‘A mythical place’: how a Melbourne sewage farm became a haven for 300 species of birds

A brolga at the Western Treatment Plant – one of the most reliable places to see these northern Australian birds in Victoria. Photograph: Ellen Smith/The Guardian

In a gully between the dirt road and a field of softly waving grass, a brolga stands, straightens its elegant grey neck and gazes at the two four-wheel-drives crawling to a halt a short distance away. In the centre of a lagoon on the other side of the road, a second brolga sits atop a tiny island, its orange head bowed.

Brolgas are common in northern Australia but are endangered in Victoria. One of the most reliable places to see them, though, is here: in the wide grassy plains, ponds and marshlands of Melbourne’s largest sewage farm, the Western Treatment Plant.