AN Australian wine making company is helping Lancashire birds that depend on water.

In a unique conservation partnership, the Banrock Station wine company is supporting the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust by donating money from every bottle sold in the UK.

And the WWT, which has a huge, internationally important reserve at Burscough, expects to receive at least £50,000 in the first year.

The wine company is famous for its eco-friendly policies in Australia and has even developed expansive wetlands for wildlife around its Banrock Station vineyards on the banks of the River Murray.

It has earned such acclaim for its efforts to conserve the Australian black swan, Australian shoveller, white eye, and wood and pink-eared ducks that it has decided to help a British conservation organisation with similar goals.

The WWT was founded in 1946 by the late naturalist and broadcaster Sir Peter Scott and it now has nine wetland centres, visited by 750,000 people a year.

Each year, thousands of whooper and Bewick's swans from northern Scandinavia and Arctic Russia fly south to spend winter at Martin Mere.

And the WWT has become famous world wide for breeding and re-establishing endangered species such as the Egyptian Ne-ne Goose.

Tomorrow evening, Australian Tony Sharley, the first environmental scientist in the wine industry, is flying in to Britain to talk about the company's new partnership with WWT. He will be at Martin Mere at 7pm but places need to be reserved on 01704 985181.

Banrock Station won the international White Wine of the Year award last year and its range of wines is already sold in supermarkets and off-licences throughout Britain.

Tony Sharley said: "In Australia we have received fantastic results in the rejuvenation and conservation of wetlands. We are keen to develop our brand as an international environmental sponsor."