Removing man-made dams from South Olary Plain

Over the past 5 years, the Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board has been working to remove a number of former pastoral dams from the South Olary Plain to reduce the over grazing of native vegetation. These dams were constructed when this land was made up by a number of pastoral leases to allow sheep to drink from.

Today, the land is a network of conservation parks and so the only users of the dams are native and introduced species. The presence of semi-permanent water in dams causes these species to linger around watering holes causing over grazing of native vegetation and destabilising the local native ecosystem.

To date, xx dams have been removed by filling in the depressions using earth moving equipment. The subsequent rejuvenation of local native vegetation is monitored by staff and volunteers from a number of organisations. Use the map to navigate across the South Olary Plain to see images of the former dam sites and see how these ecosystems are recovering from years of overgazing.