Kooragang Wetlands and the Schoolmasters House
Welcome to Kooragang Wetlands – located on the north half of Kooragang Island, known locally by its historic name – Ash Island.
The Wetlands
Saltmarsh, mangroves and mudflats being brought back to life. Walk the trails, watch the shorebirds, meet the plants of Ash Island.
The Island's Story
Awabakal and Worimi country, the Scott sisters' paintings, seventeen dairies, floods, a radar station and the last house still on its original footprint.
“Our vision is for an estuary in which healthy, restored fisheries and other wildlife habitat is in balance with a thriving port, the whole providing opportunities for research, education and recreation for people.” Our vision
FOTSH and Kooragang Landcare volunteers
Since 1995, many thousands of trees and shrubs have been planted
We're the Friends of the Schoolmasters House: an incorporated and insured member of Landcare NSW, carrying on the restoration work the Kooragang Wetland Rehabilitation Project began in 1993.
Together with the Kooragang Landcare Volunteers, we get together on the third Sunday of each month to plant in the wetlands. We also digitise the island's history library, propagate native plants, care for the house and its garden, and make bedding for rescued wildlife.
Two sisters painted this island, moth by moth
In the 1850s, Harriet and Helena Scott of Ash Island painted the island's moths and butterflies with single-hair brushes: each one on its own host plant, with its caterpillar, its pupa and the country behind it. Their plates were published in London in 1864, and their plant records still guide what we put back in the ground today.
“From Nature & On Stone by Helena Scott”, published 1864
Built mid-1890s · restored 1997–2000
The last building in the estuary still on its original footprint
Built in the mid 1890s for the schoolmasters of the Ash Island Public School, the house has stood through floods, farming years and a wartime RAAF lease. Sturdily built of double brick, it has Baltic pine ceilings, tallowwood floors, cedar doors and windows, and three marble fireplaces.
Ask us about visiting, volunteering or the island's history
We're a small volunteer team at the Schoolmasters House. Send your question through and we'll reply as soon as we can.
