A new era of wetland restoration on private land across south-eastern Australia, supported by The Ian Potter Foundation

In some tremendous news this July, we’re excited to announce that The Ian Potter Foundation is now a major NGT partner, supporting our efforts to restore wetlands on private land in western Victoria and beyond.

In their latest grants round-up, which was made public on the 17th July 2025, the Foundation shared the fantastic news that NGT has been awarded a $1.35M grant over the next 5 years. To read their update and learn about the work of the five environment grant recipients this year, please follow this link.

The support of The Ian Potter Foundation is incredibly timely, as it will allow us to get started with planning, monitoring and other early tasks at our newly created Wirey Swamp Restoration Reserve, plus complete the final stage of hydrological restoration activities at Walker Swamp, where we will now plan and implement works to increase the reliability of inundation within a key area of floodplain at the site, south-west of the main Walker Swamp basin. This area, which comprises about 1/4 of the wetland area on the NGT Reserve, currently misses out on receiving flows in all but the very largest floods.

Using these NGT Restoration Reserves as demonstration sites, this project will allow us to inspire and work with a new cohort of private landholders across the region, helping them to restore and enhance additional wetlands on private land.

While many former wetlands have been modified for agriculture, and in some cases for a very long time, our previous work to restore wetlands on farmland and other private land has delivered some spectacular results. As we have talked about many times over the years, wetlands are truly fascinating ecosystems that have some distinct natural advantages, making them prime candidates for restoration.

There are a number of reasons you might consider restoring a wetland on your property, including:

• To have a place for the family to enjoy the view, birdwatch or for the kids to find tadpoles
• To provide a cooler, greener space and natural firebreak on your farm
• To hold more water in the landscape, protect downstream areas from flooding and recharge groundwater
• To watch the spontaneous recovery of wetland plants and animals unfold (including fish, frogs and birds), noting that threatened species will often return of their own accord
• To create a place with potential value under future carbon or nature repair markets, biodiversity offsets, or to meet environmental stewardship and/or certification requirements

If you, or someone you know, would like to learn more about the potential options and how we may be able to assist you with wetland restoration works on your property, then please contact our wetland ecologist in western Victoria – Ayesha Burdett – (phone – 0429 021 500).

However, even if you are based outside of western Victoria, in other parts of Victoria, SA, NSW or Tasmania, one of our other staff may also have options available to support you, so please don’t hesitate to reach out to Ayesha and she will help put you in touch.

PS – to give you a feel for what hydrological restoration can involve or look like, at a range of different sites and wetland types, the embedded video below (recorded at the 2021 Tasmanian Landcare Conference from this previous story) will provide some useful background to get you started. However, note that as this is presentation is now almost four years old, two of the projects mentioned in this video have since been completed. To learn more about those sites specifically, please follow these links: Rowan Swamp and Long Point.

This new Nature Glenelg Trust project is supported by a grant from The Ian Potter Foundation

About The Ian Potter Foundation
The Ian Potter Foundation is one of Australia’s major philanthropic foundations. The Foundation makes grants nationally to support charitable organisations working to benefit the community across a wide range of sectors including the arts, medical research, public health research, early childhood development, community wellbeing and environmental science. The Ian Potter Foundation aims to support and promote a fair, healthy, sustainable and vibrant Australia.