A first Look at the hydrological issues affecting Silver Plains, in Tasmania’s central highlands

Posted at 29 Sep 2025 at 15:45h in News, Tasmanian Restoration Projects by
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Early in September, Bec and Ben spent three chilly days at Silver Plains Reserve in Tasmania’s central highlands, a property owned and managed by the Tasmanian Land Conservancy (TLC). This is an impressive area of sub-alpine forest, marshes and grassland that supports a number of threatened species, including Latham’s snipe, Tasmanian devils and eastern quolls.

The 6,595 ha reserve has a mixed history of grazing and logging but retains high conservation values and, as a TLC Reserve, will be protected in perpetuity. Nature Glenelg Trust are investigating the potential for hydrological restoration across low-lying areas of the property, which have been subjected to legacy impacts from drainage and stock grazing. This is being undertaken as part of the broader ‘Building Ecosystem Resilience: A Tasmanian Model for Renewal at Silver Plains‘ project, funded by The Ian Potter Foundation and led by the Tasmanian Land Conservancy, which brings together partner organisations to deliver effective, science-based conservation management.

Our work began with desktop mapping of artificial hydrological features, based on aerial imagery and digital topography. The next step, which was the purpose of Bec and Ben’s field trip, was to ground-truth that mapping.

There are a number of sub-alpine marshes across the property supporting grasses, mosses and, in some cases, sedges and shrubs. One of these areas, known as Buck’s Marsh, regularly supports over 100 Latham’s snipe, and we flushed three as we walked through it.

It is clear on the ground that drains have been excavated through these marshes, probably to improve their productivity as sheep pasture many years ago. While many of the drains are shallow, there are deeper, more significant drains in some of the larger marshes and these are clearly having an ongoing drying impact on these significant, carbon rich habitats.

We mapped 36.26 km of drains and other artificial hydrological features at Silver Plains, and have classified these features according to their hydrological impact: minor, moderate or major. This important task is the first step in determining and prioritising future hydrological restoration works.

Click on an image below to enter the photo gallery.

Bec next to some clear evidence of artificial drainage at Buck’s Marsh – nature doesn’t create channels like this (photo Ben Taylor, 3/9/2025).
An example of a drain with ‘moderate’ hydrological impact (photo Ben Taylor, 2/9/2025).
Drain and spoil mound clearly visible through a shrub-dominated marsh (photo Ben Taylor 4/9/2025).
This drain is contributing to the drying of Buck’s Marsh, one of the more important wetland areas of Silver Plains (photo Ben Taylor, 3/9/2025).
Example of a drain at Silver Plains that is subject to ongoing erosion and incision and therefore increasing hydrological impact (photo Ben Taylor, 3/9/2025).
Juvenile Eucalypts and shrubs within moss-dominated marsh. This is an example of terrestrialisation, the displacement of wetland vegetation by less inundation-tolerant species in response to drying. At this location there are drains nearby that are contributing to drying, but climate change is also likely playing a role (photo Ben Taylor 4/9/2025).
This is the terminus of a natural, ephemeral creek as it flows into a marsh area from steeper terrain (behind photographer) forming this interesting narrow, sinuous flowpath bordered by mounded ‘banks’ of moss on each side (photo Ben Taylor 2/9/2025).
At Silver Plains common wombats are very … common (photo Ben Taylor, 2/9/2025).
Aerial image of the Buck’s Marsh area of Silver Plains.
Aerial image of Buck’s Marsh with NGT drain mapping overlain – drains categorised according to their hydrological impact.

After nearly three days exploring the reserve we headed back to our accommodation, the simple cabin that TLC call “The White House”, to have lunch and pack up ready to leave. Just as we did so we were treated to a snow shower, with quite heavy snow falling and settling for about 45 minutes, blanketing the landscape white outside – what a delightful way to conclude our visit!

Our departing gift from the weather gods – a snow shower at The Whitehouse.

We look forward to getting to know this site more intimately and identifying hydrological restoration opportunities over the coming year.

This assessment is being undertaken within a broader project ‘Building Ecosystem Resilience: A Tasmanian Model for Renewal at Silver Plains’ funded by the Ian Potter Foundation and led by the Tasmanian Land Conservancy.

Ben Taylor