Estuary and Catchment Management

The MidCoast region contains six major estuarine areas including river, lake and creek estuaries. These estuaries are fed by rivers including the Manning, Wallamba, Coolongolook, Wallingat, Myall and Crawford Rivers.

Estuaries are unique and important natural environments that contain a wide range of habitats and ecosystems and support a diversity of plants and animals. Estuaries are the most intensively used areas of the MidCoast. They have significant environmental, cultural, recreational and commercial value.

Rivers in the MidCoast region mainly flow through natural and agricultural landscapes. They supply potable water for our community as well as water for irrigation and stock. Rivers are enjoyed for their scenery, tranquillity and recreational activities such as swimming, fishing and boating. They provide important habitat corridors for wildlife dispersion. Land use throughout their catchments impacts on water quality and ecosystem health.

Manning River Estuary and Catchment Management Program

MidCoast Council has worked together with stakeholders and the community to develop the Manning River Estuary and Catchment Management Program (ECMP), adopted in July 2021. It sets out a 10-year action program for Council, our community and partner organisations to improve the health and resilience of the Manning River and estuary.

The MidCoast community has a strong attachment to the Manning River, which provides water for drinking, stock, irrigation, oyster farming and recreation. Generations of Gathangspeaking Aboriginal people have been engaged in the river through fishing and swimming. They hold knowledge of those places along the river with special meaning. It is important for them to maintain spiritual and close connection to the water.

The Manning River ECMP takes a whole-of-catchment approach aiming to protect and improve the ecological health of the Manning estuary and its catchment, and in doing so support the social, cultural and economic values of the region. In all, over 300 people were involved in development of this program with representatives from the beef, dairy and oyster industries, Purfleet-Taree Local Aboriginal Land Council, Landcare, Coastcare and government agencies.

Actions are grouped around eight themes:

1. Stewardship 2. Water quality and ecosystem health 3. Climate change 4. Biodiversity 5. Aboriginal custodianship 6. Social and economic values 7. Land use planning 8. Governance

It presents opportunities for mobilising existing partners such as HLLS and MidCoast2Tops Landcare, community and industry groups and landholders to help look after this valuable natural asset.

In Council’s Delivery Program (2018-21) and Operational Plan (2020-21), development of the Manning River ECMP contributes to Strategy 7.3: “Protect, maintain and restore water quality with our estuaries, wetlands and waterways.” It fulfils focus reference 7.3.2 “Develop a Manning River Coastal (catchment and estuary) Management Plan (CMP)”.

Working with poultry farmers in the Karuah catchment

The Karuah River and its tributaries including the Branch Creek flow into the Port Stephens Marine Park, which contains a diverse range of habitats, including beaches, seagrass beds, mangroves, saltmarsh and open waters. Port Stephens is a popular tourism destination, produces oysters and is home to a diverse array of aquatic fauna and birdlife.

The Karuah Catchment Management Plan identified that habitat fragmentation is reducing the resilience of ecosystems within the catchment and that poor water quality is impacting the health of the river and wider Port Stephens Estuary. The Branch Creek in the MidCoast region has consistently shown high nutrient levels during water quality testing.

There are over 30 intensive poultry farms within the Karuah River catchment. These farms are a crucial part of the local economy. Most poultry farms have established grazing enterprises in the land buffers around their poultry sheds and use poultry litter to fertilise their pastures, which can cause excess nutrients to run-off into this environmentally sensitive waterway.

Throughout the reporting period, MidCoast Council and HLLS partnered to focus on these grazing areas beyond the shed to help poultry farmers understand what’s happening in their paddocks, improve nutrient management and reduce impacts on the river.

200 soil tests were undertaken on 25 participating farms to identify nutrients lacking or in surplus in their soils. Through one-on-one advice most farms found that their paddocks were highly productive, without the need for more nutrients in the form of chicken litter. Funding was provided to each participating farm, with over $700,000 being spent on farm improvement projects.

Farmers are now selling most of their litter off-farm to other areas low in nutrients. Farms have implemented management strategies such as rotational grazing, waterway fencing, off-

stream watering, alternate fertiliser applications to meet nutrient deficits, reduction of runoff and new pasture mixes.

This project is giving farmers the opportunity to understand, and proactively take control of nutrient management on their farms to improve their grazing business and reduce impacts on the river. There is great opportunity to expand this program in other regions or intensive farming industries. The project has been assisted with funds from the NSW Government through its Environmental Trust.

Farmers in the estuary protecting wetlands and water quality

Also in the Karuah catchment, Council partnered with HLLS, Karuah Landcare Group, and Landcare Australia and local farmers to improve farm management, protect coastal wetlands and enhance biodiversity in the Karuah River Catchment.

The project provided financial incentive grants and advice to eight landholders on neighbouring properties in The Branch. The farmers fenced-off wetlands and riparian vegetation, installed off-stream water points and rehabilitated gully-lines. As a result, 270 hectares of wetlands and 50 hectares of riparian vegetation are now protected and will regenerate to help keep the Karuah River clean.

The farmers involved with this program committed significant time and effort as well as cash to initially develop their individual projects and install the associated infrastructure. This project would not have been possible if it wasn’t for these farmers’ passion for the land and commitment to protecting the health of the Karuah River.

The University of Newcastle is monitoring the project outcomes including vegetation condition and water quality. This will enable us to understand the effectiveness of the project and promote its benefits to other landholders on riverfront throughout the region.

Protecting drought refuge pools for aquatic wildlife

Freshwater refuge pools play a critical role supporting local and regional biodiversity. During drought, refuge pools are habitats that aquatic fauna retreat to, persist in and then repopulate waterways once conditions improve.

During the reporting period Council commissioned a pilot study to identify and map priority reaches most likely to contain refuge pools for platypus and the Manning River helmeted turtle. The study is being used to guide a range of conservation efforts including water monitoring, habitat restoration and predator control.

Riverbank restoration

MidCoast estuarine waters are exposed to severe bank erosion in many areas due to past vegetation clearance, ongoing cattle grazing and wash from boating activities. Sediments from this erosion reduce water clarity and impact on ecological health.

Works to address riverbank erosion and enhance aquatic habitat are taking place throughout the region including in the Wallamba River and Manning River estuaries. Works undertaken between 2018 and 2020 included:

• Installation of 1,995m of rock and timber fillets • Erection of 3,690m of stock exclusion fencing • Planting of over 6,520 native tubestock

These projects were funded through a combination of Council’s Environmental Rate, the NSW Coast & Estuary Program, NSW Environmental Trust’s Restoration & Rehabilitation Program and the NSW Recreational Fishing Trust’s Habitat Action Grant Program.

Installation of oyster reefs

MidCoast Council in partnership with HLLS and TIDE constructed an oyster reef in the Wallamba River to protect the bank from erosion and assist in the establishment of mangroves. The project trialled new ways to provide wave protection by placing waste shell from oyster production along the bank.

Oysters are filter feeders and as their filtration helps improve water clarity it is hoped that the oysters at Gereeba Island will survive and thrive alongside mangroves, providing habitat for fish and invertebrates.

Site monitoring is being undertaken by LLS, TIDE and the University of Newcastle. Early results are promising with live oysters surviving and growing and the structure continuing to protect young mangroves and the riverbank. Sediment accretion increased showing that the shells are acting as sediment traps, reducing resuspension and reducing wave action and bank erosion and a higher diversity and abundance of invertebrate fauna at restoration sites indicates they are functioning as an important invertebrate habitat. Monitoring will continue to see the long-term effects of the oyster reefs.