Eastern Treatment Plant

The rest is pumped through 56 kilometres (35 miles) of pipeline to discharge into Bass Strait at Boags Rocks on the Mornington Peninsula.

[1] The plant is on an 1,100 ha (4.2 sq mi) site bordered by the Patterson River to the north, the Mornington Peninsula Freeway to the west, and the EastLink Tollway to the south and east.

[2] The plant treats around 40 percent of Melbourne's sewage — about 330 megalitres or 270 acre-feet a day — from about 1.5 million people, mainly in the eastern and south-eastern suburbs.

Species for which the IBA is globally important are the sharp-tailed sandpiper, blue-billed duck, chestnut teal and Australasian bittern.

[6] There is no public access to the ETP for birdwatchers but the birdlife has been monitored since 1998 by monthly surveys conducted by Birds Australia, with 177 species recorded for the site.