The restoration of Lake Condah is a project of national conservation and cultural heritage significance and outlined here are benefits and enhanced values which flow from the project.
In 1991 and 1992 Ecology Australia was involved in the Lake Condah Heritage Management Plan as part of the larger study by Context Pty Ltd (1992). Ecology Australia documented the wetland and dryland vegetation of the study area as it was then constituted: Lake Condah Aboriginal Mission, the
Muldoon’s and part of Mt Eccles National Park.
At that time Lake Condah was a relatively small wetland, very much reduced in size from its former pre-European extent by agricultural draining. Apart from hydrological modification the environment was also adversely impacted by cattle grazing and by weed invasion - weed species that were able to flourish on the seasonally-waterlogged margins of the wetland.
The vegetation of Lake Condah was then classified as Community 2 Amphibious Herbfield Complex.
This now equates to Ecological Vegetation Class 653, Aquatic Herbland (the concept and recognition of
Ecological Vegetation Classes had not been introduced at that time).
Part of our study in 1991-1992 involved assessing the significance of the vegetation and fauna habitats we surveyed and described. The flora and fauna habitats of the study area were rated as Nationally
Significant for the size and extent of the vegetation types (including Lake Condah) and fauna habitats, and for the presence of state or nationally significant plant species.
In the period since 1992 we have gone on to document - describe and map - the wetland and dryland vegetation and fauna habitats of a much larger area on the Mt Eccles Lava Flow based on extensive field sampling. These studies are Mt Eccles Lava Flow Management Plan: Literature Review (Ecology
Australia 2006), Mt Eccles Lava Flow Management Plan: Field Survey and Analysis (Ecology Australia
2008) and Mt Eccles Lava Flow - Indigenous Ecological Partnership Knowledge (Ecology Austalia 2013).
These studies have identified and described an extraordinary suite of biological and geomorphological values of national significance; few places in Australia have greater combined (including cultural heritage) significance.
Since the reinstatement of Lake Condah by construction of the weir on Darlot Creek there have been remarkable and transformative changes in the landscape; the values have been greatly enhanced.
Lake Condah is part of a very large suite of wetlands on a very young volcanic landscape. These wetlands vary in geomorphological setting and vary greatly in size and in depth and duration of water as well as chemical parameters. Consequently, the vegetation communities and faunal habitat attributes are very variable and diverse. The wetlands form a functional complex of combined values through the landscape, particularly for mobile water-dependent fauna (birds, insects and other invertebrates). In this system Lake Condah is the largest and deepest wetland, thus the most permanent, and it also has a unique hydrological regime, being stream-fed rather than an internally drained local catchment.
The benefits of the Lake Condah restoration project are numerous and can be summarised as follows:
 greatly enhanced signficance of the Lake Condah wetland because of increased size, depth and duration, hence extent of Aquatic Herbland vegetation and fauna habitats
(for invertebrates, fish and birds) and habitats for significant flora and fauna species
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 an enhanced drought refuge for waterfowl in a drying climate, significant in a regional sout-west Victorian context
 benefits that extend to the suite or complex of wetland habitats for fauna, that is mobile, water-dependent species
 the project provides a model for community engagement and participation in an initiative of national conservation and cultural heritage significance
 greatly enhances and complements the Aboriginal archaeological and cultural heritage values of this nationally significant site, enabling greater understanding and interpretation of the way Aboriginal people used and interacted with the environment and their eel-management economy
 greatly enhances the landscape values of a much more expansive wetland with a backdrop of stony-rise woodland vegetation.
This project is one fo the most important initiatives we have seen in relation to wetlands and their management. As a taxpayer-funded project it represents a high order of value-for-money in conservation spending.
Geoff Carr
Director & Principal Botanist
Ecology Australia Pty Ltd
Flora and Fauna Consultants
88 B Station Street, Fairfield 3078, VIC
Tel: (03) 9489 4191 Fax: (03) 9481 7679
Email: gcarr@ecologyaustralia.com.au
www.ecologyaustralia.com.au
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