| Fortescue Marshes | |||||||||||
| Pushpin Map Alt: | Map showing the Fortescue Marsh located in the Western Australia region within Australia | ||||||||||
| Location: | Pilbara, Western Australia | ||||||||||
| Coords: | -22.4456°N 119.4439°W | ||||||||||
| Type: | Marsh | ||||||||||
| Pushpin Map: | Australia | ||||||||||
| Basin Countries: | Australia | ||||||||||
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Fortescue Marsh (or marshes) is a part of the upper reaches of the Fortescue River in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
The catchment area at the headwaters of the river is particularly flat and marshy where the Western Creek, Warrawanda Creek and Fortescue River converge, the river then flows through a poorly defined channel as far as Gregory Gorge when the river starts to form a well defined channel and flows through a number of pools before reaching the estuarine area.
The Fortescue Marshes have been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because, when the area is flooded it supports up to 270,000 waterbirds, including over 1% of the world populations of 14 species. The site is also the location for one of the only two records made since 1990 of the critically endangered night parrot.[1]
The area is also within the range of iron ore mine operations.[2] [3] [4]
The area is also regularly visited and issues assessed due to the sensitivity of the area and its geomorphology.
The operations include the Roy Hill mine and the Christmas Creek mine.