About us.....

The Tahbilk Wetlands (Eco Trails and Eco Cruise) cover a wetlands environment classified by the Department of Sustainability and Environment as a Deep Freshwater Marsh - wetlands that generally remain inundated to a depth of 1 to 5 metres throughout the year.

Wetlands are productive and valuable ecosystems that contribute to the health of waterways. Acting as vast filters, they take runoff, extracting sediments, recycling nutrients, oxygenating the water and releasing these gradually back into the system. Wetlands areas support a large and unique variety of native plants, invertebrates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.

In Victoria only 2% of the state is covered by wetlands areas, yet they sustain 30% of the state's threatened species and 10% of our threatened reptiles and water birds.

The wetlands at Tahbilk sustain a significant breeding population of the endangered freshwater Catfish (tandanus tandanus) and is also home to the Small Scurf Pea (Cullen parvum) - an endangered plant found in only eight other locations in Victoria.

The Tahbilk lagoons harbour another threatened species the Watershield Lily (Brasenia schrebi), as well as other native floras of significance include the Variable Glycine (Glycine tabacina s.l) and the Daisy Pale Everlasting (Helichrysum rutidolepis) which before April 2008 had not previously been recorded in the area.

Indigenous Australians have always been acutely aware of the abundance and diversity of life in wetlands areas and the rich food resources available there.