VICTORIAN DESALINATION PLANT

The Victorian Desalination Plant was constructed on a site that was used for grazing and mining for over 100 years. The ecological reserve is an ambitious plan to convert 225 hectares of this land into a natural reserve surrounding the saltwater desalination Plant. Construction at the site was officially completed in October 2013. Since then, ID Ecological Management has undertaken maintenance of the project site including the ecological reserve. This includes significant ecosystem restoration works of the ecological reserve as well as maintenance of the plant site and feature landscape. 

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Activities undertaken during this project include:

• Ecologically sensitive weed control aimed at enhancing the revegetated or naturally recruiting indigenous vegetation on site;

• Supplementary revegetation of approximately half a million plants in five years including a modest direct seeding program;

• Maintenance of the eight kilometres of tracks within the reserve;

• Implementation of a thorough ecosystem monitoring program directed by statistical consultants and best practice methods;

• Feature landscape maintenance aimed at maintaining a visually appealing entranceway into the plant site;

• Development of plans and programs including a weed management strategy, five year revegetation plan, and annual works plans;

• Integrated pest animal monitoring and control program.

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Notable methods implemented during the project:

• Replacement of transect spotlight counts for pest animal monitoring with a coordinated remote camera monitoring program;

• Ecosystem monitoring integrated with the weed control and supplementary revegetation programs to provide guidance on activities;

• Translocation of bracken to the site;

• Coordination of works through a project specific GIS.

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Project highlights:

• Establishment & maintenance of a 225 hectare, public access reserve.

• Colonisation of the site by a group of emus (previously rarely recorded on site).

• Colonisation of the site by over 280 fauna species, including 180 birds including three nationally protected species.