The project will include removing invasive species from Wingecarribee Swamp. Photo: NRAR/Salty Dingo.
Legal action has resulted in an Illawarra coal mine paying for the $2.9 million rehabilitation of a 5000-year-old peat swamp.
The Wingecarribee Swamp contains rare and endangered species – including a variety of giant dragonfly – and is a key part of the drinking water catchments for Sydney, Goulburn and the Southern Highlands.
The National Resources Access Regulator (NRAR) alleged Illawarra Coal Holdings’ Dendrobium mine took surface water without a licence over a five-year period.
An enforceable undertaking was put forward by the mine as restitution of the alleged illegal water take, promising the delivery of a community project related to wetland or waterway restoration and management.
NRAR director of investigations and enforcement Lisa Stockley said the project would begin to address some of the environmental degradation that had occurred in the swamp.
“While what has happened to this endangered ecological community in the past can’t be undone, this project begins to take steps to better understand Wingecarribee Swamp’s current condition and reduce the negative impact of weeds, erosion and livestock,” she said.
“This project is a great example of restorative justice – it will deliver direct benefits to the local community and environment in the place where the alleged offending took place.
“A project like this could not have been achieved through a lengthy and costly court process.”
The $2.9 million is the largest amount of funding the water regulator has secured for a community project through legal action since the agency was established in 2017.
The three-year project on the 340-hectare swamp will include the identification of threatened species and promotion of their habitat, such as the endangered Wingecarribee Gentain and leek orchid.
Vegetation surveys will be undertaken to establish a baseline of the area, to be used to compare changes in ecological health of the wetland over time, along with the installation and repair of boundary stock fencing to reduce destruction to vegetation, the spread of weeds and contamination of water with animal waste, and weed removal and control.
Access points to the swamp will be improved to allow for current and future management activities, and there will be some integration of traditional knowledge in collaboration with the Illawarra Local Aboriginal Land Council (ILALC).
The swamp is a protected, heritage-listed area with no public access.
It has a long history of environmental disturbance including peat mining from the 1960s, the creation of a reservoir in 1974 (which flooded 50 per cent of the original swamp), and a structural collapse of the peat beds in 1998.
It is jointly managed by WaterNSW and the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.
Illawarra Metallurgical Coal (including Illawarra Coal Holdings Pty Ltd) was sold by South32 to a company trading as GM3 on 29 August, 2024. GM3 assumed operational control and ownership of the Dendrobium mine from that date.
