Rehabilitation of Coffs Harbour’s Orara River system has been boosted by an $11,000 grant from the electricity infrastructure provider TransGrid. The money will be used by the Orara River Rehabilitation Project to help rehabilitate the river near the TransGrid substation at Karangi.
The area, which includes the old Skewe’s Quarry site, is severely degraded by past gravel extraction and the impacts of flooding.
The Orara River Rehabilitation Project has been removing weeds and carrying out structural erosion control works to improve the condition of the riverbank and rainforest in the Orara River area in Coffs Harbour for over a decade. Past rehabilitation work along this stretch of the river has included the construction of a fishway to facilitate the passage of the endangered Eastern Freshwater Cod.
Ongoing rainforest regeneration work along the same part of the river includes stock management, weed control and the replanting of native species. Invasive weeds such as Camphor Laurel, Privet and Broad Leaved Paspalum can quickly dominate the Lowland Subtropical Rainforest of the riverbank, which is an Endangered Ecological Community within the NSW North Coast Bioregion.Once weeds dominate it is difficult for rainforest seedlings to survive and the biodiversity of the forest is greatly affected.
Endangered bird species that rely on a healthy rainforest for habitat include the Wompoo Fruit Dove, Rose-crowned Fruit Dove and Bush Hen.
Most of the funding for the Project is provided through grants from Coffs Harbour City Council’s Environmental Levy, the Northern Rivers Catchment Management Authority and the NSW Environmental Trust.A large part of the Orara River runs through private land in the Coffs Harbour Local Government area so this project depends heavily on the active support of local landholders.
