JUST ADD WATER

Australia’s wetlands are pulsing with life after three years of above‑average rainfall, fuelled by La Niña weather patterns

- ANNETTE RUZICKA

STEP OUT OF your vehicle about 30km off the Sturt Highway near Balranald, near the Victorian border in south-western New South Wales, and it’s like someone has opened a window and let in a flurry of birds. Colour, movement and water surround both sides of the road and you know you’ve arrived at Gayini (formerly Nimmie-Caira), an 88,000ha property nestled in the southern Murray-Darling Basin.

“Wait till you see the pelicans,” says Jamie Woods, Gayini land manager and Nari Nari Traditional Owner (TO). Close by, about 20,000 pelicans are breeding in a colony after recent rains; an awe-inspiring sight of thousands of bulbous eyes consuming the landscape all the way to the horizon.

Part of the Lowbidgee floodplain, the largest remaining area of wetlands in the Murrumbidgee Valley, Gayini (the Nari Nari word for water) is of international conservation significance. It provides feeding and breeding habitat for many species of freshwater birds, including the straw-necked ibis, royal spoonbill and little pied cormorant. This flat, largely arid landscape is surrounded by winding, intricate and often colourful wetlands dotted with thousands of visiting birds. The most recent flood has inundated more than 70 per cent of Gayini, helping revive parched pockets within the property. “You see why it’s so special to the mob,” says Nari Nari TO Rene Woods.