Happy World Migratory Bird Day!

This year’s World Migratory Bird Day theme, Water: Sustaining Bird Life, highlights the importance of preserving aquatic ecosystems amid an increasing population and climate change.

The Western Treatment Plant (WTP) is a haven for migratory birds and recognised as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention. The WTP is more than just world class sewage treatment - its vast wetlands are essential to the wildlife that call it home.

Video: Meet our WTP Conservation and Land Officer, Cody, and find out why he thinks the WTP is so special.

Western Treatment Plant: Amazing habitat for wildlife - transcript

The Orange-bellied Parrot is back at WTP

Did you know that the rare and critically endangered, Orange-bellied Parrot from south-west Tasmania is setting up temporary residence at the WTP? They will stay there for the entire winter, before returning to south-west Tassie in summer to breed.

There are fewer than 100 Orange-bellied Parrots remaining in the wild. They travel across the Bass Strait every year to roost and feed at the WTP, one of the only wetlands in Australia which actively manages man-made ponds for migratory birds and other species. The WTP has a larger species list than that of Kakadu!

Keen birdwatchers can obtain a permit approval to birdwatch at the WTP. WTP birdwatching tours are also offered by Peregrine Bird Tours and Firetail Birdwatching Tours.