Day 26, Goolwa to Swan Hill
Cool and partly cloudy conditions greeted us as we swung into action to prepare the aircraft and our equipment for the morning's counting. Our first location after departing Goolwa is the Muray Channel upstream of Waikerie and then progressively working our way upstream to Mildura.
Photo: Barmah-Millewa wetlands
Survey details
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Date
Thursday 6th November 2025
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Author
John Porter
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Project
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Observers
John Porter (NSW DCCEEW), Richard Kingsford (UNSW), Heath Dunstan (Vic GMA), Shelley Thompson (MDBA)
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Pilot
Thomas Martin
Our next stop is Noora salt evaporation ponds. These were constructed in the early 1980’s to intercept saline ground water to prevent it from entering the River Murray. This created a shallow saline wetland that can support large numbers of birds. Today there are several thousand Grey Teal as well as Chestnut Teal, Black Swans, Coot and terns.
After refueling at Mildura, we head southeast to Lake Mulwala, a man-made reservoir created by the Yarrawonga Weir across the River Murray.
The red gum forests and wetlands of Barmah-Millewa are our next stop - it’s one of the largest and most intact areas of forest left on the Murray.
After flooding in previous years water levels have receded considerably and our regular wetland sites are the driest we’ve seen them.
Moira Lake has only a shallow pond in the southern end as its dries rapidly and there are few birds.
Most of the other wetlands (eg Reedy, Top, Harbours Lakes as well as Douglas Swamp and Boals Deadwoods) have few waterbirds – mainly ibis, herons and egrets with a few pelicans, grey teal and black duck. There were no breeding rookeries detected.
Our next destination is the river channel near Mildura. We found low numbers of waterbirds -a few Pelicans, cormorants, Darters and Wood Ducks. Our final stop for the evening is Swan Hill.
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