Golf Course And Mulwaree Ponds - NSW

The Mulwaree Ponds area is an important system as it is a relatively intact ‘chain of ponds’, which dominated south eastern Australia prior to European settlement.

Many of these systems were drained for farming (either on purpose or due to changed land management practices) and often sown with shallow-rooted pasture, resulting in a loss of wetland vegetation diversity and erosion, exacerbated by the hoof or the plough. This dried out the landscape, reduced plant diversity and took many of the ecosystem services including such as water filtration and ecosystem function. These systems, which once acted like kidneys or giant landscape sponges, were reduced to little more than eroding drains. We are fortunate, however, that this has not been the case for much of the Mulwaree Ponds area, and while there are some impacts from agriculture and settlement, the system is in a state where recovery is possible.

The Mulwaree system is unique in that it contains large-scale ponds (some up to 7 m deep) and, in its natural state, swampy preferential flow paths that connect the ponds during rain. Water flow is connected to the local floodplain aquifer which maintains the water level in the ponds even during drought. Over the last few decades, these connecting flow paths between the ponds have become channelised, with these channels becoming enlarged via incision and bank erosion processes. When high flow occurs, energy is concentrated in these channels, causing further erosion and channel enlargement. These threatening processes have the potential to lower pond water levels, and may eventually consume the ponds, destroying the hydrology and geomorphology of the system.