Bellarine Wetlands Important Bird Area

The Bellarine Wetlands Important Bird Area comprises a group of wetland sites, with a collective area of 46 km2, at the western end of the Bellarine Peninsula in Victoria, south-eastern Australia.

The wetlands include the Moolap saltworks, with the adjacent intertidal mudflats of Point Henry and Corio Bay, and the extensive wetlands of Reedy Lake, Hospital Swamp and Lake Connewarre.

Moolap is a commercial saltworks and much of Point Henry is occupied by an aluminum smelter; the other wetlands are state game reserves.

Reedy Lake is freshwater; Moolap, Hospital Swamp and Connewarre are saline.

[1] The wetlands have been identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because they support significant numbers of critically endangered orange-bellied parrots, endangered Australasian bitterns and over 1% of the world populations of chestnut teals, sharp-tailed sandpipers, red-necked stints and banded stilts.