Conservation Action Unit

The Conservation Action Unit (CAU) works with landholders and communities to protect and restore natural resources used in primary production. The two focus areas within CAU are aquatic habitat rehabilitation and environmental management systems. CAU is a business unit within the Fisheries Conservation and Aquaculture Division and managed from the Wollongbar Agricultural Institute.

Staff are located in 19 offices across NSW. Funding for projects within CAU is sourced from Catchment Management Authorities, the Murray Darling Basin Commission, the Natural Heritage Trust, the NSW Environmental Trust, and others.

Aquatic habitat rehabilitation

A road crossing on Ewingar Creek before being modified to allow fish passage.

Two of the Conservation Action Unit’s aquatic habitat rehabilitation projects are managed by Wollongbar staff.

• Fish Friendly Farms works with landholders and communities to integrate aquatic habitat management into primary production management systems. A brochure describing the 7 key tips for a fish friendly farm has been developed.
• Barriers to Fish Passage assesses barriers such as weirs, road crossings and causeways, and floodgates that prevent fish swimming along streams. Where the barriers are greatly disrupting fish lifeycles, the program finds funding to modify or remove the barriers. To date, hundreds of kilometres of rivers and creeks have been re-opened for fish.

...and after.

Environmental Management Systems

The Conservation Action Unit’s EMS staff are based at Wollongbar. They work with individual landholders and industries across NSW to develop EMSs that enable the landholder or industry to address their specific issues and goals in a systematic way. EMS training courses are also available and have been used by regional groups and other organisations to springboard regionally-specific approaches to EMS.