The North Victorian Wetlands, also known as the Kerang Wetlands, comprise an extensive series of over 100 freshwater, brackish and saline lakes and swamps on the

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

of the Loddon River where it enters the Murray valley, in the vicinity of the town of Kerang, in northern

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 ...

, south-eastern Australia. They are important for a variety, and sometimes large numbers, of waterbirds.

Description

The wetlands lie about 300 km north-west of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. Many of them are regulated and linked to the regional

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been devel ...

system. Many are also affected by salinity caused by land clearance, agriculture and irrigation practices, resulting in raised levels of

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated ...

and highly saline watertables. Many of the lakes are used recreationally for sightseeing, hunting, fishing, boating, waterskiing and swimming; some are used for storing irrigation water, or for the disposal of saline water and sewage.BirdLife International. (2011). Important Bird Areas factsheet: North Victorian Wetlands. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 01/09/2011.

Important Bird Area

A subset of 12 wetlands with a collective area of 60 km², defined as those which have recently supported significant numbers of birds, have been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA). They support populations of

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and in ...

Australasian bitterns and

near threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify f ...

blue-billed ducks. They sometimes support over 1% of the world populations of freckled ducks, straw-necked ibises,

black-fronted dotterel The black-fronted dotterel (''Elseyornis melanops'') is a small plover wader in the Charadriidae family. Description This shorebird is easily recognizable with its distinct black face mask, forehead and v-shaped band across the chest. Dorsall ...

banded stilt The banded stilt (''Cladorhynchus leucocephalus'') is a nomadic wader of the stilt and avocet family, Recurvirostridae, native to Australia. It belongs to the monotypic genus ''Cladorhynchus''. It gets its name from the red-brown breast band fo ...

s and

red-necked avocet The red-necked avocet (''Recurvirostra novaehollandiae'') also known as the Australian avocet, cobbler, cobbler's awl, and painted lady, is a wader of the family Recurvirostridae that is endemic to Australia and is fairly common and widespread t ...

s. Other birds recorded as sometimes occurring on the wetlands in relatively substantial numbers include black swans,

Pacific black duck The Pacific black duck (''Anas superciliosa''), commonly known as the PBD, is a dabbling duck found in much of Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and many islands in the southwestern Pacific, reaching to the Caroline Islands in the no ...

s, grey teals, Australian shelducks, Australasian shovellers,

pink-eared duck The pink-eared duck (''Malacorhynchus membranaceus'') is a species of duck found in Australia. It has a large spatulate bill like the Australasian shoveler, but is smaller at 38–40 cm length. Its brown back and crown, black and white barr ...

s, hardheads,

black-backed bittern The black-backed bittern (''Ixobrychus dubius''), also known as the black-backed least bittern or Australian little bittern, is a little-known species of heron in the family Ardeidae found in Australia and vagrant to southern New Guinea. Former ...

Australian white ibis The Australian white ibis (''Threskiornis molucca'') is a wading bird of the ibis family, Threskiornithidae. It is widespread across much of Australia. It has a predominantly white plumage with a bare, black head, long downcurved bill and blac ...

es, hoary-headed grebes, Eurasian coots,

sharp-tailed sandpiper The sharp-tailed sandpiper (''Calidris acuminata'') (but see below) is a small wader. Taxonomy A review of data has indicated that this bird should perhaps better be placed into the genus ''Philomachus'' – as ''P. acuminatus'' – which now ...

red-necked stint The red-necked stint (''Calidris ruficollis'') is a small migratory wader. The genus name is from Ancient Greek ''kalidris'' or ''skalidris'', a term used by Aristotle for some grey-coloured waterside birds. The specific ''ruficollis'' is from ...

s, marsh sandpipers, white-headed stilts, double-banded plovers,

red-kneed dotterel The red-kneed dotterel (''Erythrogonys cinctus'') is a species of plover in a monotypic genus in the subfamily Vanellinae. It is often gregarious and will associate with other waders of its own and different species, even when nesting. It is ...

red-capped plover The red-capped plover (''Charadrius ruficapillus''), also known as the red-capped dotterel, is a small species of plover. It breeds in Australia. This species is closely related to (and sometimes considered conspecific with) the Kentish plover, ...

s and whiskered terns. Australian painted snipes have been recorded from Hird Swamp in the IBA.

Ramsar site

A larger and overlapping subset of 22 wetlands, with a collective area of 94 km², were recognised on 15 December 1982 as being of international importance when they were 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 site, Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on W ...

as Ramsar Site 265. The wetlands were so recognised because of their great importance to waterbirds, supporting large numbers of

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

and migratory species, and serving as a drought refuge, as well as supporting rare or vulnerable plant species.

References

{{coord, 35, 47, 17, S, 144, 01, 35, E, display=title, region:AU-VIC_type:waterbody Important Bird Areas of Victoria (Australia) Ramsar sites in Australia Murray-Darling basin Floodplains of Australia