Three years on – a lot to celebrate at Mount Burr Swamp Restoration Reserve

Return water, and wildlife will follow! It’s not quite that simple, but restoration efforts over the last three years at NGTs Mount Burr Restoration Reserve have re-created wetland habitat for many important fauna species.

The “Sunday Mail”, recently published an article featuring NGT’s Bryan and Rose (see below), highlighting the recent discovery of the Southern Bent-wing Bat (Miniopterus orianae bassanii) as another sign of the wetland’s biodiverse habitats.

Recent observations of “Rakali” or Native Water Rat (Hydromys chrysogaster), add to a long list of important species observations; Growling Grass Frog (Litoria raniformis), Smooth Frog (Geocrinia laevis), Little Galaxias (Galaxiella toourtkoourt), Brolga (Grus rubicunda), South-eastern Red-tailed Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus banksia graptogyne), and Ancient Greenling (Hemiphlebia mirabilis).

(Left) An aerial view of the transforming habitat at Mount Burr Swamp, and some of the species that call it home; (top) Growling Grass Frog (Litoria raniformis), (middle) Ancient Greenling (Hemiphlebia miribalis), (bottom) Southern Bent-wing Bat (Miniopterus orianae bassanii).

The restoration work continues, with many plants successfully direct seeded  in 2018, and more seed collecting and revegetation to be done!

There is a tree planting day at Mount Burr Swamp coming up this Friday 28th June as part of NGT’s ‘Fieldwork Friday’ program. You can get more details about the event here. There is another planting day at the reserve scheduled on August 9th.

If you would like to join in the restoration effort at any of NGT’s reserves, keep an eye on the volunteer page for more upcoming events, or contact Kimberley for more information.

The article on the restoration of Mount Burr Swamp that appeared in the “Sunday Mail’ on 9th June, 2019.

Lauren Kivisalu