Narrawong East St Wetland Project

The area historically encompassed the endangered ‘Swamp Scrub’ Ecological Vegetation Community (EVC) of the Warrnambool Plain bioregion, the extent of which has been significantly reduced in the region and local area since European settlement mainly due to clearing and conversion to farmland.

We are working to establish important flora species and habitat features, such as the Wooly tea-tree (Leptospermum lanigerum) (pictured left). The project provides a very important and rare opportunity for the local community and general public to engage and learn about the importance of this habitat in-situ, being one of very few examples of this EVC along the Surry River floodplain.

Important fauna species have been observed at the site, which has been very encouraging, including regular seasonal presence of Southern Emu-wrens (Stipiturus malachurus) who utilise cover of Phragmites and other reeds and sedges, and an exciting sighting of a juvenile Southern Brown Bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus) adjacent to the site (pictured right).

The students have learnt that the wetland provides habitat for a huge array of fauna, including birds and mammals, reptiles and amphibians, and importantly many water loving insects, who interact in a complex web with each-other, the vegetation, and physical elements of the wetland environment.

This project is now in its fourth year of activity, with initial plantings now starting to have a visible improvement on the composition and habitat value of the site. The students have also become junior custodians, and very knowledgeable ones at that, having learnt through educational sessions with NGT all about wetlands, how they work, what lives there, why they are important, and how we can look after them. They have also been active participants in revegetation, having the opportunity to install their own personalised treed guards (pictured left).