Coorong Lakes
Coorong Lakes is located south of Meningie in South Australia, at the south-east edge of the extensive Coorong Lakes system. The reserve is owned and managed by Cassinia Environmental as a conservation reserve in partnership with the Ngarrindjeri people.
About Coorong Lakes
The Coorong Lakes region is located south of Meningie in South Australia. The reserve is owned and managed by Cassinia Environmental as a conservation reserve in partnership with local Ngarrindjeri people.
The Coorong Lakes Project complements the internationally important wetland systems of Lake Alexandrina, Lake Albert, and the Coorong Lagoons, with the diversity of ecosystems making a significant contribution to the importance of this area. Rising above low-lying saline wetland communities of samphire and melaleuca shrublands are sandy dune systems of mallee and heathy woodlands, host to a rich diversity of native plants and animals.
The project is home to a rich diversity of native birds with a total of 64 species identified, including the Purple-gaped Honeyeater (Lichenostomus cratitius) which is listed as rare under the SA National Parks and Wildlife Act.
Amongst the primary objectives for this project are landscape protection, habitat connectivity, community partnership, and the opportunity for sustainable livelihoods delivering healthy country outcomes.
The number of species is considerably high given that the surrounding landscape has been heavily impacted by land clearing and grazing and species such as the Purple-gaped Honeyeater, Black-eared Cuckoo, Shy Heathwren and Elegant Parrot are not particularly common.
The native plant diversity in the Coorong Lakes Project reached a total of 223 species in the most recent monitoring reports, with the noteworthy addition of Slender Smoke-bush (Conospermum patens), a species regarded as endangered under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is, however, the native orchid diversity that continues to standout with over 30 species recorded including the world’s largest known populations (on private land) of the nationally endangered Metallic Sun-orchid (Thelymitra epipactoides) – one of Australia’s largest and most impressive sun-orchids.
Coorong Lakes is a rare pocket of intact native remnant vegetation in a region that has largely been cleared for agriculture.
Vegetation communities
The Coorong Lakes project is home to five vegetation communities including Mallee Woodlands, Banksia Shrublands, Melaleuca Shrublands & Samphire Shrublands.
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Desert Banksia & Sand-heath Grasstree Shrubland
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Mallee Honey-myrtle
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Swamp paperbark shrubland
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Saline Samphire Low Shrublands
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Coastal White Mallee
Monitoring Highlight
Project Report: Coorong Lakes
As we approach the end of 2023, we are excited to share our first Annual Project Report for our Coorong Lakes project, along with a mini-documentary showcasing our Spring monitoring efforts.
Flagship Species
The project is home to threatened fauna including the Purple-gaped Honeyeater (Lichenostomus cratitius) which is listed as rare under the SA National Parks and Wildlife Act as well as threatened flora species including the Slender Smoke-bush, Metallic Sun-orchid, Cleland’s Beard-heath , and Limestone Needlebush.
Purple-gaped Honeyeater
Lichenostomus cratitius
In South Australia, the Purple-gaped Honeyeater is considered rare under the National Parks and Wildlife Act. This small, plain honeyeater is found in mallee woodland and heathland across southern Australia, including parts of southwestern Western Australia. It can be described as being olive-brown above, paler below, with a grey crown and a dark grey cheek patch edged in yellow. A thin purple line separates its throat from its ear coverts, and it has an entirely black bill. Its calls include loud squeaks and a rattling trill.
Slender Smoke-bush
Conospermum patens
Slender Smoke-bush is classified as globally endangered according to the IUCN Red List. The Slender Smoke-bush, thrives in the dry heathlands and woodlands of South Australia and western Victoria. This shrub, standing at about 1m, is distinguished by its branches adorned with fine, whitish hairs. To date, only 4 individuals have been located on the property.
Cleland's Beard-heath
Styphelia clelandii
Cleland’s Beard-heath is a delicate shrub, about 30 cm tall, and features branchlets with soft hairs. Its unique leaves, broadly ovate and less than 6mm long, extend horizontally or curve backwards from the branches, displaying a discolourous pattern with a smooth upper surface and a papillose lower side.
From April to September, it flowers with small, solitary or paired white flowers in leaf axils, attracting various insects and birds with its nectar. Its fruit, a drupe, is favoured by birds and lizards.
Metallic Sun-orchid
Thelymitra epipactoides
The Metallic Sun-orchid is a nationally endangered species. As one of Australia’s largest sun orchids, it gets its name from the shimmering, metallic bronze appearance of its flowers.
Like most native orchids, it has an intricate relationship with specific insect pollinators and soil fungi. It begins to flower in August, with flowers that open solely in full, direct sunlight. Unfortunately, the orchid faces numerous threats due to urbanisation, agriculture, and changes in land management practices which have significantly reduced the available habitat for this species.
Conservation Partner
The Coorong Lakes project is owned and co-managed by Cassinia Environmental as a conservation reserve in partnership with the Ngarrindjeri people.
Wilderlands work closely with these organisations who perform active management of pest plants and animals across the reserve as is required under the conservation agreement these landowners have entered into with the South Australian Government. The agreement is registered on the land title to permanently control land-use and management ensuring protection and conservation.
For both Wilderlands and Cassinia, collaborating with Ngarrindjeri people for co-management and sharing of knowledge is a high priority.
Wilderlands have selected Cassinia Environmental as our conservation partner across a number of projects given their deep expertise in managing land for conservation outcomes.
Over the past 20 years they have delivered over 100 landscape scale projects across four states for a diverse range of stakeholders, including State and Federal Governments, international corporations, NGOs, and Traditional Owners.
Monitoring
Wilderlands undertake various monitoring activities throughout the year. These activities include standardised bird surveys, quadrats, transects, tree density and size distribution assessments, photopoint monitoring, passive acoustic recording, as well as deployment of remote cameras. As of 2024, we have partnered with TAFE SA Aboriginal Access Centre and Ngarrindjeri to undertake pitfall trapping and nest box monitoring.
Photopoints
Floristic quadrats
Transects
Bird surveys
Remote cameras
Biological Diversity Units (BDU’s)
How do Wilderlands Create Biodiversity Credits?
At the Coorong Lakes site, one BDU equates to one square metre of land permanently protected to maintain and enhance the integrity of its biological diversity. In South Australia, these units are defined and issued by the South Australian Government via a State-managed registry.
Cassinia, the Coorong Lakes landowner, voluntarily “retires” these statutory compliance units, so they can’t be used as a compliance offset.
Wilderlands geotags each unit and registers the now “voluntary” units on the independently managed Vegetation Link registry – effectively creating the Biological Diversity Units. When you purchase these units, each purchase is linked to a certificate of Sale issued by Vegetation Link.
Periodic inspections are conducted by the South Australian Government, with additional monitoring conducted by Wilderlands Ecologists.
Gallery
What's happening
Coorong Lakes documentary commissioned by HRH The Prince of Wales
Adelaide Festival partners with Wilderlands to protect precious biodiversity in the Coorong
al.ive body x wilderlands launch limited edition product that protects the Coorong
Project Report: Coorong Lakes
Other Projects
Coorong Lakes
Located in Meningie in South Australia, this 200 hectare landscape is a project delivered in partnership with the Ngarrindjeri people, the Traditional Custodians of the Coorong. It sees native plants supplied by the local nursery at Raukkan, a self-governed Aboriginal community 30 km northwest of the site and many Raukkan community members employed for onsite work and delivering activities such as vegetation monitoring and mapping and fencing with a focus on ensuring these communities can continue to preserve and protect this culturally important pocket of land.
Crowes Lookout
Home to mountainous vistas, tall trees, and fern-rich gullies, lies Crowes Lookout, only 170 kilometres south-west of Melbourne near the scenic town of Lavers Hill in the Otway Ranges. Crowes Lookout is characterised by towering trees of Mountain Grey-gum (Eucalyptus cypellocarpa), Southern Blue-gum (Eucalyptus globulus), and Messmate Stringybark (Eucalyptus obliqua), reaching over 60 metres tall and providing an arboreal ecosystem of micro-bats, gliders, and birds.
Budgerum
In the heart of the Victorian Riverina, one of the most productive areas of agriculture in Australia and only 250 kilometres north of Melbourne, lies Budgerum, a farming district of flat, grassy plains alongside the Avoca River. Grassland communities are some of the most highly threatened ecosystems on the planet, with grassland reserves being reduced to small, fragmented patches across the landscape as land has been converted to agriculture. For this reason, protection of the remaining native grasslands across the Victorian Riverina is critical to the long-term survival of species that call this community their home. Examples of species dependent on these grassy ecosystems include the critically endangered Plains Wanderer and the nationally endangered Turnip Copperburr.
Alleena
Located in the heart of the NSW Riverina, this 4500 acre landscape is addressing the decline of the suite of birds dependent on intact woodland ecosystems for foraging and nesting.