A bird’s eye view and recapping the 2020 summer at Walker Swamp

Summer sure seems like a long time ago. As much of south-eastern Australia was ravaged by bushfires, and smoke blanketed our local landscapes, Walker Swamp provided refuge for local wetland birds – you can further explore how waterbirds have responded to the swamp’s restoration in Greg’s post.

After only modest inflows last winter, the wetland (although still looking magnificent) actually entered the summer months about 45 cm below its full supply level. The below aerial image of the NGT property gives you some indication of just how much wetter it can get out there, because that extra 45 cm in depth would roughly triple the area around Walker Swamp that inundates.

Walker Swamp and the wider NGT floodplain reserve in November 2019

So despite Walker Swamp still looking fantastic, only a fraction of the wider 1000 acre property (of which approximately 80% is floodplain) went underwater – which means we still have much to look forward to!

This timelapse video captures photos at 10 minute intervals through January 2020, as the wetland started to dry back. We are approaching almost one year since we back-filled all the drains across the floodplain and we are looking forward to the arrival of the rains and another season of filling, or maybe even our first flood event…