Lake Victoria is a shallow
saline lake on the
Bellarine Peninsula
The Bellarine Peninsula (Wadawurrung language, Wadawurrung: ''Balla-wein'' or ''Biteyong'') is a peninsula located south-west of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, surrounded by Port Phillip, Corio Bay and Bass Strait. The peninsula, together wi ...
,
Victoria in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
, close to the township of
Point Lonsdale
Point Lonsdale is a town on the Bellarine Peninsula, near Queenscliff, Victoria, Australia. The town is divided between the Borough of Queenscliffe and the City of Greater Geelong. Point Lonsdale is also one of the headlands which, with Poin ...
and part of the Lonsdale Lakes Nature Reserve administered by
Parks Victoria
Parks Victoria is a government agency of the state of Victoria, Australia.
Parks Victoria was established in December 1996 as a statutory authority, reporting to the Victorian Minister for Environment. The ''Parks Victoria Act 2018'' updates ...
.
[
]
Location and features
The lake is separated from Bass Strait
Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The ...
by a narrow strip of coastal dunes. It forms part of the Swan Bay wetland system of shallow marine areas and lagoons, and is an important wetland
A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...
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 ...
s and wader
245px, A flock of Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots
Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflats in order to foraging, ...
s.[Hewish, M.J. (2003). ''Fauna values of three sub-coastal wetlands on the Bellarine Peninsula: Lake Victoria, Freshwater Lake and St Leonards Salt Lagoon''. Parks Victoria Technical Series No.10. Parks Victoria: Melbourne. ISSN 1448-4935]
The site is part of the Swan Bay and Port Phillip Bay Islands Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International
BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...
.hooded plover
The hooded plover or hooded dotterel (''Charadrius cucullatus'') is a species of bird in the family Charadriidae. It is endemic to southern Australia, where it inhabits ocean beaches and subcoastal lagoons.
Taxonomy
The hooded plover was Species ...
, little egret
The little egret (''Egretta garzetta'') is a species of small heron in the family Ardeidae. It is a white bird with a slender black beak, long black legs and, in the western race, yellow feet. As an aquatic bird, it feeds in shallow water and on ...
and orange-bellied parrot. It sometimes holds internationally significant numbers of red-necked stint
The red-necked stint (''Calidris ruficollis'') is a small migratory wader. The genus name is from Ancient Greek ''kalidris'' or ''skalidris'', a term used by Aristotle for some grey-coloured waterside birds. The specific ''ruficollis'' is from La ...
s and banded stilt
The banded stilt (''Cladorhynchus leucocephalus'') is a Bird migration#Short-distance and altitudinal migration, nomadic wader of the stilt and avocet family, Recurvirostridae, native to Australia. It belongs to the monotypic genus ''Cladorhync ...
s.[Hewish, Marilyn. (2003). The waterbirds of Lake Victoria, a sub-coastal wetland on the Bellarine Peninsula. ''Geelong Bird Report'' 2002: 73-110.]
Plant communities consist of salt tolerant species typical of coastal dune woodland and saltmarsh in the region.Woodland
A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...
and tall shrubland
Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominance (ecology), dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbaceous plant, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally o ...
along the southern lakeshore mainly consist of Moonah '' Melaleuca lanceolata'', a species that is listed as threatened in Victoria under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act.[
]
References
External links
The Bellarine Landcare Group
Lakes of Victoria (state)
Saline lakes of Australia
Bellarine Peninsula
Important Bird Areas of Victoria (state)
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