Great news for wetlands in the Upper South East – Tilley Swamp will be restored!
The South East Flows Restoration project is about restoring historic flows from the South East back to the Coorong, via Tilley Swamp (inland of the coast, north of Kingston), and has been under development for several years since 2007. The project is largely funded by the Australian Government, with SA Government support, and is being delivered by the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources (DEWNR) and Natural Resources South East.
For much of the past two years, it looked like the project was not going to be able to restore wetlands en route to the Coorong, which would have been a real shame for Upper South East wetlands that have been starved of flows for several decades since major arterial drains to the sea (like Blackford Drain) were built.
If you have followed the NGT blogs over that time, you might recall these couple of posts about the project:
- Post 1 – Let’s Talk About the SE Flows Restoration Project
- Post 2 – Exploring the link between Upper SE Wetlands and the Coorong
With this background in mind, NGT is absolutely delighted with the news recently announced by the Minister for the Environment in SA, Ian Hunter, that Tilley Swamp will now be restored as part of this major environmental project.
The updated plans for the project (which can be read on the Natural Resources SE website here) are now largely based on the watercourse option detailed in the first NGT discussion paper that was publicly released in December 2014. Given that this means at least four or five thousand hectares of wetlands in Tilley Swamp will now be restored as part of the project – this is incredible news for our region!
On behalf of NGT, well done to the landowners, DEWNR staff and community members who have done a fantastic job of working together to deliver a great result for Upper South East wetlands and the Coorong.
We can’t wait to see the first diversion of flows in a few years!
Tilley Swamp – much of this shaded area may once again be inundated as wetlands thanks to a recent announcement as part of the South East Flows Restoration Project.
