Aldinga Washpool Lagoon

The Aldinga Washpool Lagoon

The Aldinga Washpool Lagoon is a rare ephemeral freshwater wetland. For a relatively small conservation area, it has an astonishing number of resident and visiting bird species, including some from as far away as Japan and China. The shallow water teems with invertebrate aquatic life.

In 2001, the Aldinga Washpool Lagoon was recognised as a nationally important wetland and recorded in the Commonwealth Government's Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia.  You can find the Information Sheet for the Aldinga Washpool Lagoon by entering SA072 in the Wetland Refcode box.

A wealth of documents related to the Aldinga Washpool Lagoon dated from 1935 until the present can be found on this website under "Documents". Photographs and links to related organisations are also available.

Update March 2023

The transition to Aldinga Washpool becoming part of the new “Aldinga Conservation Park”, incorporating both Aldinga Scrub and the Washpool, continues to take place. The Department for Environment and Water has established a Co-Management Advisory Committee made up of National Parks and Wildlife Service representatives and Kaurna Yerta Aboriginal Corporation representatives. Their role is to advise the Minister on the creation of a Co-Management Plan for Kaurna and government to share responsibility for the future of the Park, to devise a Kaurna name for the Park, to consider the proposals of the Ecohydrological Restoration Report prepared by Nature Glenelg Trust, and to prepare a Management Plan under National Parks guidelines for the future directions of the Park.

The Ecohydrological Report is a significant landmark in the understanding of the cultural significance of the Washpool and how colonising settlers have drastically altered the topology, hydrology and ecology of the area. The report offers a number of actions that can be taken to enable the Washpool to increase its capacity for retaining water much longer, including by removing the large bund that has divided the area since the 1950s, raising the level of the sill that was built in the 1990s, excavating accumulated sediment brought by the drains from the Hillsface, and removal of Button Rd, which divides the southern and northern bodies of water. The goal would be to restore the ecology and hydrology of the Washpool to something closer to its pre-European configuration. However, the costs and negotiation of cultural issues will determine to what extent the report’s recommendations are adopted.

It is expected that consultation will begin this year for the preparation of a Management Plan. In anticipation of this the Washpool Coalition, which was formed a number of years ago to advocate for the declaration of the Washpool as a Conservation Park, and inclusion of the SA Water land, which represents a number of local conservation groups, has prepared a brief of what needs to be considered in the Management Plan. The main considerations are:

1. Catchment management should govern hydrology, which means the Silver Sands Stormwater Management Plan needs to be integrated + Range to Reef and Greater Aldinga Conservation Zone concepts incorporated, including extending the western boundary to the low-water mark
2. Conservation and regeneration of habitat and wildlife ecosystems is a priority, including creating a no-fly zone over the Washpool
3. Visitor experience and interpretive signage needs to be done sensitively and adequately
4. Celebrating cultural history and heritage is fundamental
5. Hydrological restoration that’s appropriate and integrated with these other priorities
6. Community education, participation and responsibility for ongoing care of the Park/urban interface.

Onkaparinga Council and the State Government are still negotiating outstanding issues with regard to those sections of the Washpool that are under Council’s care and control. These include the boundary area on the west, ensuring flood protection of Silver Sands, the future of Button Rd, and the major issue of finalising and implementing the Silver Sands Stormwater Management Plan, which has been awaiting adoption by Council for the last 7 years!

When the Washpool declaration was announced in January 2022 it was understood that it would be part of the Fleurieu National Parks Region, but this has been revised to include it in the Southern Metropolitan Region. It’s important, too, to be aware that the Co-Management Advisory Committee is responsible not just for the Aldinga Conservation Park but also Torrens Island Conservation Park and the International Bird Sanctuary, which will have some bearing on how much local input, from both Kaurna and the wider community, will be possible.

Seasonal Variations of Aldinga Washpool:

Adelaide and the Fleurieu Peninsula with Aldinga Washpool marked: