Day 17, Sydney to Mildura
River Murray
Date: Monday October 30th 2023
Project: Eastern Australian Waterbird Survey
Observers: Richard Kingsford (UNSW), John Porter (NSW DPE)
Pilot: Thomas Clark
Departing Sydney we headed south to Albury to count along the wetlands of the River Murray and its floodplain. Our first count was on Lake Mulwala (4,450 ha), a large artificial lake west of Corowa. The lake was created in 1939 by the construction of the Yarrawonga Weir. It was designed to regulate the flow of the River Murray for irrigation and to generate hydroelectric power. It’s average depth of 3.5 meters is relatively shallow, which makes it more attractive to waterbirds than deeper dams.
Murray channel near Lake Mulwala
Surveying Lake Mulwala
Surveying Lake Mulwala
The water levels were high and there were moderate numbers of Black Swans, White Ibis and piscivorous species including darters, pelicans, Little Black and Pied Cormorants. White Ibis had started a small colony on one of the islands.
From here we continued west along the Murray counting over the wetlands and reedbeds of the internationally significant Barmah Millewa forests. The largest remaining red gum forest in the world. The river channel was flowing strongly with limited standing water remaining on the floodplain after recent flooding. We found several aggregations of Night Herons and moderate numbers of herons, egrets, darters, cormorants, Black Swans, Black Duck, Grey Teal and Wood Ducks. Whilst the numbers were moderate they were larger numbers than we had seen for several years.
Surveying the Barmah Millewa reedbeds
Barmah Lake
The weather started to deteriorate and we soon found ourselves flying into a strong and gusty westerly with rain showers which made the counting pretty unpleasant. Our Mondays seem to come with mandatory rough conditions!
Continuing along the River Murray into Gunbower Perricoota forests we found most floodplain lagoons and billabongs full. We counted low numbers of egrets, darters, cormorants, Black Duck, Grey Teal and Wood Ducks.
Our next focus were the Lakes of Hattah-Kulkyne National Park. These lakes form a series of interconnected temporary wetlands that can support large numbers of waterbirds; today however we found low to moderate numbers of egrets, darters, cormorants, Black Duck, Grey Teal and Wood Ducks.
Some of the lakes can receive environmental flows from the River Murray and are managed to try and mimic natural flows. Like many natural areas, Hattah-Kulkyne faces challenges from invasive species, altered water flows, and climate change. Ongoing conservation efforts aim to protect and manage the park's unique ecosystems. Today the lakes have low numbers of Wood Duck, Grey Teal, cormorants and pelicans – with small numbers of Great Cormorant nesting. From Hattah we head to Mildura after a long day for an overnight stop.