Keatings Lagoon Queensland

Keatings Lagoon, known as Mulbabidgee to the Waymbuurr people—the Traditional Owners of this park—has been used for thousands of years for the collection of a variety of animals and plants for food, medicines and raw materials. In more recent times, this place became known as Keatings Lagoon, after a family who built and lived in the area. Waterlilies, sedges and algae grow in and around the lagoon which is fringed with paperbarks and shrubby wrinkle pod mangroves. Tropical woodland and small thickets of vine forest surround the wetland.

The wetland is a refuge for thousands of waterbirds, especially in the dry season (May to October) when they congregate to feast on the rich aquatic life. Birds include the magpie goose, the black-necked stork, the strikingly-marked Radjah shelduck and the comb-crested jacana—slender agile bird with large feet that is able to walk across the surface of water lilies. Aquatic wildlife in the lagoon includes rainbow fish, snakehead gudgeon cod and freshwater shrimp. The wetland is also an important nursery area for juvenile barramundi which instinctively swim upstream into the lagoon during flood periods. To help protect these fish, fishing is not permitted within the park.