Healthy Swamp Vital For All

Newcastle Herald

Friday September 2, 2005

THE Lower Hunter faces unprecedented development over the next 30 years and that will put increased pressure on important wetland areas.

Planning is well advanced to ensure the protection of those areas considered vital in the provision of clean air and water, and crucial as habitat for a wide range of wildlife, much of it under threat.

Wetlands included in nature corridors promote biodiversity.

Hexham swamp has long been recognised as a vital link in the wetland chain. It is now planned to reintroduce cattle to the Hexham swamp as part of wider plans to reflood the area by opening the Ironbark Creek floodgates.

Hunter-Central Rivers Catchment Management Authority project manager Sharon Vernon said the cattle were needed to control a freshwater reed, phragmites australis.

Despite being a native, the reed had become a widespread pest plant.

Ms Vernon said the cattle were removed from the swamp about two years ago.

Phragmites australis had spread rapidly since, she said.

"We'd prefer not to have to [put cattle back] but it's a reasonable method of control in the short term," she added.

The long-term plan is to open the swamp to tidal flows seriously affected when the floodgates were installed 34 years ago.

The gates were shut during floods for "mitigation purposes" and during king tides for mosquito control.

"The plan is for all of the floodgates to be opened eventually, but we may not need to open them all to get the sort of inundation that we want," Ms Vernon said.

Long-term Hexham swamp campaigner Dennis Hirst is among a small group of fishermen and environmentalists pushing for governments to honour a 1996 promise to open floodgates along the Hunter River to allow the reflooding of the 3000-hectare plain.

He maintains the environmental case for the reopening of the gates is beyond argument. He disagrees, however, with the use of cattle to control phragmites.

The Hunter has a quarter of the state's 1000 floodgates.

NSW Department of Environment and Conservation director-general Lisa Corbyn said nearly 60 floodgates had been reopened on the north coast, improving river quality and fish stocks and cutting weeds.