Long Swamp extends for over 15km, from the Glenelg River estuary, south-eastwards to Lake Mombeong and is bounded by coastal dunes to the south and higher undulating ground to the north. This wetland is one of the key environmental features conserved within Discovery Bay Coastal Park, is listed on the Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia, and forms part of one of the Australian Government’s identified High Ecological Value Aquatic Ecosystem (HEVAE) sites across the country.
Like many wetlands across southern Australia, the hydrology of Long Swamp has been altered (through a range of factors) since European settlement, and there has been growing concern within the local community about the current trends of change within the wetland system.
After the launch of Nature Glenelg Trust in January 2012, we began working in partnership with the local community and the agencies responsible for the management of Long Swamp, to:
- help better understand the current values of the system,
- document the historic and current trajectory of change, and
- articulate future management options that are based around a sound set of principles that are guided by the scientific work undertaken.
The findings of the baseline Long Swamp Fish and Frog Study, commissioned by the Glenelg Hopkins CMA and undertaken by Nature Glenelg Trust in 2012, can be downloaded here: Long Swamp Fish and Frog Survey 2012.
As a result of the this work and other previous studies, Nature Glenelg Trust has been awarded grant funding by the Department of Environment and Primary Industries (DEPI), to undertake a hydrological restoration trial at the Nobles Rocks outlet from Long Swamp, through the installation of temporary sandbag weir structures in 2014/15.
This project has been made possible by the generous support of the Nelson Coastcare Group, Parks Victoria, DEPI, the Glenelg Hopkins CMA and a wide range of other people in the local cross-border community.
Please check the blogs below for the latest updates on the project, as well as a large amount of additional background information.
- Forgotten Fauna Part 18: What does the bandicoot recovery story on Victoria’s offshore islands tell us about the differential impacts of introduced predators? 28/03/2024I recently came across this interesting article in the Conversation, which looks at the story of the recovery of the Eastern Barred Bandicoot on three of Victoria’s offshore islands – French, Phillip and Churchill Island – and also some of the wider issues facing the range of small mammals on the mainland that have been ...
- Latest update from the South West (Vic) Eastern Quoll Hub 28/03/2024A few weeks ago, members of the SW Vic Eastern Quoll Hub, caught up again for a planning session at Rhynie Pastoral’s Shepherds Hut Sanctuary, where we also had the privilege of seeing a lot of wonderful wildlife (like bettongs and bandicoots) after dark! Although quolls are our group’s flagship species and an obvious priority ...
- Having a chat on ABC radio for World Wildlife Day, and touching on the issue of declining groundwater in South East SA 28/03/2024A few weeks ago (on Sunday 3rd March) we celebrated World Wildlife Day, and to mark the occasion this year I caught up with Rod Sparks on his Weekends Program on ABC South East SA. In a wide-ranging chat that included topics like environmental change, recovery of threatened species and modern technology that is assisting us ...
- Casuarina Conservancy Fund – a wonderful gesture that is helping us grow the NGT Foundation 28/03/2024It is my absolute pleasure to announce the creation of the newest Named Fund in the NGT Foundation, made possible thanks to the generosity of Adrian Heard and Meredith Reardon. Last year, Adrian and Meredith made the decision to donate their small but wonderful bush block at Lake George, near Beachport in SA, to Nature ...
- You can now donate your bottles & cans refund to NGT! We’ve joined the Victorian Container Deposit Scheme 28/03/2024Victorian-based supporters of NGT now have a new option for financially supporting our work! Nature Glenelg Trust is registered with the Victorian Container Deposit scheme as a charity, which means when you run your eligible single use containers through the recycling machines you can now choose to donate your refund to NGT. Because the system is a ...
- NGT Volunteer Profile – Deb Thompson 28/03/2024As a non-profit organisation, volunteers are an integral part of the work we do at here at NGT. Our volunteers do vital conservation work, like sorting seeds and growing seedlings in the nursery, helping to restore degraded ecosystems through planting and weed control, assisting with surveys, and one is even a live-in caretaker on one ...
- All eyes on the fish prize – students get hands-on ecology experience 28/03/2024Investigator College year 6 students and year 12 conservation and ecosystem management students recently spent two days at their Currency Creek campus undertaking fish surveys with NGT’s senior aquatic ecologist, Sylvia. The enthusiastic students sampled six species of native fish, yabbies, freshwater shrimp and turtles. Low numbers of alien fish species were sampled which is ...
- Revisiting Gooseneck Swamp 10 years later – NGT’s first restoration site in the Grampians National Park 28/03/2024During a recent visit with a couple of supporters to NGT’s Walker Swamp Restoration Reserve, we briefly hopped over the fence into the adjoining National Park, to take a look at the view over Gooseneck Swamp. What drew our attention to this wetland was that fact that – in the beautiful, clear autumn daylight – ...
- Sharing the evolving story of Burdens Marsh with the Tasman Peninsula community this April 28/03/2024In our last update on the story of the saltmarsh area within the Tasmanian Land Conservancy’s Sloping Main Reserve, we talked about what the early maps can tell us about Burdens Marsh – an important area of previously modified saltmarsh currently being assessed by NGT to understand its history of change and evaluate its potential ...
- Surveying Aquatic Vegetation in Karrawirra Pari/the River Torrens 28/03/2024In early March, Ben and Tessa took to the water to survey submerged aquatic vegetation in Karrawirra Pari/the River Torrens. NGT first undertook this monitoring for the City of Adelaide in 2020, and repeated it in 2022. This year the survey has been expanded to include the section of the river downstream of the main ...
Click here for the full list of blogs related to the restoration trial
Click here for the full list of other archived blogs related to Long Swamp
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