Mount Burr Wetland Restoration

Mount Burr Swamp is a significant freshwater wetland in South Australia’s South East, located near Millicent. Once drained for agriculture, it is now the subject of an active long-term restoration programme led by the Nature Glenelg Trust. The Growing Data Foundation contributed to this effort by installing a low-cost, solar-powered IoT water level monitoring system that provides continuous, publicly accessible data to guide restoration decisions.

The Challenge

Restoring a wetland requires understanding how water moves through the landscape across seasons and years. Historically, water level data at Mount Burr Swamp was collected manually — a time-consuming process that produced only occasional snapshots. Without continuous baseline data, it is difficult to assess the effectiveness of restoration works or predict the impact of interventions such as sill adjustments.

GDF’s Contribution

The Growing Data Foundation provided financial support and technical installation assistance for a real-time water level monitoring system at the swamp. The system has been operational since 3 December 2019, collecting pre-restoration baseline data.

How It Works

The monitoring system uses open, low-cost IoT components:

• A solar-powered water level sensor installed in the deep water section of the swamp, measuring surface water elevation in metres AHD (Australian Height Datum). The current sill elevation is 78.60 mAHD.
• A solar-powered LoRaWAN gateway mounted in the rafters of the property’s shearing shed, which relays sensor data wirelessly to the internet via The Things Network — without the need for costly mobile data contracts.
• Data is published openly on the OpenSensing platform, where anyone can view live readings, download historical records, and track long-term trends.

This infrastructure removes the need for manual site visits to collect water level readings and enables remote monitoring by land managers, researchers, and volunteers alike. The open data collected serves as a pre-restoration baseline against which future hydrological changes can be measured.

Partners & Supporters

The Mount Burr Swamp restoration is a broad community effort coordinated by the Nature Glenelg Trust. Major project partners include OneFortyOne Plantations, the Native Vegetation Council, Natural Resources South East, and the Nature Conservation Society of South Australia (through the bequest of Madeleine Boyce).

GDF’s IoT monitoring work was delivered by Leo Gaggl and John Ruciak, who carried out the field installation and technical configuration.

Further Reading

• Nature Glenelg Trust: You can now monitor the water level in Mount Burr Swamp anytime, online — Ben Taylor, Nature Glenelg Trust (December 2019)
• The Things Network Adelaide — the LoRaWAN network infrastructure underpinning this project