Wonga Wetlands are attached to the Murray River, and are accessed from the Riverina Highway towards Howlong.
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This is just a five minute drive from the Albury Central Business District.
Consisting of seven man made lagoons covering approximately eighty hectares, these wetlands are a haven for wildlife, and a shining example of a constructed wetland system.
For millennia prior to European invasion, the Wonga Wetlands in their natural state provided an important food source for the Yorta Yorta and also the Wiradjuri people who harvested turtles, fish, mussels, crayfish, snails and waterfowl from its waters.
After the construction of the Hume Dam in 1919, the spring floods required for the river and wetland systems became less frequent.
Over time, the alteration of the natural flows dried out many of the floodplain wetlands and billabongs, degrading vegetation and destroying breeding habitat.
The area which was once a thriving wetland became an ecological wasteland.
The Wonga Wetlands project was conceived in the 1990s, to bring the river and the wetlands back to life.
The water required for the project is provided by Albury’s award winning Waterview wastewater treatment facility.
In summer the reclaimed wastewater irrigates 150 hectares of pine and hardwood plantations.
In winter the water is used to flood the wetlands.
This process mimics the natural cycle of the wetlands, which would naturally dry out in summer and flood in winter.
An indication of wetland health is the presence of birdlife.
Since the Wonga Wetlands hydrological processes have been restored, large numbers of waterfowl have returned.
This includes such species as pelicans, cormorants, black swans, whistling kites, white bellied sea eagles.
There’s also Latham’s snipe, pink-eared ducks and Caspian terns, to name a few.
“Wonga” is Wiradjuri for “cormorant”
An important feature of the Wonga Wetlands is the extensive number of walking trails which allow public access to its billabongs and wetlands.
The trails also link several bird hides situated at specific sites and significant viewing areas.
Attach to the wetlands is an education facility that caters for school groups, members of the public and scientific research.
These facilities add to the wetland experience and remind us how important wetlands are to the biodiversity and health of our wetland and river systems.
Without these ecosystems the world would not be in a better place.