A chorus of growling grass frogs welcomed NGT supporters to the new Wirey Swamp Restoration Reserve

Earlier this month, on Saturday the 4th October 2025, we hosted our first gathering for project supporters at the new Wirey Swamp Restoration Reserve. Not only did we have some water out there, after a modest drainage inflow about a month earlier, but we also miraculously timed the day to strike the only good weather we’d seen in several weeks.

The photo below should give you a feel for the site, the event and the spectacular weather, with about 60 supporters (NGT donors and volunteers) in attendance…

If you look closely in the image above, you will see that – after our introduction to the site – our guests broke up into three groups, rotating around three educational stops we’d set up at the wetland edge.

The first stop – hosted by Senior Wetland Ecologist, Dr Ayesha Burdett (below), was all about the small stuff… macro-invertebrates and other small critters living in the wetland, already in large numbers even though the water had just arrived. It is fascinating just how much the waterbugs can actually tell us about all kinds of things like water quality, site history, site disturbance and habitat quality, and how they change over time depending on how long it has been since inundation commenced. In short, they are a very useful and reliable indicator for us to measure wetland health.

The next stop also allowed us to take a step up in the food chain, as our Principal Ecologist, Dr Lachlan Farrington, showed our guests his catch after the very first native fish survey conducted in the wetland, after setting nets the night before.

Despite the wetland only being inundated for about a month (after a prolonged dry period), Lachie captured Southern Pygmy Perch, a beautiful species of small native freshwater fish – which as you can see below – got lots of attention. We hypothesised where these fish may have bunkered down during the long dry period (as they need permanent water to survive), and how far they may have travelled to the site via the artificial drainage network to announce their presence at our event.

In a fantastic bonus, Lachie (shown below) also happened to catch a number of different frog species in the fish nets, which were a highlight, with the most popular attraction being our first capture of a Growling Gross Frog (aka Southern Bell Frog) at the site.

This nationally threatened frog species, which is at the top of the frog food chain, but has disappeared from much of the wider landscape, is one of the target species we’re aiming to benefit at the site, so it is fantastic to see them still hanging on in this part of the landscape. Their distinctive growling call also echoed across the wetland for us a number of times throughout the day.

At our final stop, attendees took one more step up the food chain as our pair of Senior Ecologists – and resident bird experts – Bryan Haywood and Dr Greg Kerr (below), hosted birdwatching of the wetland using scopes and binoculars.

Although we have been seeing a pair of brolga hanging around, they didn’t grace us with their presence on the day – but many other species were observed. Lauren actually took this photo of a brolga pair at the site two days before our event, on the 2nd October.

We finished off the day with a bushwalk and took the opportunity of discussing some of NGT’s longer-term plans for the area with this wonderful group of supporters. This includes work that will now occur as a result of the recently announced grant funding support from The Ian Potter Foundation to support NGT’s wetland restoration program.

Our October event marks a significant milestone in a process which started about 18 months ago, when NGT initiated a conversation with the local plantation forests industry about creating a wetland restoration demonstration site in a plantation growing area of western Victoria, to mirror the positive outcomes achieved at Mt Burr Swamp, across the border in SA.

So I’d like to close this update by personally recognising the immense goodwill and leadership of Cameron MacDonald from OneFortyOne (OFO) and Russ Hughes from Australian Bluegum Plantations (ABP), and the commitment from the Boards of both organisations to work with NGT towards the vision we have for the area, including the involvement of the wider community at the site. The ABP and OFO commitment to match donations was the early catalyst of the momentum that has followed, which now includes contributions by so many other generous individual supporters and philanthropic organisations.

All in all, it has been a fantastic team effort so far, and we’ll have further exciting news to share about the project in early 2026, so please keep an eye on future updates!

The Wirey Swamp Restoration Reserve is an initiative of Nature Glenelg Trust,
with the generous assistance of NGT’s strategic and philanthropic supporters,
public donors and our plantation forest industry partners: