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Published: June 13th 2006
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Set sail for the wetlands
Dan, pretending to be Gilligan, on a boat in a playground at Middle beach. To view as a slide show, select Full image and then use Next>> to scroll through. Introduction
Ever wondered what it was like in the various wetlands around Adelaide? What would you see and do there? Well this blog will take you through 5 different wetland-based walking trails/parks that we have visited over the last few weeks, show you how they have been set up and let you know what you can expect. The 5 parks we visited were Mutton Cove Conservation Park near Osborne, Barker inlet wetlands that are near the Port river expressway, the Greenfields wetlands which are between Port Wakefield Road and Salisbury Highway, Port Gawler weir and the "Samphire discovery trail" at Middle beach.
The first thing to note about the wetland walks are that they are generally short and flat - so most people can complete the walks without much effort. I also found out that February 2 of each year is celebrated as
World wetland day.
Mutton Cove
This Reserve has only recently been created. It is located near the Submarine factory on Mersy Road Osborne - while travelling North on Mersy road, the last building on the right is the submarine factory, turn right between the sub factory car park and electricity sub-station. About 30 metres down there is
Wetland locations
The 5 sites: 1=Mutton cove; 2=Barker Inlet; 3=Greenfields; 4=Port Gawler; 5=Middle beach. a car park at the beginning of the walk. A fence surrounds the Reserve.
The reserve is basically salt marsh and samphire bushes. The site is in the process of being rehabilitated (the car bodies are gone, and many tree plantings are evident). Clearly marked paths take you around the wetlands. The space is ruined on weekends by the sounds of mororcycles on nearby waste land and indefinitely by the hum of the high tension power lines and elecricity sub station. There were very few birds, however it was fun watching the dolphins feeding in the Port River as we had our soup and sandwiches.
Barker inlet
On either side of the Port Expressway is the Barker Inlet wetlands. We went to the site on the Northern side of the road and were only able to walk for about 5 minutes (I understand the walk on the Southern side of the road is more extensive). There were thousands of birds here however and many differnet species. The adjacent salt evaporation ponds and salt piles in the made interesting scenery.
Greenfields wetlands
This park is under development - with the transposition of the boat shed cafe buildings to
Mutton Cove
Entrance to the Reserve the site as a proposed wetland education centre, it has so much potential! You can read more about the development on page 12 of this
brochure.
The wetlands are rather mature and that means that the birds are there - a rich diversity and plenty of them. The board walk that is publically accessible from Port Wakefield Road is only a 15 minute stroll, but it does go away from the noisy road in places, where you can go deeper into the wetlands and find some serenity. You will need to start at the buildings and head South, heading west when ever there is a turn off. Walk quietly and stop and sit and watch to get the best viewing of
ibis,
egret,
pelican,
swamp hen,
stilts,
black swans,
plovers,
little pied cormorants and many others that I don't know the names of. But watch out for spiders! I have had a close encounter with spiders on every visit to Greenfields (they are not my favourite critters).
There is another track which heads west from the main car park that turns into a board walk - but this is fenced off at the moment. Near there is an area for launching boats
Mutton Cove paths
A ring route extends through the wetlands - what a great way to explore the wet lands - now we need to find someone who can loan us a canoe ....
Port Gawler
Port Gawler had been on Peter's to do list ever since he moved to the city. He would drive past the turn off from Port Wakefield road while commuting between the mid North and Adelaide and wonder - what is Port Gawler like? So, this time we took the turn off and checked it out. The road splits with signs indicating a left turn to "Port Gawler wharf" and a right turn to "Port Gawler beach". The "beach" is a mud flat and there is a motorcross curcuit adjacent. The "wharf" is the wooden remanents of a wharf were trade was conducted.
The area is primarily
mangrove wetlands, and again I wished I had a canoe to explore the area. There was a boat ramp and a "rock boat" where we took our lunch.
On the journey between Port Gawler and Middle beach we made an exciting discovery - the rain radar from Buckland Park which produces these images for the
Bureau of Meterology.
Middle beach - Samphire discovery trail
Middle beach
Succulent on the path
These succulents seemed to grow best on the path was not an overtly friendly place. There are many signs through the town telling visitors that if they do this, or that, they will be fined $750. The Samphire trail costs $2 per person and there are several home-made signs reminding people to pay up. As far as value for money - the trail was a disappointment - only 150 metres of board walk and a few crabs, and yes, samphires were discovered along the way.
Dan says ...
I think wetlands are very interesting places to visit and they are an important part of our environment to look after. I really like the smell of the wetlands - it makes me feel good - I wonder if there are any healthy chemicals that the wetland plants contain that can be extracted for human use?
Wetlands are good places to do field work. You can sit and watch the animals within their environments. It can be spiders or birds. My favourite water bird is the cormorant. I like watching it dive down to get it's food. Afterwards it converts it's wings into solar panels - to help dry their feathers.
It is always good to visit a wetland. And now for a joke ...
Q: Why didn't the crab share?
A: Because it was shellfish!
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polly
non-member comment
Katherine says: it looked like you had lots of interesting fun Jessica say: I enjoyed looking at all of the pictures they were interesting Polly says: the Port river looks fantastic, I cant remember being able to see the bottom!