Pink-eared ducks, grey teal and red-necked avocets on the Bulloo overflow. Photo: Joshua Smith
Colours of the Bulloo Overflow. Photo: Joshua Smith
The Bulloo River in a dry time, supplying water to the Bulloo Overflow. Photo: Richard Kingsford
Upstream of the Bulloo Overflow, the Bulloo River reaches the Bulloo Lakes in Queensland before flooding into New South Wales. Photo: Richard Kingsford
The purchase of the 153,415-hectare Narriearra Station is the largest acquisition of private land for national parks in the state’s history. Photo: Joshua Smith
Generally, wetland systems have been underrepresented in our national parks. Photo: Joshua Smith
The researchers say one of the big challenges for the future will be to protect the waters that come from Queensland to supply this extensive area. Photo: Joshua Smith
At the end of June, the NSW government declared a massive new national park in north-western NSW - a welcome and timely development, according to UNSW ecologist Professor Richard Kingsford, who did the first comprehensive aerial surveys of the area’s waterbirds in the 1990s. The park is an extensive inland wetland east of Tibooburra that includes Caryapundy Swamp and the Bullo Overflow.
In June 1990, one of the only extensive surveys done, the researchers estimated that there were more than 100,000 water birds there: red-necked avocets, freckled duck, pink-eared duck and black swans.
"The wetland was so extensive and shallow and provided so much habitat for many different plants and animals – and it sustained some through a period of frenetic breeding activity,” Prof Kingsford says.
“Black swans and many other waterbirds breed in this magnificent wetland. It is also a very important area for grey grass wrens – the new area includes nearly 90 per cent of NSW’s critical habitat and breeding areas for this nationally endangered species. This very specialised bird relies on the wetland plants.”
Read the full story on the announcement.