Lake Woods is an ephemeral freshwater lake in the Northern Territory of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It lies on Newcastle Creek close to the small town of Elliott on the Stuart Highway, about halfway between

Darwin Darwin may refer to: Common meanings * Charles Darwin (1809–1882), English naturalist and writer, best known as the originator of the theory of biological evolution by natural selection * Darwin, Northern Territory, a territorial capital city i ...

and

Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...

. It is important as a breeding site for waterbirds.

Description

There are two near-permanent waterholes on Newcastle Creek - South Newcastle and Longreach – that merge with Lake Woods during major floods, creating a large expanse of open water. The lake basin supports open

lignum Lignum is Latin for wood and may refer to: * '' Gmelina lignum-vitreum'', plant endemic to New Caledonia * Lignum, common name of ''Muehlenbeckia florulenta'', plant native to inland Australia * Lignum Crucis, remnants of the True Cross * Lignum Lt ...

shrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity. It m ...

and open woodland of

coolibah ''Eucalyptus coolabah'', commonly known as coolibah or coolabah, is a species of tree found in eastern inland Australia. It has rough bark on part or all of the trunk, smooth powdery cream to pink bark above, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves ...

, gutta-percha and belalie. River red gums occur around the waterholes. The land in the IBA is covered by two

pastoral lease A pastoral lease, sometimes called a pastoral run, is an arrangement used in both Australia and New Zealand where government-owned Crown land is leased out to graziers for the purpose of livestock grazing on rangelands. Australia Pastoral lease ...

s, Newcastle Waters and Powell Creek, both of which are managed by the Consolidated Pastoral Company. About 8% of the land is managed as the Longreach Waterhole Protected Area by the Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory in cooperation with the lease managers.BirdLife International. (2011). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Lake Woods. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 02/08/2011.

Birds

A tract of land, corresponding to the area of the lake when fully inundated, has been identified by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) because it has supported up to 116,000 waterbirds when flooded, including over 1% of the world population of

plumed whistling-duck The plumed whistling duck (''Dendrocygna eytoni''), also called the grass whistling duck, is a whistling duck that breeds in Australia. It is a predominantly brown-coloured duck with a long neck and characteristic plumes arising from its flanks. ...

s. It also provides habitat for Australian bustards and

yellow-tinted honeyeater The yellow-tinted honeyeater (''Ptilotula flavescens'') is a species of bird in the family Meliphagidae. It is found in Australia and Papua New Guinea. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropi ...

s. Bird species recorded in substantial numbers include the Australian pelican, Oriental pratincole and

little curlew The little curlew (''Numenius minutus'') is a wader in the large bird family Scolopacidae. It is a very small curlew, which breeds in the far north of Siberia. It is closely related to the North American Eskimo curlew. The word "curlew" is imita ...

. The IBA is the only known inland breeding site in the Northern Territory for great egrets.

References

Woods Important Bird Areas of the Northern Territory {{NorthernTerritory-geo-stub