For the past several years, the BRA has supported a bi-annual survey of the Wingecarribee River as it flows around Berrima looking for platypus. The latest survey was held October 2022.
If anyone would like to join the volunteers on the survey day (late in the afternoon) for an hour at individual locations along the river bank upstream from the Berrima Weir, please call Clive (0427 808 967).
Berrima is a platypus “hotspot”, and several universities have conduct studies here. With the severe flooding over the last few months we didn’t expect to see platypus this October, but the river has already lost a lot of its power and we had the best number of sightings in 5 years. There were 4 sightings in 3 different locations.
Calculations from past surveys indicate that the platypus population around Berrima is about one or two every kilometre. One of the objectives of the Southern Highlands Landcare Network is to re-wild the banks of the river upstream from the Berrima Weir, all the way to Burradoo and beyond. This will not only protect the river bank from livestock (it has to be fenced off, and landowners can receive grants to do this), but it will extend the habitat of the platypus. They need over-grown banks in which to dig their burrows.