Wetlands Australia 33: Calperum station – a 5-year partnership to restore the Riverland Ramsar site

Author: Commonwealth Environmental Water Office

The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder has signed up to 5 years of water and investment into Calperum Station, to protect the site’s Ramsar-listed wetlands. The recovery plan involves the delivery of 11,000 megalitres of water and a range of complementary infrastructure and management activities.

Calperum Station is a 242,800-hectare mallee floodplain about 15 km north of Renmark, South Australia. The floodplain is of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, listed as part of the Riverland Ramsar Site. These Calperum wetlands are important, supporting a multitude of wildlife, including several rare and threatened species such as the Southern Bell Frog, Malleefowl and Black-eared Miner. Calperum Station often holds community events such as lakes and wetland tours, educational programs and tourism activities in which they share the ecological and cultural values of the land. This is especially important given the Calperum Station hosts significant cultural sites for First Peoples of the south-east Murray–Darling Basin.

Since 2014–15, over 7,000 megalitres (ML) of water for the environment has been delivered across 11 of the Calperum wetlands, resulting in some significant ecological outcomes. In an effort to continue improving the health of the internationally-listed Calperum floodplain, the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder and the Australian Landscape Trust have entered into a 5-year partnership to deliver water for the environment.

Australian Landscape Trust staff, Indigenous rangers, Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder Jody Swirepik and members of the Renmark community celebrating the new partnership. Photo: Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder.

The foundation of the partnership is a comprehensive integrated recovery plan, developed by the Australian Landscape Trust. It calls for 11,000 ML of environmental water over the next 5 years. As part of this partnership, the Australian Landscape Trust commits to protecting this water from pest plants and animals and will undertake other complementary works, including researching the impact of this delivery. Wetland manager, Peter Cale, created this sophisticated plan by taking into consideration all factors and stressors that influence the health of the floodplain. 

Notably this plan includes a number of important infrastructure works and management activities to complement the water delivery. The works will involve constructing water delivery infrastructure, such as pumps and pipelines to deliver water to high elevation sites, removing levee banks, constructing low retention banks and drilling test wells to monitor the impact of works on groundwater salinity.

The accompanying management programs will include revegetation and soil remediation works, intervention monitoring and research and a mitigation program to reduce the impacts of grazing. These infrastructure works and management activities will be delivered by the Australian Landscape Trust and will safeguard the best possible outcomes for environmental water delivery.

Indigenous rangers discussed the on-ground implementation of the partnership during a recent tour of Calperum Station. Photo: Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder.