Lake Muir | |
---|---|
Location in Western Australia | |
Location | South West, Western Australia |
Coordinates | 34°26′49″S116°44′54″E / 34.44694°S 116.74833°E |
Primary outflows | Deep River |
Catchment area | 384 km2 (148 sq mi) |
Basin countries | Australia |
Designation | Muir-Byenup System Ramsar Site |
Max. length | 11 km (6.8 mi) |
Max. width | 5 km (3.1 mi) |
Surface area | 46 km2 (18 sq mi) |
Surface elevation | 170 m (560 ft) |
References | [1] [2] |
Lake Muir is a freshwater lake, with a larger surrounding wetlands area, that is located in the South West region of Western Australia. The lake lies near Muirs Highway, north of Walpole and southeast of Manjimup.
The lake has a surface area of 46 square kilometres (18 sq mi). Lake Muir and its surrounding wetland lies within the Lake Muir-Byenup System, a 694 km2 (268 sq mi) area of internal drainage containing a complex of wetland systems. It is fed by a stream leading into the lake, which is crossed at the Lake Muir Bridge. [3] [4]
Lake Muir may, in flood, overflow southwest into the Deep River catchment (and possibly also southeast into the Frankland River via Poorginup Gully). [5] Lake Muir is usually brackish (1000–3000 mg/L TDS) at the end of winter, saline by summer and dry throughout autumn. [5]
Lake Muir is protected within Lake Muir Nature Reserve, which was designated in 2001. [6]
A 14-square-kilometre (5.4 sq mi) section of wetland around Lake Muir has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it provides habitat for 10 or more pairs of endangered Australasian bitterns. The wetlands within the IBA are shallow with extensive beds of dense sedgeland and fringing stands of shrubland and woodland. Lake Muir has been excluded from the IBA as it is unsuitable for bitterns but it has supported large numbers of Australian Shelduck and may prove to be globally significant for that species. [7]
The lake is connected with significant indigenous occupation over time. [8]
Lake Muir was named after brothers Thomas and John Muir, the first European settlers in the Warren district, who settled at Deeside, 25 kilometres (16 mi) west of the lake, in 1852 and built a rush hut there in 1856. [9]
Historically the area was a Game Reserve, with a duck shooting season. The Department of Environment and Conservation (CALM) started monitoring the wetlands system in 1980 in order to manage the duck shooting.
On 5 January 2001, a 106-square-kilometre (41 sq mi) area was designated, under the Ramsar Convention as Ramsar site 1050, a wetland of international importance, acknowledging its rich ecological diversity. Lake Muir Nature Reserve was designated in the same year by the Government of Western Australia. [6]
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake was centred at the lake on 16 September 2018 [10] and was followed by a magnitude 4.7 quake on 13 October [11] and a 5.4 quake on 9 November. [12]
Muir Highway, also called Muirs Highway, is a Western Australian highway linking Manjimup and Mount Barker, which is on the Albany Highway. It is signed as State Route 102 and is 161 kilometres (100 mi) long. It provides a shorter distance between Manjimup and Albany. It is a lonely highway surrounded with karri and jarrah forests with no settlements in between except the small farming settlement of Rocky Gully.
Lake Argyle is Western Australia's largest and Australia's second largest freshwater man-made reservoir by volume. The reservoir is part of the Ord River Irrigation Scheme and is located near the East Kimberley town of Kununurra. The lake flooded large parts of the Shire of Wyndham-East Kimberley on the Kimberley Plateau about 80 kilometres (50 mi) inland from the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf, close to the border with the Northern Territory.
Nal Sarovar Bird Sanctuary, consisting primarily of a 120.82-square-kilometre (46.65 sq mi) lake and ambient marshes, is situated about 64 km to the west of Ahmedabad near Sanand Village, in the Indian state of Gujarat. Mainly inhabited by migratory birds in winter and spring, it is the largest wetland bird sanctuary in Gujarat, and one of the largest in India. It was declared a bird sanctuary in April 1969.
The Quill Lakes are a wetland complex in Saskatchewan, Canada that encompasses the endorheic basin of three distinct lake wetlands: Big Quill Lake, Middle Quill Lake, and Little Quill Lake. On May 27, 1987, it was designated a wetland of international importance via the Ramsar Convention. It was the first Canadian site in the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, is a site in the International Biological Programme and Saskatchewan Heritage Marsh Program, and was designated a Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network site of International significance in May, 1994. The site is an important staging and breeding area for spring and fall migration of shorebirds. The site qualifies as an Important Bird Area (IBA) of Canada for its globally and nationally significant migratory and breeding populations of more than a dozen species of birds. The IBA is designated as Quill Lakes .
Shepody Bay is a tidal embayment, an extension of the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick, Canada, which consists of 77 square kilometres (30 sq mi) of open water and 40 km2 (15 sq mi) of mudflats, with 4 km2 (1.5 sq mi) of saline marsh on the west, and eroding sand and gravel beaches covering an area of approximately 1 km2 (0.39 sq mi) on the eastern shore. The intertidal mudflats "support internationally important numbers of the crustacean Corophium volutator, the principal food source for millions of fall migrating shorebirds".
Lake Warden is a salt lake in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia. It and its associated wetlands are protected in a nature reserve; they were recognised as being of international importance under the Ramsar Convention through designation of the Lake Warden System on 7 June 1990 as Ramsar Site 485. The lake is also a DIWA-listed wetland.
Lake Gore is a seasonal and semi-permanent saline lake in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia located approximately 24 km (15 mi) west of Esperance. It is an important site for waterbirds.
The Vasse-Wonnerup Estuary is an estuary in the South West region of Western Australia close to the town of Busselton. The estuary is listed with DIWA. It was also recognised as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention on 7 June 1990 when an area of 1,115 ha was designated Ramsar Site 484 as an important dry-season habitat for waterbirds. It is also the main part of the 2,038 ha (5,040-acre) Busselton Wetlands Important Bird Area.
Earthquakes have occurred in Western Australia (WA) on a regular basis throughout its geological history.
The South West Seismic Zone is a major intraplate earthquake province located in the south west of Western Australia.
Reedy Lake, historically also known as Lake Reedy, is a shallow 5.5-square-kilometre (2.1 sq mi) intermittent freshwater lake or swamp on the lower reaches of the Barwon River, on the Bellarine Peninsula southeast of Geelong in the Australian state of Victoria.
The Edithvale–Seaford Wetlands is a collection of principally freshwater swamps and marshlands totalling 261 hectares in southeastern Melbourne, Australia, about 30 km (19 mi) southeast of Melbourne CBD. It is the largest natural wetland of its type in the Port Phillip and Western Port basins, and is all that remains of the historic Carrum Carrum Swamp, which once covered more than 4,000 hectares from present-day Mordialloc in the north to Frankston in the south.
Thomsons Lake Nature Reserve is a lake nature reserve around Thomsons Lake in the City of Cockburn, Western Australia, approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi) south of the central business district of Perth, the state capital, and on the southern fringes of the Perth metropolitan area. It is in the suburb of Beeliar, 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) south-west of Jandakot Airport. It is a still largely natural wetland, with adjoining native vegetation, surrounded by land developed for housing and agriculture, that regularly supports large numbers of shorebirds and other waterbirds.
The Discovery Bay Coastal Park is a linear protected area of coastal land in western Victoria, south-eastern Australia. The 10,460-hectare (25,800-acre) park extends along the coast of Discovery Bay from Cape Nelson north-westwards for 50 kilometres (31 mi) to the border with South Australia. The park was listed on Australia's now-defunct Register of the National Estate, and lies within the traditional lands of the Gunditjmara people.
The Coongie Lakes is a freshwater wetland system located in the Far North region of South Australia. The 21,790-square-kilometre (8,410 sq mi) lakes system is located approximately 1,046 kilometres north of the Adelaide city centre. The wetlands includes lakes, channels, billabongs, shallow floodplains, deltas, and interdune swamps. It lies on the floodplain of Cooper Creek, an ephemeral river flowing through a desert landscape in the Lake Eyre Basin which rarely, after occasional large floods, empties into Lake Eyre. The wetland system has been recognised both as being of international importance by designation under the Ramsar Convention with a listing on 15 June 1987 and being nationally important within Australia with a listing in A Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia (DIWA). Its extent includes the regional town of Innamincka, the Malkumba-Coongie Lakes National Park, the Innamincka Regional Reserve, the Strzelecki Regional Reserve and the Coongie Lakes Important Bird Area.
The Western District Lakes of Victoria, in the Western District of Victoria, south-eastern Australia, were recognised on 15 December 1982 as wetlands of international importance by listing under the Ramsar Convention, as Ramsar site no.268.
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 of the Loddon River where it enters the Murray valley, in the vicinity of the town of Kerang, in northern Victoria, south-eastern Australia. They are important for a variety, and sometimes large numbers, of waterbirds.
The Watervalley Wetlands is a nationally important wetland system located in the Australian state of South Australia which consists of a series of contiguous wetlands, lying on 56.6 square kilometres (21.9 sq mi) of private land between the Coorong National Park and Gum Lagoon Conservation Park, in the state's south-east.
Lake Muir National Park is a national park in Western Australia, located 290 kilometres (180 mi) south east of Perth to the south of Muirs Highway in the Shire of Manjimup.
Lake Muir Nature Reserve is a protected area in Western Australia. It encompasses Lake Muir and several smaller lakes and wetlands. It is an important refuge for water birds, and home to several rare plants and plant communities.