SLEX Farm Tour 1 - Malpas Catchment: Armidale's Town Water Supply

Saturday 26 September, 8.15am – 12noon, departing Armidale Visitor Information Centre

Do you shower, cook and clean with water from Armidale’s mains supply? You are using water collected in the Malpas Catchment, located near Guyra!

The Malpas catchment has been extensively cleared of woody vegetation, with little over 3% total tree cover remaining. Characterised by grazing land use, the catchment is exposed and degraded. Blue green algal blooms occur frequently on the Malpas Dam, creating a wide range of impacts upon water quality both within the dam and in the Gara River downstream.

The Malpas Catchment Group, Armidale Dumaresq Council and Southern New England Landcare are committed to the long term improvement of water quality in the Malpas Dam. To this end, the Malpas Catchment Project (running for over 10 years) has seen revegetation, ground cover management, storm water management and dam treatment activities undertaken.

As part of the SLEX 2009 farm tour series, Southern New England Landcare are pleased to present the half day “Malpas Catchment: Armidale’s Town Water Supply” tour.

The tour will feature the following:

• Armidale – Guyra (return) bus trip
• Access to a private lookout with views over the Malpas Catchment
• Paddock, tree line and TSR site visits, looking at grazing, revegetation and remnant   

  vegetation management and how these influence Armidale’s water quality
• Artificial wetland site visit at the Armidale Golf Course, looking at how the Golf Club have

  copied natural processes by cleaning waste water & using it to irrigate the greens
• Technical experts on hand to explain all of the above!

Tickets $5.00 per person. Bookings at the Armidale Visitor Information Centre, 82 Marsh Street Armidale. Telephone 02 6772 4655