Riverbank Rehabilitation Project

The Riverbank Rehabilitation Project strengthens flood-damaged riverbanks and supports land managers by:

• delivering targeted riverbank rehabilitation works focused on the protection of high value rural agricultural, cultural and environmental areas
• supporting land managers to prepare for, respond to and recover from the impact of future flooding events
• identifying opportunities to improve the waterway approvals process.

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Riverbank Rehabilitation Project

Flooding events in 2021 and 2022 wreaked havoc on New South Wales waterways.

In response, the New South Wales and Australian governments jointly funded the

Riverbank Rehabilitation Project under disaster recovery funding arrangements.

This project supports impacted waterways and rural landholders by providing

targeted riverbank rehabilitation works and offering technical support

for flood impacted landholders.

Our goal is to make a positive difference for 11 catchments across New South Wales.

Visit www.lls.nsw.gov.au forward slash river dash rehab to learn more.

Project background

The project was developed in response to severe flooding events in 2020 and 2021, which caused extensive damage to riverbanks and waterways across the Hunter, Greater Sydney and North Coast regions.

The NSW and Australian governments committed $48.4 million to support the rehabilitation and protection of flood damaged riverbank sites across 11 catchment areas, including:

• Bellinger
• Brunswick
• Clarence
• Hastings
• Hawkesbury
• Hunter
• Macleay
• Manning
• Nambucca
• Richmond
• Tweed.

Project delivery

Work underway

Riverbank rehabilitation 

Works are well underway across the 11 catchment areas, with most sites already completed and the remainder due for completion by 30 June 2026.  

Cultural Waterways Program  

The Cultural Waterways Program is being delivered as part of the Riverbank Rehabilitation Project to provide a culturally responsive approach to engaging with First Nations communities. The program is supporting the protection and preservation of cultural heritage within River Country across catchments in NSW affected by flooding in 2021-2022.  

Through the Cultural Waterways Program, Traditional Custodians are being engaged to:

• identify and strengthen the protection of culturally valuable areas at risk of flooding  
• preserve cultural values  
• manage risks to Aboriginal cultural heritage associated with proposed project activities.  

Landholder insights into Waterway Approvals Challenges Project

As part of the Riverbank Rehabilitation Project, work is underway to better understand the challenges landholders experience when seeking approvals for waterways and riverbank rehabilitation across NSW.  

The project aims to learn directly from landholders about what works well, what barriers exists, and where improvements could be made to better support landholders in the future.

The team is engaging with people in NSW who have:

• applied for waterways approvals
• started but not completed an approval process
• undertaken works without approval
• considered works but decided not to proceed. 

Project outcomes

These success stories and resources show how the project is making a difference in flood damaged areas.

Rehabilitating a site on the Wilson River

The rehabilitation of a site on the Wilson River in the Hastings catchment highlights the work of the project. In collaboration with the Soil Conservation Service, rock and timber structures were installed along with planting 2,030 native tube stock plants to ensure long-term protection of the riparian environment and prevent active erosion. 

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Rehabilitating the Wilson River

We are currently working in the areas that were most

impacted by the February and March flooding events in 2021.

These areas include the Richmond, Clarence, Nimbukah, McClay, Hastings, Manning and

Hawkesbury rivers and their major tributaries.

The project is being jointly funded by the NSW and Australian governments in

response to disaster declared high rainfall and flooding events.

The River Rehabilitation Project supports impacted

waterways and rural landholders in two key areas.

The first is targeted riverbank rehabilitation works focused on the protection of

high value agricultural, cultural and environmental natural assets.

The second provides direct support to flood impacted landholders through the

delivery of the riverbank erosion support process.

This support provides tailored technical advice on

what landholders can do to improve and manage riverbanks

and provides case management support to navigate the

approval pathways required to implement in stream works.

This process also aims to strengthen the quality of applications required for

waterway approvals therefore reducing delays.

Today we are on the Wilson River in the Hastings

catchment at one of our project sites for on-ground works.

We are undertaking highly targeted riverbank rehabilitation works that were

identified following a scientific prioritisation process

and are focused on the protection of high value

agricultural, cultural and environmental natural assets.

This site was prioritised due to the presence of key

assets at risk of erosion and with high recovery potential.

The assets protected and future-proofed by

undertaking this project include high value agricultural land,

threatened ecological communities, groundwater dependent ecosystems, threatened and

protected species, freshwater fish communities and key fish habitat.

This project site is located on an unconfined section

of the Wilson River that had channel widening throughout.

The downstream portion of the reach was actively eroding with a section of the left

bank retreating up to 30 metres following the 2021 flood events.

In addition, there was an existing in-stream rock grade control structure that was

at significant risk of being damaged resulting in

further accelerated and ongoing bed and bank erosion.

Our construction delivery partner, the Soil Conservation Service, has installed six

rock groins, rock revetment, timber pile

fields, a rock apron and flood chute armoring.

This project is really important for the Wilson River.

What it does is actually ensure we've got long-term protection

of upstream riparian environments

and ensuring that the nix zone doesn't progress

any further up the river and cause future damage

to not only the river system

but also adjacent landholders' farmland.

Over a five-year period,

this site lost about 35,000 cubic metres of sediment,

which ultimately impacts downstream waterways and users.

So it's really important to deal

with the erosion sediment issues

coming off this site as well,

not only the upstream environments.

This site was quite complex.

It has flood runners and flood shoots impacting on the site

and makes the hydraulics really complex.

So we engaged a sub-consultant to assist

with the modelling of this work

using a digital elevation model

and 3D modelling that we used

to also construct the works as well.

There was a total of 2,030 native tube stock planted on

the mulched batters of the riparian zone in April 2023.

Native endemic species planted included lomandra, sandpaper figs, casuarinas,

lilly pillies, blackwood and forest red gum.

Not only does this revegetation support riparian zone stability and resilience, it

assists in creating biodiverse habitat and wildlife corridors.

To support the on-ground works, we will be engaging with neighbouring landholders

by providing guidance and advice to best manage their riparian zones.

This will improve overall resilience of the river

and provide ongoing protection of the assets present.

One of the nice features of this big project was

that it incorporated a large revegetation component.

And that's allowed us to re-establish a

riparian corridor over this impacted section.

I've extended it by putting in a lot of eucalypts through here and fencing wide so

we'll get a koala corridor linking the revege

over there with right up through to the hills.

A small takeaway for other landholders that perhaps don't have such a major erosion

issue is to fence out the riparian zone, let as much vegetation grow as possible to

prevent these sort of problems developing.

These are really bulletproof river works, the best that we've ever done, so I'm

pretty hopeful that it's going to protect a large section of the river here.

Rehabilitating a site on the Rous River

Nobbys Creek was close to breaking its banks and joining the larger Rous River. This would have reduced its length by 150 meters, trigged upstream erosion due to a head cut and increased erosion around a newly isolated island.

The Riverbank Rehabilitation Project delivered on-ground works including stock exclusion fencing, weed control measures and the planting of native riparian vegetation. The images below show a section of the actively eroding riverbank before and after stabilisation works.  

Tools and support for landholders

Project officers have created a series of resources and guides to help land managers understand river behaviour and put erosion management strategies in place.

Get practical advice on ways you can protect and restore riverbanks on your property.

Funding and partnerships

The Riverbank Rehabilitation Project is jointly funded by the Australian Government and NSW under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.