Murtnaghurt Lagoon, also known as Murtnaghurt Swamp or Lake Murtnaghurt, is a shallow,

ephemeral Ephemerality (from the Greek word , meaning 'lasting only one day') is the concept of things being transitory, existing only briefly. Academically, the term ephemeral constitutionally describes a diverse assortment of things and experiences, fr ...

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

west of the town of

Barwon Heads Barwon Heads (previously known as Point Flinders) is a coastal township on the Bellarine Peninsula, near Geelong, Victoria, Australia. It is situated on the west bank of the mouth of the Barwon River below Lake Connewarre, while it is bounded t ...

on the southern coast of the

Bellarine Peninsula The Bellarine Peninsula (Wathawurrung: ''Balla-wein'' or ''Biteyong'') is a peninsula located south-west of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, surrounded by Port Phillip, Corio Bay and Bass Strait. The peninsula, together with the Mornington Peni ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

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 comprises two enclosed depressions, elongated west-east and separated by a low ridge. The wetland is about in length, and up to wide, with of shoreline enclosing an area of . It is connected by a narrow

palaeochannel A palaeochannel, also spelt paleochannel and also known as palaeovalley or palaeoriver, is a geological term describing a remnant of an inactive river or stream channel that has been filled or buried by younger sediment. The sediments that the ...

extending from the lagoon northwards to the main tidal channel of the lower Barwon River.

Birds

The lagoon is part of the

Bellarine Wetlands Important Bird Area The Bellarine Wetlands Important Bird Area comprises a group of wetland sites, with a collective area of 46 km2, at the western end of the Bellarine Peninsula in Victoria, south-eastern Australia. The site is important for waterbirds and o ...

and is recognised as an important site supporting, at times, various threatened species of birds, including the

little tern The little tern (''Sternula albifrons'') is a seabird of the family Laridae. It was formerly placed into the genus ''Sterna'', which now is restricted to the large white terns. The genus name is a diminutive of ''Sterna'', "tern". The specific '' ...

fairy tern The fairy tern (''Sternula nereis'') is a small tern which is native to the southwestern Pacific. It is listed as " Vulnerable" by the IUCN and the New Zealand subspecies is " Critically Endangered". There are three subspecies: * Australian fai ...

orange-bellied parrot The orange-bellied parrot (''Neophema chrysogaster'') is a small parrot endemic to southern Australia, and one of only three species of parrot that migrate. It was described by John Latham in 1790. A small parrot around long, it exhibits sex ...

swift parrot The swift parrot (''Lathamus discolor'') is a species of broad-tailed parrot, found only in southeastern Australia. The species breeds in Tasmania during the summer and migrates north to south eastern mainland Australia from Griffith-Warialda ...

and

hooded plover The hooded dotterel or hooded plover (''Thinornis cucullatus'') is a species of bird in the family Charadriidae. It is endemic to southern Australia, where it inhabits ocean beaches and subcoastal lagoons. There are two recognised subspecies whi ...

, as well as many

wader 245px, A flock of Dunlins and Red knots">Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflat ...

s which use the whole complex of wetlands in the region.

Status and conservation

Murtnaghurt Lagoon is listed under the

Ramsar Convention The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on Wetlands. It i ...

as a

of international significance, as part of the

Port Phillip Bay (Western Shoreline) and Bellarine Peninsula Ramsar Site The Port Phillip Bay (Western Shoreline) and Bellarine Peninsula Ramsar Site is one of the Australian sites listed under the Ramsar Convention as a wetland of international importance. It was designated on 15 December 1982, and is listed as Ram ...

. It is also part of the Lake Connewarre State Game Reserve. It is public land which is managed by

Parks Victoria Parks Victoria is a government agency of the state of Victoria, Australia. Parks Victoria was established in December 1996 as a statutory authority, reporting to the Victorian Minister for Environment and Climate Change. The ''Parks Victoria Ac ...

and is surrounded by farmland,

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". Th ...

s and residential housing.. Because of its relatively small size and isolation from the rest of the

Lake Connewarre Lake Connewarre ( Aboriginal Wathawurrung language: ''Kunawarr keelingk'' literally meaning ''black swan lake''), a shallow estuarine lake on the Barwon River, is located on the Bellarine Peninsula southeast of Geelong in the Australian stat ...

wetland complex it is threatened by

edge effect In ecology, edge effects are changes in population or community structures that occur at the boundary of two or more habitats. Areas with small habitat fragments exhibit especially pronounced edge effects that may extend throughout the range. As ...

s, including pollution from

stormwater Stormwater, also spelled storm water, is water that originates from precipitation (storm), including heavy rain and meltwater from hail and snow. Stormwater can soak into the soil ( infiltrate) and become groundwater, be stored on depressed la ...

run-off. A report by Neville Rosengren for the Save Barwon Heads Alliance recommended that the lagoon should be protected by a geoheritage conservation zone of low intensity land use. It stated that:

"The key elements of this site are relatively inconspicuous, low relief landforms that preserve the materials and the geometry of the earlier sea level landscapes. Research into geoscience features is an ongoing activity as new techniques of analysis and particularly for methods of mapping and displaying geomorphology and dating materials and landforming events become available. Intensive land uses involving close residential sub-division, excavation or other substantial reshaping of landscape would substantially degrade the geoscience significance – and make the materials unavailable for scientific access. The opportunity for further research and monitoring of the processes that formed Murtnaghurt Lagoon would be greatly compromised by extending urban or other high intensity built developments enclosing and adjacent to the site. These activities should not be permitted in the areas enclosing the Murtnaghurt Lagoon."

References

{{Ramsar sites in Australia Lakes of Victoria (state) Geography of Geelong Bellarine Peninsula Ramsar sites in Australia Important Bird Areas of Victoria (state) Saline lakes of Australia

Birds

Status and conservation

See also

References