More than 1,400 hectares of important wetlands in Victoria will receive international recognition and stronger environmental protections through an expansion of the Port Phillip Bay (western shoreline) and Bellarine Peninsula Ramsar site.
The expansion increases the size of the Ramsar-listed wetland to 24,110 hectares.
New areas being added to the site include:
- the Moolap Wetlands,
- parts of the Edwards Point Swan Bay Wildlife Reserve and Coastal Reserve,
- Lake Connewarre Complex Conservation Reserve, and
- Point Cook Cheetham Coastal Park and Marine Sanctuary.
These wetlands contain valuable saltmarsh and seagrass habitats that provide food, shelter and resting places for migratory shorebirds travelling thousands of kilometres along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway.
The newly included areas support several threatened species, including the critically endangered curlew sandpiper and far eastern curlew. They also provide habitat for spiny peppercress, a threatened plant species that will be included within the Ramsar site for the first time.
The expansion follows extensive consultation with local communities, land managers and other stakeholders.
The Port Phillip Bay (western shoreline) and Bellarine Peninsula Ramsar site is one of 67 wetlands across Australia recognised as internationally important under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.
Page last updated: 23/10/26