Native Animals History and Science
Seagulls in Victoria: Coastal Survivors, Cultural Messengers, and Colonial Shifts
Seagulls—most prominently the Silver Gull (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae)—are among the most recognisable birds along Victoria’s coasts, estuaries, and urban waterways. Their cries thread through beaches, fishing ports, and lakes from Portland to Mallacoota. For Indigenous communities, gulls formed part of sea-Country calendars for tens of millennia—food sources, messengers, and indicators of weather and marine change (Clark 1990; Flood 1983). With colonisation, their role shifted. Fishing industries, markets, and municipal dumps created abundant new food sources, and gull numbers expanded in ways not previously recorded (Rolls 1969; DELWP 2021). Gulls became emblems of the ecological transformations brought by settlement.
Origins and Deep Time: Evolution and Arrival of Australia’s Gulls
Gulls belong to the Laridae, a seabird family that diversified in the Miocene as modern oceans and upwelling systems developed. Fossils show larids widespread across the Southern Ocean by the late Neogene, with Australian populations establishing well before the Holocene (Higgins & Davies 1996). The Silver Gull is native to Australia and has long bred on offshore islands and coastal wetlands, later expanding with human infrastructure inland and into towns (Higgins & Davies 1996; BirdLife Australia 2020).
Seagulls Before Colonisation
Ecological role
Scavengers and predators of fish, shellfish, insects, and carrion; they cleaned wrack lines and fish remains, helping recycle nutrients along shorelines (Higgins & Davies 1996).
Prey for larger raptors—including White-bellied Sea-Eagles and Wedge-tailed Eagles—within coastal food webs (Pizzey & Knight 2012).
Cultural role
For coastal Nations (including Wadawurrung, Wurundjeri/Boonwurrung around Port Phillip and Gunaikurnai along Gippsland), gull movements signalled weather and fish schools, informing fishing and travel (Clark 1990; Flood 1983).
Egg harvesting from island rookeries was seasonal and governed by strict protocols to prevent over-taking, embedding restraint and reciprocity in sea-Country law (Clark 1990).
Language and Names of Gulls on Sea-Country
Across Victorian languages, names for gulls often reflect calls, coastal association, or behaviour. Historic records compiled for the Kulin languages document terms for coastal birds used in seasonal foodways and ceremony; these vocabularies are being revived through language programs today (Clark 1990; VACL 2022). The emphasis on protocols for egg-taking—take some, leave many—appears repeatedly in oral histories (Flood 1983; Clark 1990).
Wadawurrung Country and Oral History
On Wadawurrung Country (Geelong, Bellarine Peninsula, Surf Coast), gulls are closely tied to Lake Connewarre–Barwon River estuary and coastal dunes.
Indicators of abundance: Gulls rafted above baitfish schools; fishers timed netting to these cues.
Egg gathering: Offshore dunes and islands near Barwon Heads and the Bellarine were traditional nesting sites; law warned against greed lest colonies abandon the site (Clark 1990).
Messengers of Country: Gulls’ cries could warn of storms or remind people to uphold balance.
Colonial rupture: Settlement, trawling, and waste dumps around Geelong/Bellarine altered gull behaviour—a local sign of wider disruption to sea-Country (Clark 1990; Rolls 1969).
Case Study: Port Phillip Bay Colonies
Before settlement: Mud Islands, Swan Bay and other sandbanks hosted major gull rookeries; egg-taking followed cultural law (Clark 1990).
1840s–1850s: Colonial newspapers reported settlers stripping rookeries for eggs and meat; some colonies collapsed (The Argus 1857).
Urban influence: With Melbourne’s rapid growth, fish offal, abattoir waste, and market refuse fuelled population booms (Rolls 1969; Higgins & Davies 1996).
Ecological imbalance: Inflated gull numbers increased predation on eggs/chicks of other seabirds (e.g., terns, small penguin colonies) (DELWP 2021).
Cultural disruption: For Wadawurrung and Woiwurrung/Boonwurrung, indiscriminate egging symbolised the breaking of sustainability law.
Today, Port Phillip remains a gull stronghold; many breeding islands are protected reserves, with active management balancing gull abundance and other seabird conservation (DELWP 2021).
Impacts of Colonisation
Ecological
Population expansion from fleets, markets, and later municipal tips/landfills supplied novel food sources (Rolls 1969; BirdLife Australia 2020).
Habitat change: Some natural rookeries lost to development; piers, roofs, and breakwaters created new roosts (Higgins & Davies 1996).
Predators: Introduced foxes and dogs raided mainland colonies, shifting breeding toward islands (DELWP 2021).
Cultural
Harvest protocols ignored: Settler over-harvest undermined Indigenous stewardship (Clark 1990).
Symbolic shift: Gulls remained messengers, but scavenging at dumps and wharves became a visible sign of imbalance (Flood 1983; Rolls 1969).
Ambivalent settler view: At once seaside icons and urban “pests.”
The Science of Seagulls
Adaptability: Silver Gulls thrive in natural and urban settings; flexible diet and nesting give them high resilience (Higgins & Davies 1996; BirdLife Australia 2020).
Diet: Omnivorous scavengers of fish, invertebrates, carrion, and human refuse; diet composition shifts with access to fisheries and waste (Higgins & Davies 1996).
Breeding: Large colonies on islands/coastal wetlands; nests of grasses and seaweed; multiple re-nesting possible in favourable years (Higgins & Davies 1996).
Range expansion: Historically coastal; now common inland around towns, lakes, and tips following urban sprawl and agriculture (DELWP 2021).
Key Gull Places in Victoria
Mud Islands – Port Phillip Bay: Historic breeding hub; now a Ramsar-listed complex managed for seabirds.
Swan Bay – Bellarine Peninsula: Important feeding and nesting area in proximity to Wadawurrung Country.
Phillip Island / Western Port: Significant seabird landscape with active management to balance gulls, terns, and penguins (DELWP 2021).
Gippsland Lakes: Extensive wetlands supporting year-round foraging and seasonal colonies (DELWP 2021).
Conservation and Cultural Renewal
Management today: Protection of island rookeries, predator control (foxes), and waste management policies that reduce human-derived food (DELWP 2021).
Cultural leadership: Traditional Owners are increasingly involved in sea-Country planning, reviving egg-harvest protocols as teaching tools for sustainability (Clark 1990; VACL 2022).
Urban coexistence: Councils promote secure bins/landfill capping to curb artificial population inflation while recognising gulls’ role as native coastal birds (BirdLife Australia 2020).
Global Symbolism
Indigenous readings: Messengers of sea and weather; teachers of restraint at nesting sites (Clark 1990; Flood 1983).
Seafaring cultures: Guides to land and changing weather.
Modern identity: Symbols of freedom and resilience, but also of urban nuisance—reflecting human-driven ecological change (Rolls 1969; BirdLife Australia 2020).
Conclusion
The story of Victoria’s gulls is one of survival and adaptation. For Indigenous communities, gulls were never mere scavengers: they were messengers, seasonal teachers, and foods bound by law. Colonisation disrupted these relationships—expanding gull numbers via waste and fisheries while eroding careful harvest protocols.
Today, gulls are among the state’s most visible birds—reminders of ancient sea-Country knowledge and the enduring ecological consequences of colonial change. Effective management now blends Traditional Owner leadership, habitat protection, and better waste practices to keep gull populations in balance with other seabirds and with Country.
References
BirdLife Australia (2020) Species Profile: Silver Gull (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae), Melbourne.
Clark, ID (1990) Aboriginal Languages and Clans: An Historical Atlas of Western and Central Victoria, 1800–1900, Monash Publications in Geography, Melbourne.
DELWP – Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (2021) Coastal Birds in Victoria and related seabird management guidance, Victorian Government, Melbourne.
Flood, J (1983) Archaeology of the Dreamtime, Collins, Sydney.
Higgins, PJ & Davies, SJJF (eds) (1996) Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds, Vol. 3: Snipe to Gulls, Oxford University Press, Melbourne.
Pizzey, G & Knight, F (2012) The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia, HarperCollins, Sydney.
Rolls, EC (1969) They All Ran Wild: The Animals and Plants that Plague Australia, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
The Argus (Melbourne) (1857) reports on gull nesting and egg collection in Port Phillip.
Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages (VACL) (2022) Language Revival and Naming Project Reports, Melbourne.
Written, Researched and Directed by James Vegter 16/09/2025
Magic Lands Alliance
Sharing the truth of Indigenous and colonial history through film, education, land and community.
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Magic Lands Alliance acknowledge the Traditional Owners, Custodians, and First Nations communities across Australia and internationally. We honour their enduring connection to the sky, land, waters, language, and culture. We pay our respects to Elders past, present, and emerging, and to all First Peoples communities and language groups. This article draws only on publicly available information; many cultural practices remain the intellectual property of communities.