Werribee and Avalon Important Bird Area

The Werribee and Avalon Important Bird Area comprises some 37 km2 of coastal land along the northwestern shore of Port Phillip in the state of Victoria, in southeastern Australia.

The site consists of wetlands stretching from the mouth of the Werribee River in the northeast to the city of Geelong in the southwest.

The site is flat and low-lying; it experiences temperatures ranging from a mean minimum of 7°C in July to a mean maximum of 24°C in January and February, with an annual rainfall of 750 mm.

Apart from the saltworks, the area also forms part of the Port Phillip Bay (Western Shoreline) and Bellarine Peninsula Ramsar Site.

[1] The site has been identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports regular numbers of orange-bellied parrots, and over 1% of the world populations of blue-billed, musk, freckled and pink-eared ducks, Australian shelducks, chestnut teals, Australasian shovelers, hoary-headed grebes, red-necked stints and sharp-tailed sandpipers.