Landcare volunteers this week started rehabilitation on an area where a boardwalk will be built at Killarney Vale. Three educational signs with information on how the community can help protect vulnerable wildlife that call Tuggerah Lakes home will be installed as part of the project.

A range of internationally protected bird species live at the lakes, including resident waterbirds such as the Chestnut Teal and the near threatened Bar-tailed Godwit, famous for flying 11,500 km in nine days from Alaska to New Zealand.

This is the longest non-stop flight of any bird in the world.

Protecting this wildlife is an important part of the Killarney Vale project, which will see a 200m boardwalk constructed over an area of saltmarsh near Lucinda Ave, Killarney Vale over the next few months.

The signs will provide educational information for the community about the birds and other wildlife that call the area home, including useful tips on what the community can do to help preserve this sensitive ecosystem.

Council’s Group Leader of Assets, Infrastructure and Business, Mr Mike Dowling, said protecting the wildlife of the lakes was crucial in maintaining balance in this sensitive ecosystem.

“For the many birds that call Tuggerah Lakes home, this is an important feeding habitat, which includes things like worms, molluscs and aquatic insects,” Mr Dowling said.

“This wildlife faces enormous challenges for survival due to pollution, loss of habitat from coastal and estuary development, threats from cats and dogs and disturbance from foot and vehicle traffic, and we ask the community to do their bit to help.”

“We can make a big difference by doing simple things like keeping cats and dogs well away, choosing the opposite end of a sandbar to birds when fishing, and preventing pollution by remembering that almost all rubbish ends up in rivers, lakes and the ocean..”

Council is currently undertaking a bush care program at the site that involves planting native food trees for the birds.

The signs and boardwalk will make the area safer and more accessible, making it possible for school and community groups to use it and learn about the environment.

Council’s Administrator, Mr Ian Reynolds, said the project demonstrated Council’s commitment to a sustainable environment for the Central Coast.

“The signs will inform the community about the wildlife and ways in which they can take actions to help protect them,” Mr Reynolds said.

“The boardwalk itself is good for the environment as it will stop the saltmarsh from deteriorating further from human impact and will make the area safer and more accessible for the community, including school groups and tourists.”

The project has been made possible due to funding from the National Landcare Program.