From below average to flooding in just a few days… plus register your interest for an upcoming exploration day at Walker Swamp

The big wet has arrived at Walker Swamp in the past couple of weeks, as we have gone from modest inflows and below average water levels to the highest levels we have ever seen at Walker Swamp in a matter of just several days.

To give you a sense of the rapid transformation, here is the view of Walker Swamp on the 21st of September 2022…

… and here is Walker Swamp a month later, several days after a big downpour in the catchment of the site delivered major flows for the first time in two years.

… and again a week later, as the adjacent floodplain continues to fill up – now backing up behind a completely full Brady Swamp – after several more days of rain.

To give you a sense of what the flows and water levels have looked like over the past two weeks, here are a couple of videos that bring it all to life, using some footage I have taken over the past month. Excuse the production quality being a bit rough (yes, it is a quick late night ‘in-house’ production on my laptop!), but it will give you a feel for current conditions and the amount of water out there.

First up is the mid-October overview…

… but more water was still to come – so next up is an overview for the end of the month, showing just how quickly things have continued to change out there!

Finally, if all of this looks interesting to you, or you came along in May for our 10th Anniversary event and would like to see the wetlands full and at their best, please read on!

We are planning on having an informal exploration day at some stage in the next couple of months, but will not be setting the date long in advance, so that we can try to pick a nice still, sunny day – probably 4-5 days out. By not taking pot luck with the weather, we are hoping to choose a day that will be perfect for a hike and / or a look around in a kayak – when the place is really at its best. We understand that not everyone will be available at short notice, but will do our best to accommodate your visit at another time if you can’t make it on the selected date.

If you are interested to be notified of the date and see a bit more of the wetland up close this spring, then please feel free to register your interest with our Southern Grampians Community Coordinator, Lisa McIntyre ().

It is going to be a very interesting year ahead now for Walker Swamp, so I hope to see you out there soon!