Camden Council has proudly taken home the Waterways and Marine Protection Award at the Keep Australia Beautiful NSW Sustainable Cities Awards, recognising the Council’s efforts to restore the Nepean River and protect local biodiversity.

Through bank stabilisation, fish habitat reinstatement and extensive revegetation efforts, Council together with its partners has restored over 300 metres of the riverbank, installed 10 hardwood river snag structures, removed 10,000m2 of woody weeds and planted over 30,000 native plants including 75 critically endangered Camden White Gums.

Flooding in April and June 2024 demonstrated the success of the restoration projects with all sites accumulating sediments, displaying around 90% revegetation survival and signalling the return of terrestrial and aquatic wildlife to these previously degraded areas.

These projects were completed with funding assistance from NSW Department of Primary Industries Habitat Action Grant, NSW Government’s Environmental Trust, and jointly funded by the Australian and NSW governments under the Disaster Recovery Arrangements, and Sydney Water’s Nutrient Offset Scheme.

 Mayor of Camden Ashleigh Cagney said, “Council has done a fantastic job in restoring the beautiful Nepean River for our local community. It’s great to see local wildlife has returned and it’s important to also raise awareness that we need to protect the local biodiversity.

“With summer coming up, the Nepean River will be used for many recreational activities. I’m looking forward to seeing the community fishing, kayaking, canoeing, going for a waterway walk or using the Nepean Cycleway,” Mayor Cagney said. 

Find out more about Council’s Waterway Projects.