Muir-Byenup System

Byenup Lagoon, Muir Byenup System Ramsar site
Lake Muir, Muir Byenup Ramsar site
Tordit-Gurrup Lagoon, Muir Byenup Ramsar site

Muir-Byenup System

  • Country: 
    Australia
  • Site number: 
    1050
  • Area: 
    10,631 ha
  • Designation date: 
    05-01-2001
  • Coordinates: 
    34°29'S 116°42'E
Materials presented on this website, particularly maps and territorial information, are as-is and as-available based on available data and do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

Overview

A suite of partly inter-connected lakes and swamps of varied size, salinity, permanence and substrate (peat and inorganic), in an internally draining catchment. The open lakes are used for moulting by thousands of Australian shelduck (Tadorna tadornoides) and for drought refuge by tens of thousands of other ducks, while the sedge- and shrub-dominated swamps support an important population of Australasian bittern (Botaurus poiciloptilus) and three types of nationally vulnerable orchid. Vegetation communities of the Site’s wet flats are among the few remaining in non-coastal parts of south-western Australia and the Site has some of the largest natural sedgelands in Western Australia. It is used for nature conservation, but agriculture occurs in adjoining lands, notably grazing of domestic sheep and cattle and tree plantations. Illegally released feral pigs cause considerable damage to vegetation and soil.

Administrative region: 
Western Australia

  • National legal designation: 
    • Nature Reserve - Lake Muir National Park
  • Last publication date: 
    01-07-2022

Downloads

Ramsar Information Sheet (RIS)

Site map

Additional reports and documents