VVG Resources

Otway Water. Impacts Resulting from the Big Swamp Drying Out Otway Water, Book 14

Volume 14 in a series on Otway Water, written and published by Malcolm Gardiner.  A book documenting the drying of Yeodene Swamp (a.k.a. The Big Swamp) and the resulting generation of acid from exposing acid sulphate soils to oxidation, as well as peat fires.  Quite a lot of useful anecdotal observations and empirical evidence are included.  Comprehensive bibliography included.

Malcolm Gardiner

The Big Swamp was a wetland along Boundary Creek, a tributary of the Barwon River located in the Otway Ranges of Victoria, Australia. In a saturated anaerobic condition the combination of iron, anaerobic bacteria, sulfur, temperatures around 100 C and a plentiful supply of organic matter, the production of significant quantities of pyrite accumulated in the Big Swamp. Over eons the flora and fauna of the Big Swamp evolved, flourished and peacefully survived under these saturated conditions. However since 1984, as the peat in the Big Swamp progressively dried out the environment began to undergo massive changes. The ecosystems that had existed for living memory eventually began to disappear. The impacts and destruction of the wetlands in the Big Swamp have been dramatic, complete and far reaching. This Otway Water Book attempts to demonstrate the multitude of impacts and destruction that have taken place.

Volume 14 in a series on Otway Water, written and published by Malcolm Gardiner.  A book documenting the drying of Yeodene Swamp (a.k.a. The Big Swamp) and the resulting generation of acid from exposing acid sulphate soils to oxidation, as well as peat fires.  Quite a lot of useful anecdotal observations and empirical evidence are included.  Comprehensive bibliography included.

The book details the impacts of the introduction of the Barwon Water fields water extraction, on the Yeodene swamp, with referece to increase (and impacts) of soil acidity, peat dehydration and combustion, farming practises mitgation and groundwater level reduction.