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Restoring wetland habitat at Teringie Wetlands

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As part of the Healthy Coorong, Healthy Basin On Ground Works project, the Department for Environment and Water is restoring wetland habitat at the Teringie Wetlands. Construction of new infrastructure to improve water management and restore habitat was completed in September 2024.

Restoring wetland habitat at Teringie Wetlands — Teringie Wetlands (credit: Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board)

About Teringie Wetlands

The Teringie Wetlands are situated on the lands of the Ngarrindjeri people on the south-eastern shore of Lake Alexandrina, approximately 3 km from the township of Raukkan. The site encompasses an area of approximately 490 ha, of which 270 ha is actively managed.

The Teringie Wetlands form part of The Living Murray program's Lower Lakes, Coorong and Murray Mouth Icon Site, and are directly adjacent the boundary of the Coorong and Lakes Alexandrina and Albert Wetland Ramsar site.

The wetlands are characterised by a habitat mosaic of shallow water and mudflat, which provides essential habitat for foraging shorebird communities across the Coorong and Lower Lakes region.

Two red-necked stints forage in shallow water in a wetland — Red-necked stints at the Coorong (credit: Tom Hunt)

Cultural value

The Teringie Wetlands are located on land owned by the Aboriginal Lands Trust and managed by the Raukkan Community Council. The Raukkan community has worked with the Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board's wetlands program for more than a decade to manage the wetlands in accordance with their cultural heritage, laws and obligations to Yarluwar-Ruwe (Sea Country).

The wetlands are of high significance to Ngarrindjeri people, as it is an important place for Ngarrindjeri cultural practices and for the collection of food and other resources. The Teringie sand dunes contain a high density of middens and artefacts.

Particular animal and plant species are the Ngartji (totem or special friend) of Ngarrindjeri people, who have a special responsibility to care for and protect their Ngartji. The Teringie area is crucial habitat for Ngarrindjeri Ngartji's including migratory shorebirds and other waterbirds, such as wa:nyi (ducks), no:ri (pelicans), and kungari (swans), as well as wunggi (native aquatic plants that shelter fish), especially ngamurunyi (Ruppia), pantanuki (water ribbons) and bilbili (weaving rushes). On-ground works will help provide a healthy place for all Ngartji's that use Teringie.

This project aims to foster the Teringie Wetlands to become a best-practice example of Indigenous wetland management, incorporating Ngarrindjeri knowledge, practices, objectives and visions.

Why this project is important

Regional wetlands of the Coorong and the South East provide vital habitat for shorebirds, including migratory bird species that travel from as far as Siberia to feed on inundated salt marsh and mud flat areas in summer. These wetlands provide the birds with critical food resources, including invertebrates such as snails, crustaceans, worms and insect larvae, which the birds rely on to fuel-up before making the journey back to the Northern Hemisphere to breed.

Shorebird species have experienced significant declines in the Coorong, linked to a reduction in the quality and availability of foraging habitat.

These on-ground works are essential in enhancing the overall health of the Teringie Wetlands, and ensuring that the cultural, ecological, and social value of the site is improved and preserved into the future.

Teringie Wetlands On Ground Works Fact Sheet

On-ground works to support regional bird refugia

On-ground works at Teringie Wetlands were successfully completed in September 2024.

The Healthy Coorong, Healthy Basin On Ground Works project is working together with the Ngarrindjeri Aboriginal Corporation, the Raukkan Community Council and the Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board, to restore wetland habitat at this culturally and ecologically significant site.

The Teringie Wetlands are made up of 3 large basins; north, east and south. While these basins were historically connected, they rarely connect now due to flow barriers such as access tracks and less variable lake levels. Infrequent inundation, groundwater salinity, pest plant invasion and a loss of biodiversity, have caused the wetlands to become degraded over time. Enhancing connectivity between the basins and reinstating flow paths is considered a fundamental step in the restoration of the wetlands.

The installation of 2 regulators, the first at the inlet between the north basin and Lake Alexandrina (TN1), and the second between the north and east basins (TN2), will provide greater control over water level management, to mimic more natural (pre-river regulation) conditions, including instituting a drying cycle.

These works will allow greater areas of the wetlands to be inundated for longer and at defined depths, thereby increasing the availability of foraging habitat by an additional 18 ha (82% increase).