Current view: Text account
Site description (2008 baseline):
Site location and context
The IBA comprises the Lake Newland Conservation Park, which extends for 25 km along the coast along Anxious Bay on the western Eyre Peninsula. The main habitats are high-energy sandy beaches with some reefs and rocky stretches, extensive coastal dunes backed by a 20 km series of shallow saline lakes with freshwater springs, soaks and seepages, and some samphire flats and paperbark swamps. Inland of the lakes is abandoned pasture with sparse sheoak (Allocasuarina) woodland. In dry years, the surface water retreats to a smaller permanent lake in the south and the freshwater springs are surrounded by saline muds. Mean annual rainfall ranges from 350-400 mm, mainly falling in May-September.
Max count of 56 Pied Oystercatchers and about 15 pairs nesting on the beach; regularly small to moderate numbers of Banded Stilts, max 2000 in 2006 and 2400 in unknown year; regularly small to moderate numbers of Red-necked Stint, recent max 855 in 2003 and 520 in 2006, but previously regular records of 1000-2000; max count of 2000 Chestnut Teal (J. Cooper pers. comm. 2008; DEWHA 2008). Blue-winged Fairy-wrens are common in damp dune swales around the lake (J. Cooper pers. comm. 2008). A minimum of seven pairs of Hooded Plover nest on the nearby beach with a handful of probably non-breeding birds recorded on the lake system (J. Cooper pers. comm. 2007); a maximum 24 Hooded Plover were recorded in the area around 1991 (DEWHA 2008).
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
Regulate abstraction of groundwater from spring catchments. Control 4WD and dog access to the beaches which support Hooded Plovers. Continued control of foxes on and adjacent to reserve.
Lake Newland Conservation Park.
Owned by the South Australian Government and managed by the Department for Environment and Heritage.
Thanks to Jane Cooper as compiler. Dave Armstrong contributed counts of shorebirds. Department for Environment and Heritage west and Western Eyre Integrated Pest Management Program control foxes across the area.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Lake Newland (Australia). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/lake-newland-iba-australia on 22/11/2024.
