LAKE COWAL - A PRECIOUS WETLAND AND A FILTER
Lake Cowal is listed on the Register of the National Estate for the diversity and number of species that inhabit the lake. It is also listed in the Directory of Important Wetlands of Australia. The National Trust of Australia (New South Wales) has also listed Lake Cowal as a ‘Landscape Conservation Area’.

Lake Cowal/Wilbertroy wetlands is not Ramsar* listed, although in 1996 the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), in its submission to the first Commission of Inquiry into the Cowal Gold Project, stated:

The NPWS submits that Lake Cowal is a significant wetland. Its
significance relates to the wide range of fauna species that the
wetland supports, especially waterbirds. NPWS submits that the lake is significant for the total number of waterbirds that occur at various times, the frequent presence of endangered species, and those covered by the Japan-Australia and China-Australia Migratory Bird Agreements (JAMBA, CAMBA). NPWS also submits that there is widespread consensus among wetland ecologists and ornithologists that Lake Cowal satisfies the criteria for inclusion as a wetland of international significance under the Ramsar Convention [the International Convention on Wetlands]
www.wetlands.org

Lake Cowal is the habitat for many threatened plant and animal
species, including migratory species that fly to Australia from the northern hemisphere. At least 172 species of birds, including the rare freckled duck, have been recorded as inhabiting Lake Cowal and the surrounding area.

* Ramsar is the town in Iran where Australia signed the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance