The Lake Machattie Area is a 909 km² tract of land comprising Lakes Machattie, Mipia and Koolivoo, with the surrounding

Georgina River The Georgina River is the north-westernmost of the three major rivers of the Channel Country in Central West Queensland, that also flows through a portion of the Northern Territory, in central Australia. Part of the Lake Eyre basin, the Geor ...

and Eyre Creek

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

s, in the arid

Channel Country The Channel Country is a region of outback Australia mostly in the state of Queensland but also in parts of South Australia, Northern Territory and New South Wales. The name comes from the numerous intertwined rivulets that cross the region, ...

of western

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

, Australia. The area is important as a breeding site for

waterbird A water bird, alternatively waterbird or aquatic bird, is a bird that lives on or around water. In some definitions, the term ''water bird'' is especially applied to birds in freshwater ecosystems, although others make no distinction from seabi ...

Description

The floodplains are seasonally flooded and contain several freshwater lakes which continue to hold water well after the floods have receded. Lakes Mipia and Koolivoo are inundated annually, with Mipia often retaining water until the following flood season, but Koolivoo usually dries up by early summer. Lake Machattie is flooded about once in three years. The three lakes are fresh when filled by floods but become increasingly saline as they dry out. The floodplains are characterised by

anastomosing An anastomosis (, plural anastomoses) is a connection or opening between two things (especially cavities or passages) that are normally diverging or branching, such as between blood vessels, leaf veins, or streams. Such a connection may be normal ...

channels and waterholes lined with open coolibah woodland, surrounded by

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses ( Poaceae). However, sedge ( Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur na ...

forb A forb or phorb is an herbaceous flowering plant that is not a graminoid (grass, sedge, or rush). The term is used in biology and in vegetation ecology, especially in relation to grasslands and understory. Typically these are dicots without woo ...

lands,

samphire Samphire is a name given to a number of succulent salt-tolerant plants ( halophytes) that tend to be associated with water bodies. *Rock samphire, ''Crithmum maritimum'' is a coastal species with white flowers that grows in Ireland, the Uni ...

and lignum. Average annual rainfall is 168 mm.BirdLife International (2011) Important Bird Areas factsheet: Lake Machattie Area. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 2011-07-28.

Birds

The site has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it has supported over 300,000 waterbirds, including over 1% of the world populations of freckled and

pink-eared duck The pink-eared duck (''Malacorhynchus membranaceus'') is a species of duck found in Australia. It has a large spatulate bill like the Australasian shoveler, but is smaller at 38–40 cm length. Its brown back and crown, black and white barr ...

Australian pelican The Australian pelican (''Pelecanus conspicillatus'') is a large waterbird in the family Pelecanidae, widespread on the inland and coastal waters of Australia and New Guinea, also in Fiji, parts of Indonesia and as a vagrant in New Zealand ...

s, straw-necked ibises,

royal spoonbill The royal spoonbill (''Platalea regia'') also known as the black-billed spoonbill, occurs in intertidal flats and shallows of fresh and saltwater wetlands in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands. (In New Z ...

s, little black cormorants,

red-necked avocet The red-necked avocet (''Recurvirostra novaehollandiae'') also known as the Australian avocet, cobbler, cobbler's awl, and painted lady, is a wader of the family Recurvirostridae that is endemic to Australia and is fairly common and widespread t ...

s and

sharp-tailed sandpiper The sharp-tailed sandpiper (''Calidris acuminata'') (but see below) is a small wader. Taxonomy A review of data has indicated that this bird should perhaps better be placed into the genus ''Philomachus'' – as ''P. acuminatus'' – which now ...

s. It also supports

Australian bustard The Australian bustard (''Ardeotis australis'') is a large ground dwelling bird which is common in grassland, woodland and open agricultural country across northern Australia and southern New Guinea. It stands at about high, and its wingspan is ...

s and grey grasswrens. Large numbers of Australian pratincoles, black-tailed godwits and

flock bronzewing The flock bronzewing (''Phaps histrionica''), also known as the flock pigeon, harlequin bronzewing and the harlequin pigeonCrome, F., Shields, J. (1992). ''Parrots & Pigeons of Australia''. Angus & Robertson Publishers is a species of pigeon in t ...

s have been recorded.

References

Important Bird Areas of Queensland Lake Eyre basin Machattie Floodplains of Australia {{Queensland-geo-stub