Enjoying Broken Hill’s Imperial Lakes Nature Park
Dr Anika Molesworth, Landcare Broken Hill Volunteer and Environmental Scientist
This morning, I sat at the water’s edge at Landcare Broken Hill’s Imperial Lakes Nature Park as a cool breeze caused ripples to dance across the surface. A young wallaroo on the far bank watched me with ears pricked. Two spiny-cheeked honeyeaters hopped down an overhanging branch of a river red gum, chattering away at me, while a pair of Eurasian coots emerged from the reeds and drifted out on the water. A turtle’s head popped up, then quickly disappeared as I pointed my camera towards it. Another head emerged for a brief look, then went back below the surface. Above, in the cloud-speckled sky, a black kite circled slowly. I felt a sense of calm and relief sitting here, and I was touched by a deep sense of gratitude.
Standing on the edge of this same lake a few weeks ago was a vastly different experience. It was gut-wrenching. An unpleasant smell wafted across the green water. There were no birds. A rotting turtle carcass lay upturned on the bank. Hundreds of turtle heads bobbed at the surface, as though they were silently crying out for help. Their water was becoming too hot, too shallow, and would soon be too toxic.
Never in its 130-year history had both lakes at the Nature Park gone dry. But that reality was now upon us. With a heatwave forecast and no rain in sight, time was ticking to save the wildlife.
The Nature Park is run by a dedicated team of local Landcare volunteers. Each weekend, this committed group, who are largely seniors, gather at the park and work hard to look after this special inland ecosystem. They plant seedlings, construct park benches, maintain and repair the buildings, weed out invasive species, and clear the walking tracks.
As the summer heat beat down and drought continued to tighten its grip on Far Western NSW, the group became increasingly alarmed at the state of the diminishing lake and the welfare of the precious wildlife.
And so, a crowdfunding page was set up to purchase emergency water to save the animals that depend on it. The response has been immensely heart-warming, with more than 660 people donating, raising over $90,000. With these funds, Landcare Broken Hill has been able to purchase critical water and release it into the lake, just in time to save the animals.
The Nature Park is home to several locally threatened species, including the barking marsh frog, the eel-tailed catfish, the eastern long-necked turtle and the broad-shelled turtle. It is also an important site for birds, including sacred kingfishers, rainbow bee-eaters, and nesting black swans. In the arid outback, a lake like this is a haven for wildlife, providing critical habitat, a place to breed and nest, and offering much-needed food and water.
Because of the support of generous donors, life remains at this lake today.
Landcare Broken Hill wishes to thank everyone who has generously donated to this cause. Without this help, we would have most certainly watched this lake ecosystem collapse and witnessed the loss of its wildlife. Every donation has made a real positive difference, but we are not completely out of the woods yet. Heat and drought remain, the water level is still low, and so we are continuing to raise funds. If you are able, please support and share our crowdfunding page so we can keep water flowing and protect this vital refuge for wildlife through the months ahead.
We also warmly welcome new members. If you would like to join the wonderful Landcare Broken Hill community, please become a member by registering here.
Dr Anika Molesworth
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Landcare Broken Hill’s visionary Imperial Lakes Nature Park – Simon Molesworth
Broken Hill’s regeneration belt, the Regen, which surrounds the city’s perimeter, is well known as one of the earliest examples of bush regeneration. It is one of Broken Hill’s most precious assets, and one of Australia’s most historic examples of practical conservation projects.
Albert and Margaret Morris pursued their work in the site from the mid 1930s to the mid 1950s, thereby providing a model, decades later, for similar regeneration efforts in other arid zone locations. The original creation of the Regen successfully reinstated local desert vegetation communities around the mining town with the intention of protecting the town from sand drift and dust storms. This work showed what could be done in a harsh arid environment with a scarce water supply. The Morris’s work was subsequently validated by a university-based evaluation (Pidgeon & Ashby 1941) and went on to influence mine site rehabilitation techniques in northern Australia (Webber 1992). Notably, for its historic exemplar status, the Regen was registered by the National Trust in 1991 and was a key factor which led to the Australian Government listing the whole City of Broken Hill on the National Heritage List in 2015, being the nation’s highest statutory heritage accolade.
In 1920, the Barrier Field Naturalists Club (BFNC) was founded in Broken Hill ‘to encourage and popularise the study of natural history as a leisure activity; to encourage and support scientific research into natural beauty; and to encourage the conservation of Australia’s natural heritage and archaeological heritage’. Dr. W.D.K. MacGillivray and Albert Morris were the founders, and they played a significant role in promoting a better understanding of the NSW Far Western Region’s flora and fauna.
In 2024, BFNC merged with Landcare Broken Hill, the latter offering to take over administration in order to ensure the original ‘flame’ of the BFNC was not extinguished. The BFNC continues under its original name, operationally as an internal division within Landcare Broken Hill.
Imperial Lakes Nature Park + Environmental Sustainability Expo Hub
Since January 2023, Landcare Broken Hill has been creating an extraordinary Nature Park, after acquiring a 145-acre former reservoir site, decommissioned by Essential Water in early 2022. With a wide diversity of proposed activities and infrastructure now in developmental stage, the Nature Park is situated just to the north of urban Broken Hill, with an entrance 800m from the edge of town on the Barrier Highway. It is a ‘island’ of freehold land, surrounded by Crown land, including Willyama Common to the north and east, and the Regeneration Reserve to the west.
In April 2019, Landcare Broken Hill was effectively relaunched with an all-encompassing approach to encourage integrated environmental management of the City and the Far West NSW Region. Greening the Hill Mk. 2 was the catchcry of this community-wide initiative embracing numerous projects, underpinned by a network of strategic partnerships. The objective of this initiative has been “to renew and re-green” the City and its region for the benefit of all.
Within the context of Greening the Hill Mk2, the creation of Imperial Lakes Nature Park with its proposed Environmental Sustainability Expo Hub was a natural progression. These are now Landcare Broken Hill’s flagship projects. Designed to be, together, a major community engagement initiative, Landcare’s Nature Park is likely to become one of the most frequented ecotourism destinations in Western NSW, whilst concurrently contributing to the liveability of those living in Broken Hill & its region.
The Nature Park will include all the usual passive recreational park facilities for walking, bush-running, picnicking, an Outback-themed children’s playground, together with a wide range of hands-on biodiversity conservation projects. The latter range from: a proposed major arboretum; wildlife nature trails, including an extensive boardwalk along the to-be restored Willa Willyong Creek; threatened species biodiversity conservation reserves; a saltbush hedge maze; and a major native plant propagation nursery with associated planted areas to showcase the regional flora.
With a concurrent cultural focus, there are to be art trails and exhibitions; and an ecumenical multi-faith outdoor Bush Chapel, which will double as a place for performing arts with an amphitheatre rising up from the Western Lake. Along the Forest Walk and in all bushland reserves, opportunities have been taken to place bird nesting boxes and small mammal refuges; whilst floating islands are proposed for the lakes to protect waterfowl breeding. Bird hides are being constructed on the lake banks. All these features are designed to provide experiential environmental education for park visitors to encourage an understanding of wildlife conservation. With citizen science & community education, being a core focus, educational infrastructure is proposed, which has started with the building of a state-of-the-art community weather station as the venue for community and student workshops to better understand our changing climate.
In pursuing its projects, Landcare Broken Hill has acknowledged the Wilyakali people as the Traditional Custodians of the land, recognising and valuing their continuing connection to Country and paying respect to their Elders past and present. This acknowledgment is far from tokenism as Landcare has determined that
dedicated areas of the Nature Park will showcase plants of traditional importance to the Aboriginal community including bush tucker and bush medicine plants, together with plants used for art and craft. A 1.5ha island in the Park’s Western Lake is proposed to become a place for immersive Indigenous experience, fostering respect and understanding of traditional Aboriginal culture. Through dual-language park signage and partnership engagement with the Aboriginal community being proactively pursued, Landcare intends to provide vocational environmental training for Aboriginal youth.
LANDCARE BROKEN HILL Inc.
Landcare Broken Hill is an ACNC registered charity with ATO approved DGR status.
To learn more about Landcare Broken Hill and this project visit the website – www.LandcareBrokenHill.com LandcareBrokenHill@gmail.com PO Box 536, Broken Hill, NSW, 2880 Nature Park, 19276 Barrier Highway, Broken Hill.
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