migratory bird that breeds in Tasmania over summer and crosses to the mainland for the cooler months, where it feeds in flowering eucalypts through autumn and winter before heading back south.

The habitat in question is in people's backyards

What makes this more than a distant conservation notice is where the birds actually are. This winter, Council says, a group of at least 40 Swift Parrots gathered at Bateau Bay, the biggest gathering on the Coast since 2019, and they did it in ordinary suburban streets. They’ve been using large Blackbutt trees in people’s backyards and along local streets to rest and feed, and it’s brought plenty of birdwatchers into the area as well, Mayor Lawrie McKinna said in Council’s announcement. This year, we’ve seen something really special, a group of at least 40 Swift Parrots at Bateau Bay. It’s the biggest gathering we’ve had on the Coast since 2019.

That is the practical point for a resident: the trees that matter to this bird are not only in reserves but on residential streets and in gardens, which is exactly where the pressure of a growing region is felt. Council frames the plan as an attempt to hold both things at once. We all know how special our local environment is, and the draft Swift Parrot Species Management Plan is about looking after it while making sure our community can continue to grow, McKinna said.

What the draft plan actually does

According to Council, the draft plan sets out insights into Swift Parrot ecology on the Central Coast, a framework to guide development in key habitat areas, and practical management actions intended to support the species over the long term. On the Council’s Your Voice Our Coast engagement page, one of the plan’s stated aims is to work with the community and improve knowledge, including making sure development proponents understand the conservation challenge, and monitoring how the birds use local habitat through annual winter bird surveys completed by Council. It is a draft on exhibition, not an adopted policy, so nothing in it binds a landholder today; the point of the consultation is to shape it before it is finalised.

How to have your say

Update, 17 August 2026: submissions have closed. The exhibition ran from Monday 13 July to Monday 10 August 2026 and Council’s project page now says submissions are closed. Its published timeline marks the exhibition complete, shows review of feedback as the stage now under way, and lists Council’s consideration of the plan as still to come, with no date given. The draft plan itself remains on the page to read. There is nothing left to submit, and we will report what Council adopts. Changed today, and only these: the standfirst and the at-a-glance row said the plan was on exhibition “until 10 August” in the present tense and now give the closed dates, 13 July to 10 August 2026; the page description, the social description and the structured data said submissions were still closing and now say they have closed. The paragraph below is the story as published on 19 July, kept as it ran.

Submissions close 11:59pm Monday 10 August 2026. Council directs residents to search “Swift Parrot” on its Your Voice Our Coast platform to read the draft plan and respond. As the Mayor put it: I’d really encourage everyone to take a look at the draft plan and have their say. It’s important we shape something that reflects what our community values most.

Methodology

The plan, the 10 August deadline, the NSW endangered listing, the Bateau Bay detail and all quotes are from Council’s 13 July 2026 media release (Source 1), quoted without adjustment. The plan’s stated contents and the community-and-knowledge aim, including the annual winter bird surveys, are from Council’s Your Voice Our Coast engagement page (Source 2). The national critically endangered listing under the EPBC Act is from the SWIFFT threatened-species profile (Source 3). We have not reproduced Council’s photograph of the birds; the graphic above is our own.