Narrawong East St Wetland Project

Welcome to the Narrawong East st Wetland Project Page!

Often revegetation projects are aimed at restoring or enhancing habitat for ecological value, or perhaps also to increase amenity of an area of an area or landscape. Such projects also create huge potential and opportunity as educational and interpretational tools, particularly when nested within townships or communities.

Nararwong District Primary School saw such potential at a small area of the Surry River floodplain, just down the road. Since 2012, the school has started restoring the site at the end of East street by undertaking revegetation with indigenous plants, which has allowed students to become actively involved, and learn first-hand about important wetland environments of the area.

Nature Glenelg Trust has been able to partner with the school, to continue this work and facilitate education sessions for students that encompass the wetland theme and its values.

Restoring an endangered vegetation community

The area historically encompassed the endangered ‘Swamp Scrub’ Ecological Vegetation Community (EVC) of the Warrnambool Plain bioregion, the extent of which has been significantly reduced in the region and local area since European settlement mainly due to clearing and conversion to farmland.

We are working to establish important flora species and habitat features, such as the Wooly tea-tree (Leptospermum lanigerum) (pictured left). The project provides a very important and rare opportunity for the local community and general public to engage and learn about the importance of this habitat in-situ, being one of very few examples of this EVC along the Surry River floodplain.

Important fauna species have been observed at the site, which has been very encouraging, including regular seasonal presence of Southern Emu-wrens (Stipiturus malachurus) who utilise cover of Phragmites and other reeds and sedges, and an exciting sighting of a juvenile Southern Brown Bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus) adjacent to the site (pictured right).

The students have learnt that the wetland provides habitat for a huge array of fauna, including birds and mammals, reptiles and amphibians, and importantly many water loving insects, who interact in a complex web with each-other, the vegetation, and physical elements of the wetland environment.

Providing habitat for fauna

Students as Custodians

This project is now in its fourth year of activity, with initial plantings now starting to have a visible improvement on the composition and habitat value of the site. The students have also become junior custodians, and very knowledgeable ones at that, having learnt through educational sessions with NGT all about wetlands, how they work, what lives there, why they are important, and how we can look after them. They have also been active participants in revegetation, having the opportunity to install their own personalised treed guards (pictured left).

Restoring the East st wetland is an ongoing venture, so please keep your eyes on our ‘Upcoming Events’ and ‘Latest News’ to see how and when you can get involved in working bees at the site.

This project has been funded by the Victorian Government’s Coastcare Community Grants Program, and the Glenelg Hopkins CMA Coastal Community Grants Program.