Lake Muir Nature Reserve

Last updated
Lake Muir Nature Reserve
Lakemuir.JPG
Photo of Lake Muir from the Lake Muir Observatory
Australia Western Australia location map.svg
Red pog.svg
location of Lake Muir Nature Reserve in Western Australia
Locationshires of Manjimup and Cranbook, South West region, Western Australia
Coordinates 34°28′S116°43′E / 34.467°S 116.717°E / -34.467; 116.717 [2]
Area113.11 km2 (43.67 sq mi)
Designation Nature reserve
Established2001
Official nameMuir-Byenup System
Designated5 January 2001
Reference no.1050 [2]

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.

Contents

Geography

The reserve is located in the South West region, in the shires of Manjimup and Cranbook, 55 km south east of Manjimup. [3]

The lakes and swamps form a partly-interconnected system. They vary in size, with Lake Muir the largest. The lakes and swamps also vary in salinity, from freshwater to saline, and include both seasonal and permanent wetlands on peat and inorganic substrates. [2]

Muirs Highway passes through the northern end of the reserve, north of Lake Muir. Lake Muir Observatory is located off the highway at the north end of the lake. It has an observatory and 110-metre boardwalk for viewing the lake along with shelter, picnic tables, and toilets, and is a popular rest stop for travelers. [4]

The reserve is bounded on the south by Lake Muir National Park. [1]

Flora and fauna

The reserve protects several wetland plant communities which are now rare outside coastal Southwest Australia. The swamps are mostly dominated by sedges and shrubs, and the reserve includes the largest natural sedgelands in Western Australia. The swamps are home to three species of nationally vulnerable orchids – Harrington's spider orchid ( Caladenia harringtoniae ), Christine's spider orchid ( Caladenia christineae ), and the tall donkey orchid ( Diuris drummondii ). [2] [3]

The open lakes are used for moulting by thousands of Australian shelduck (Tadorna tadornoides), and provide a drought refuge for tens of thousands of ducks and other water birds, including Australian little bittern (Ixobrychus dubius), spotless crake (Zapornia tabuensis), black swan (Cygnus atratus), and eurasian coot (Fulica atra). The swamps support a significant population of Australasian bittern (Botaurus poiciloptilus). [2] [3]

Vulnerable fauna present in the reserve include Balston's pygmy perch (Nannatherina balstoni), Muir's corella (Cacatua pastinator pastinator), forest red-tailed black cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus banksii), chuditch (Dasyurus geoffroii), numbat (Myrmecobius fasciatus), woylie (Bettongia penicillata), and quokka (Setonix brachyurus). [3]

Conservation

The reserve was designated in 2001. [1] It was designated a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention in the same year. [2] The Ramsar site covers an area of 10,631 ha. [2]

Related Research Articles

A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, also known as "The Convention on Wetlands", an intergovernmental environmental treaty established in 1971 by UNESCO, which came into force in 1975. It provides for national action and international cooperation regarding the conservation of wetlands, and wise sustainable use of their resources. Ramsar identifies wetlands of international importance, especially those providing waterfowl habitat.

Lake Muir Lake in Western Australia

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.

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 freshwater 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.

Blue Lake (New South Wales)

The Blue Lake is one of only four cirque lakes found in mainland Australia. The other three, Cootapatamba, Albina, and Club, are shallower and are held entirely by terminal moraines. Blue Lake's valley contains the best-developed glacial features in the Kosciuszko National Park alpine area of New South Wales. It was recognised as a wetland of international importance on 17 March 1996 when a 320-hectare (790-acre) area, comprising the lake and its surrounds, including nearby Hedley Tarn, was designated Ramsar Site 800 under the Ramsar Convention on wetlands. The lake lies within the Australian Alps National Parks and Reserves.

Reedy Lake Lake or swamp in Victoria, 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.

Edithvale-Seaford Wetlands

The Edithvale-Seaford Wetlands is a collection of principally freshwater swamps and marshlands totalling 261 hectares in southeastern Melbourne, Victoria, 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.

Toolibin Lake is a seasonal fresh to brackish water perched lake or wooded swamp, in south-western Australia. The lake is contained with a 493-hectare (1,218-acre) nature reserve and it is located about 200 kilometres (124 mi) south-east of Perth, in the Shire of Narrogin, and 40 kilometres (25 mi) east of the town of Narrogin, in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia. The lake is listed by the Australian Government as a threatened ecological community under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

Thomsons Lake Lake within Thomsons Lake Nature Reserve in the south of Perth, Western Australia

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.

Discovery Bay Coastal Park Protected area in Victoria, Australia

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.

Benger Swamp

Benger Swamp is a wetland located on the Swan Coastal Plain, in south-west Western Australia.

Fivebough and Tuckerbil Wetlands are two wetland sites within the Riverina and Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area (MIA), near Leeton in New South Wales, Australia. Both Fivebough and Tuckerbil sites form Crown reserve number 1030008 managed by NSW Department of Industry, for ecological conservation and public recreation. The reserve was recognised as being a Wetland of International Importance through designation under the Ramsar Convention on 21 October 2002 as Ramsar Site 1224

Western District Lakes Wetlands in south-eastern Australia

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.

Narran Wetlands Protected area in New South Wales, Australia

The Narran Wetlands, also known as the Narran Lakes, contained within the Narran Lake Nature Reserve, comprise a series of protected ephemeral lakes and swamps fed by the Narran River in the north-west of New South Wales, Australia. The 26,480-hectare (65,400-acre) reserve is located approximately 50 kilometres (31 mi) east of Brewarrina.

North Victorian Wetlands

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.

Owingup Swamp and Boat Harbour Wetlands Important Bird Area

The Owingup Swamp and Boat Harbour Wetlands Important Bird Area is a 442 ha site comprising Owingup Swamp, and ten other, smaller, wetlands nearby, in the Great Southern region of south-western Australia. It lies about 25 km south-south-west of Denmark, Western Australia, near the track to the coast at Boat Harbour cove. The site has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it is supports small numbers of the endangered Australasian bittern.

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 orange-bellied parrots.

Caladenia erythrochila, commonly known as the Lake Muir spider orchid, Lake Muir blood spider orchid, Harry's little red spider orchid and Lake Muir blood orchid is a species of orchid endemic to a small area in the southern corner of the south-west of Western Australia. It has a single, hairy leaf and long, wispy, thread-like sepals and petals. Most of the flower parts are blood red, although there are often white marks on the labellum.

Lake Towerrinning

Lake Towerrinning or Towerrinning Lake is a permanent brackish lake in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia located approximately 32 km (20 mi) south of Darkan, 44 km (27 mi) south west of Wagin and about 245 km (152 mi) south east of Perth. The lake is managed by the Department of Parks and Wildlife since it is used as a recreational facility; the Shire of West Arthur leases part of it as a gazetted water ski area.

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.

References

  1. 1 2 3 UNEP-WCMC (2022). Protected Area Profile for Lake Muir from the World Database of Protected Areas. Accessed 3 May 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Muir-Byenup System". Ramsar Sites Information Service. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Muir Byenup Wetlands. South West NRM Strategy, South West Catchments Council. Accessed 3 May 2022.
  4. Lake Muir Observatory, Department of Parks and Wildlife, Government of Western Australia. Accessed 4 March 2022.