Alien vegetation is still a threat, as is the excessive proliferation of the indigenous Bulrush (Typha) which is caused by unnatural quantities of minerals and nutrients being washed into the wetland from urban storm water.
The William Dargan Construction Company completed the line in 7 months - a considerable achievement as a section of line just outside Waterford ran over deep bogland covered in bulrushes.
Ray Mears in his television program Wild Food suggested that this bulrush might have been used by hunter gatherers for food.
The shallow waters of the lake contain scarce vegetation composed of 72 species of plants which have adapted to salty water, such as Parish's glasswort (Arthrocnemum subterminale), Sea Lavender (Limonium), rushes (Juncus), glasswort (Salicornia), Sarcocornia, bulrush (Scirpus) and seepweeds (Suaeda).
Approximately meter-deep supports emergent herbaceous perennials, typically in dense, monospecific stands; species include bulrush (Typha latifolia), pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata), American lotus (Nelumbo lutea).
They are similar in size and shape, being oval, about 1.6 km long by 1.3 km wide, with large central areas of open water when full and with shorelines vegetated with concentric fringes of the introduced bulrush Typha orientalis, sedges, paperbarks and other plants tolerant of seasonal waterlogging.
Since the 18th century, the people from Genemuiden have been producing floor mats made of the bulrush that grows on the shores of the Zuiderzee.
The lakeshores and other marshes are characterized by emergent plants like prairie bulrush, bur-reed, arrowhead, and spikerush.
Frequent herbs include three-square rush (Scirpus pungens), stout bulrush (S. robustus), arrow-grass, marsh creeping bent-grass (Agrostis stolonifera), salt-loving spike-rush (Eleocharis halophila).
The word Yanchep is derived from Yandjip or Yanget which is the aboriginal name for the local bulrush reed found fringing the lakes in the area.