Geographe Coastal Hotspot Project

This project takes a landscape-scale approach to protecting the Vasse-Wonnerup and Geographe Catchment priority coastal hotspot including the associated Ramsar-listed Vasse-Wonnerup Wetland system, located immediately east and north east of Busselton, extending some 14km.

This coastal hotspot is located in the temperate, south west of WA, within the Swan Coastal Plain biogeographic region and within the Shires of Busselton and Capel. The Vasse-Wonnerup Wetland system is also part of an extensive, shallow, nutrient-enriched system known as the Busselton Wetlands.

Extensive construction of drainage networks and coastal plain vegetation clearing within the Vasse-Geographe coastal hotspot, have put significant pressures on the system. Around 96% of the Geographe Bay catchment’s original wetlands have been lost or substantially modified as a result. The high level of nutrient from the Vasse and Wonnerup estuaries outflows will influence and potentially impact upon the proposed Ngari Capes Marine Park and Geographe Bay’s seagrass communities.

The project aims to protect and enhance:

a) Geographe Bay including the waterways, wetlands, estuaries and its important seagrass meadows; and
b) the Ramsar-listed Vasse Wonnerup Wetland system.

The project will strategically implement key recommendations and management actions from both the “Draft Water Quality Improvement Plan for the Vasse Wonnerup Wetlands and Geographe Bay”(DOW, 2009) and the “Ecological Character Description Vasse Wonnerup Wetlands Ramsar Site South-west Western Australia” (WRM, 2007).

Best management practices being undertaken include invasive pest and weed control, drainage modification, fencing for stock control along waterways, installation of stock crossings and off stream watering points as well as riparian and wetland management.

Further opportunities exist for additional landowners to participate in this program to install fencing along waterways in the Geographe Bay. This activity aims to prevent stock from accessing and eroding banks and thus contributing to water quality decline downstream.

In 2010, international and regional volunteers were engaged in the project in partnership with Conservation Volunteers Australia to plant seedlings. Volunteers also participated in cultural mentoring with local Aboriginal Traditional Owners due to significant Aboriginal sites being located in the area. Local landowners and volunteers will also be engaged in 2011 to plant native seedlings in partnership with local schools such as Busselton Senior High School and McKillop College.

For this project. we are working in partnership and cooperation with GeoCatch and their Bay OK program as well as the Department of Environment and Conservation. We are also running complementary programs, in partnership with the Government of Western Australia’s Fertiliser Action Plan to work with farmers to improve nutrient management on farms in the coastal hotspots.