Australia’s cities dim their skies as residents notice

Jones at the University of Melbourne says light pollution is actually the easiest of any human-induced pollutant to fix “because you can literally switch it off”. On the other hand, “the lights are there because humans need them”. There are three ways to tackle this conundrum, Jones says. First, good lights directed only into the place they are needed rather than spilling out into the environment like a big ball of light. Second, reducing light intensity and having them on only when needed. Third, changing

the colour of the lighting to avoid throwing blue light – a problem with early LED lighting – because this is more attractive to animals and more disruptive to physiology. While urbanisation has generally made the skies brighter, Ogg says there are pockets of progress on a more localised level, and she is getting a lot of interest from councils around Australia asking how and what they can do. In Sydney, Northern Beaches Council created an Urban Night Sky Place at Governor Phillip Park and

Barrenjoey Headland. It is successful, Ogg says, partly because the peninsula is surrounded by water and national park. “That makes it unique, I would say in the world, to have a place so close to a city to be able to see the night sky and even the Milky Way so well,” Ogg says. “It took them six years, and in doing that, they retrofitted some lights and turned lights down, and that sort of became a council project, not just within that area. I’ve

noticed that across the northern beaches area, where I live, the lights are getting warmer, they are getting less intense, and they’re only being used when they need to be.” The northern beaches of Sydney are noticeably darker than the rest of the city on the light pollution maps but, Ogg says, there is also progress in other places. The Sydney Harbour Bridge was relit to remove the upward-pointing lights, for example. Jones says there are few dark spots in Melbourne. “It’s very sprawling, so

we have lights over a much, much bigger area … so you’re getting light spill from all of the outer regions into the centre as well, and vice versa,” she says. Dark Sky International has certified several dark sky places in Australia. In NSW, besides Palm Beach, there is the Warrumbungle Dark Sky Park near Coonabarabran and Kestrel Nest EcoHut in the Snowy Mountains in NSW. In Queensland, Winton is a dark sky community, near the Jump-Up Dark Sky Sanctuary. In South Australia, there is

the River Murray Dark Sky Reserve, Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary, and Carrickalinga dark sky community on the Fleurieu Peninsula. Victoria does not have any official dark sky parks. The Sunshine Coast Council has created a 900-square-kilometre dark reserve in its hinterland and is waiting to see if Dark Sky International will ratify it. Attitudes are changing. “When I first started talking about it, all these people were thinking that I wanted to live in a cave and turn all the lights off and never ever have

light on again – that’s absolutely not the case,” Ogg says. “I think it’s just a few more years off, and then we might actually see a downward trend in Australia for light pollution, hopefully.”

light pollution, dark sky, Australia, Northern Beaches Council, Governor Phillip Park, Barrenjoey Headland, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Dark Sky International, Sunshine Coast Council, Milky Way