Why we need Porters Creek Wetland permanently protected : it is the most important wetland on the Central Coast.

Porter’s Creek Wetland is valuable to the Central Coast for drinking water, flood mitigation, biodiversity and health of the Tuggerah Lakes. It is the largest freshwater wetland in the Central Coast Region and is located north west of Wyong urban area. The land is owned by Council. The wetlands proper comprise a mixture of reed lands sedgelands and rushlands in areas of more permanent water inundation. It extends into the surrounding Melaleuca and Eucalypt swamp forests. The wetland was originally obtained by council to protect water quality in the Wyong River and Tuggerah Lakes System.

It is very valuable for the preservation and protection of biodiversity. The wetland is known to contain numerous threatened species and endangered ecological communities along with rare swamp forests. There are more than:

• 5 threatened plants species;
• 6 threatened bats;
• 4 threatened frogs, and;
• 4 endangered ecological communities.

It provides clean and healthy drinking water during droughts. During the millennial drought which occurred from 1996 to 2010, large parts of south eastern Australia were subjected to the worst drought in recorded history. At one stage Mangrove Dam only held 14 % of its volume. A weir was constructed on Porters Creek to capture the good quality water from coastal showers and feed the water into Mardi Dam.

The wetland floods regularly, without this wetland retaining those floodwaters, levels in the lake and along the river would be higher. The flooding slows the water flow and sediments then settle out on the floodplain.

CEN wants to see Porters Creek wetland south of the Wyong Employment Zone permanently protected to protect people, their homes and water supply and the environment of the Central Coast.