Wagonga Inlet Living Shoreline project wins Innovation award

What are members of our oyster reef restoration team looking so happy (and colourful) about?

This photo was taken at the NSW Coastal Conference held in Newcastle recently where the Wagonga Inlet Living Shoreline (WILS) project took out the 2023 NSW Coastal Management Award for Innovation.

And before you wonder about their outfits - they received the award at the 80s-themed conference dinner 😊.

The Innovation Award was awarded to a project that displayed the best initiation or development of innovative methods and techniques to address a coastal management issue.

DPI Fisheries Manager for oyster reef restoration Jillian Keating said the Wagonga Inlet Living Shoreline (WILS) sets a new standard for nature-based solutions to bank erosion.

“The project combats bank erosion using a combination of the restoration of two types of oyster reef, re-establishing saltmarsh communities and terrestrial riparian plantings with bank toe protection,” she said.

“There's still more to do, but with the main foreshore works now complete, the site is really starting to shine,” Ms Keating said.

Ms Keating said the project was the first attempt to restore a Native Flat or Angasi oyster reef in New South Wales and the first example of restoring both intertidal and subtidal reefs in the one location in Australia.

“We have restored Sydney rock oyster reefs in the shallower areas, or what you call the intertidal zone areas that are exposed during low tides, she said.

“In the deeper areas, around 6 m below surface, we have restored Angasi oyster reefs — a species that is so rare in the estuary now that we had to reseed the reef base with Angasi oyster babies (or spat) grown in a hatchery off-site.”

Keen to find out more?

ABC Southeast did a fantastic write-up on the project which you can check out:  Wagonga Inlet Living Shoreline project spawns rare oysters and coastal erosion barrier for Narooma - ABC News.

WILS is a collaborative project between DPI Fisheries, Eurobodalla Shire Council and The Nature Conservancy via their Australian Government Reef Builder initiative, to restore sensitive foreshore habitats in Wagonga Inlet on the NSW south coast.

Side note - a member of the team also took out the 'best dressed' award for the night! Can you guess who it was?

The Oyster Reef Restoration Project is a DPI Fisheries project funded via the Marine Estate Management Strategy.