Where we work

Friends of the Orange-bellied Parrot (OBP) group works across the OBP's range with a focus on Tasmania's west coast, King Island and Melaleuca.

What we do

The objectives of our group are to:

Conduct migration and winter surveys in various locations from Strahan to Woolnorth. Read about our search for OBPs on King Island in the autumn of 2024 made possible by a grant from the Tasmanian Nature Conservation Fund.
Raise awareness of the plight of the OBP.
Raise funds (including through our online shop) to support the activities of volunteers and other recovery actions.
Help support the monitoring program at Melaleuca (SW Tasmania) including working bees.
Assist with any habitat management projects.

Visit the gallery to view images of the Friends of the OBP in action.

Visit branch files to see newsletters from the OBP Recovery Team and other PDFs including links to OBP news, research papers and video footage.

OBP monitoring at Melaleuca

Volunteers with Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania (NRE Tas) observe Orange-bellied Parrots visiting the feed tables, recording individual leg bands and nest observations. This data is collected for the department's OBP Program staff to monitor survival and breeding success of wild and captive-bred release birds. While Friends of the OBP may assist the NRE OBP Program in various ways, we have no direct involvement with their volunteer program other than distributing information about the expression of interest process when it becomes available.

Spring migration surveys

Woolnorth 11-12 October 2025 Registration closes 5pm on Monday 29 September.
Arthur River 18-19 October 2025 Registration closes 5pm on Monday 6 October.

2026 autumn migration surveys

The dates and locations for the 2026 autumn migration surveys are still being decided, but the list below is fairly settled. The weekend of 4-5 April (when we would ideally have a survey) is in the Easter break.

14-15 March at Strahan, Trial Harbour & Granville Harbour.
21-22 March at Strahan, Trial Harbour & Granville Harbour.
either 28-29 March at Arthur River & Woolnorth OR 11-12 April at Arthur River
11-12 April at Woolnorth.
18-25 April on King Island*.
10-11 October at Woolnorth.
17-18 October at Arthur River.

*Note that an OBP survey on King Island will only be possible if Friends of the OBP is successful in an application for a grant from the Tasmanian Nature Conservation Fund. If successful, a number of members will be selected to take part through an Expression of Interest process. If the survey goes ahead, other members of the group would be able to join the survey by self-funding any travel and accommodation needed.

Accommodation at Melaleuca

If you are a member of the Friends of the OBP and are selected by NRE as a volunteer for the OBP Summer Monitoring Program, member accommodation at Melaleuca may be available to you.

To request Friends of the OBP accommodation at Melaleuca please email friends.of.the.obp@gmail.com.

For all other enquiries about any aspect of volunteer work through NRE's OBP Program, including monitoring OBPs at Melaleuca or assisting at the OBP captive breeding facility near Hobart, please email volunteering@nre.tas.gov.au

Contact us

Email friends.of.the.obp@gmail.com (Marianne Gee, President and representative to the National OBP Recovery Team).

Fundraising

Friends of the OBP receives income from two online shops with 100% of profits on our merchandise supporting efforts to save the critically endangered Orange-bellied Parrot and supporting the work of volunteer OBP monitors at Melaleuca.

We will have stalls at the following up-coming markets:

We also receive contributions to our fundraising through the "Support Friends of the OBP" portal that is on our webpage. Note that donations made through the "Donations" tab at the top of any of Wildcare's webpages go to the Tasmanian Nature Conservation Fund.

Friends of the OBP

Braving dire West Coast weather forecasts - FoOBP Autumn Survey 2021