page_title: Mandora Marsh
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Mandora Marsh / Description
caption_attribution_description: العربية: جمل عربي وحشي في الصحراء الإستراليَّة، على مقربة من سيلڤرستون، بولاية نيو ساوث ويلز. English: Dromedary camel in outback Australia, near Silverton, NSW. Türkçe: Tek hörgüçlü bir deve. Develer, hörgüçlerinde yağ saklama yeteneğine sahiptirler ve uzun bacakları, yumuşak ve yayvan iki toynaklı ayakları kumda ya da karda yürümelerini kolaylaştırır (Silverton yakını, NSW, Avustralya).
context_page_description: Mandora Marsh, also known as Mandora Salt Marsh, is a complex and diverse wetland system in Western Australia close to Eighty Mile Beach, and included in the Eighty Mile Beach Ramsar Site. It lies at the western edge of the Great Sandy Desert bioregion and within the Mandora Station pastoral lease. The marsh is part of the 3337 km² Mandora Marsh and Anna Plains Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because of its importance for supporting large numbers of waders and waterbirds.
context_section_description: Mandora Marsh has formed over thousands of years on what used to be the lower reaches and estuary of an ancient river. The main features are two large lakes which are flooded after heavy cyclonic rainfall.  The westernmost Lake Walyarta 19°46′S 121°17′E is a claypan that extends eastwards about 30 km from the inland side of the Great Northern Highway.  Although its width may reach 5 km, the depth of water never exceeds 2 m.  The eastern lake 19°47′S 121°35′E is separated from Walyarta by a calcrete ridge.  It is a broad and braided drainage line containing islands of vegetation that floods extensively but soon dries out to a series of isolated salt and claypans.  Connecting the lakes is Salt Creek, a mangrove-lined watercourse about 5 km long and 20 m wide.  It holds permanent water and appears to be fed by a series of soaks.
  Despite its alternative name, as well as its saline wetlands Mandora Marsh includes a number of permanent or almost permanent freshwater swamps supplied by springs along the southern side of the two main lakes.  The springs are usually formed of a central, raised mound, 2–3 m high, of saturated peat, supporting a mixture of Melaleuca and Sesbania trees, with mangroves appearing at the saline and brackish springs.  The springs vary in size from 0.1  to several hectares; each spring's mound is generally surrounded by a moat, varying from a maximum depth of 50 cm to isolated shallow pools or just wet soil.  Many springs also support small stands of cumbungi with the understories of some dominated by the fern Achrostichum speciosum.  Thickets of saltwater paperbark are found where flood waters remain longest; stock watering bores have been established in these thickets and the watering troughs are used by waterbirds throughout the year.  The most spectacular of the springs is Mandora Soak, a raised peat bog estimated to be 7000 years old.
caption: Australian feral camel
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