Wonga Wetlands consists of seven inter-linked lagoons and covers an area of around 80 hectares (equivalent to 40 Melbourne Cricket Grounds). The lagoons are constructed on a former beef cattle farm on the south side of the Riverina Highway and to the west of Waterview Road. They are bounded on the north side by Bagnall’s Range Lagoon (an anabranch of the Murray River), on the east and part of the south by Waterview Road and the remainder of the south and the west by Cooks Lagoon (another anabranch of the Murray River).
The lagoons are of varying depth with a maximum depth of 4.5 metres. They hold approximately 880 megalitres of water. In the warmer months they gradually dry up through evaporation and percolation through the gravels and sands that make up the Murray River floodplains.
Construction of Wonga Wetlands, which fills in winter and dries out in summer, has in fact returned the natural water flow of the area to pre-European settlement. This restoration of the natural water flow has resulted in the return of birds, and with no farming activities, has also seen the return of fauna and the re-establishment of flora.
