Everlasting Swamp Blue Carbon Demonstration Project

The Everlasting Swamp is a coastal floodplain wetland north of Grafton in the Clarence River valley. It covers more than 2,100 hectares and is part of the traditional lands of the Yaegl and Bundjalung peoples. It is one of the largest coastal floodplain wetlands on the NSW North Coast. 

Most of the swamp is reserved as Everlasting Swamp National Park and State Conservation Area and is managed by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. The swamp also includes privately owned land, with a variety of land uses.

Everlasting Swamp had been extensively modified through historic drainage work and tide-limiting infrastructure. This has caused a significant decline in the environmental values of the area and resulted in the swamp becoming one of the worst acid sulfate soil-affected areas in New South Wales. These poor environmental values have been linked to ‘blackwater’ events and fish kills.

The NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water has engaged consultants to develop a restoration plan for Everlasting Swamp. This plan will assess restoration options, identify challenges and recommend the best solution for restoring the wetland.

The project also aims to test feasibility, build capacity and explore opportunities for scaling up Blue Carbon initiatives across New South Wales. Blue Carbon projects restore coastal wetlands to promote habitats such as mangroves and saltmarsh, sequester carbon and generate Australian carbon credit units under the Australian Carbon Credit Unit Scheme.

This project is funded by the NSW Government under the Marine Estate Management Strategy, NSW Estuary Asset Protection Program and the Primary Industries Productivity and Abatement program. The 10-year Marine Estate Management Strategy was developed by the NSW Marine Estate Management Authority to coordinate the management of the marine estate.

What is Blue Carbon?

Blue Carbon is carbon captured from the atmosphere and locked up in coastal and marine ecosystems, including seagrass meadows, saltmarshes, mangroves and supratidal forests.

Since European settlement, Australia has lost about half of its saltmarshes, nearly three-quarters of its mangroves and one-quarter of its seagrass meadows. Restoring these ecosystems will help capture more carbon from the atmosphere and store it in Blue Carbon ecosystems.

The carbon sequestration capacity of NSW Blue Carbon ecosystems is estimated to be equivalent to the emissions of 500,000 households per year. Expanding Blue Carbon projects will contribute to NSW net zero goals. Blue Carbon projects can also improve water quality, mitigate against species loss and restore the health of coastal wetland ecosystems.

Key project benefits

The Everlasting Swamp Restoration Project aims to restore wetland ecosystems that are natural to the local land and environment of the Clarence River and its floodplains.

The project will consider conservation priorities, local expertise, community values and cultural knowledge to inform restoration options. It will focus on improving water quality and addressing the area's acid sulfate soil legacy. Once completed, this project will be the first demonstration site in New South Wales, which will inform future restoration initiatives.

Project progress

Public consultation closed

The public consultation on the draft Everlasting Swamp Wetland Restoration Options Assessment 2025 ran from Thursday 11 December 2025 to Saturday 31 January 2026.

The consultation period provided opportunities for the community, landholders and other stakeholders and interested parties to learn more about suggested restoration options for Everlasting Swamp and to make submissions on the draft restoration options.

The Project Team is carefully considering all feedback. Feedback and issues raised during the consultation will be considered when reviewing the options and moving to a preferred option.

Next steps

• Notification of the preferred option arising from consultation
• Consultation with affected landholders
• Environmental impact assessments
• Cultural Heritage assessment
• Mosquito Management Plan
• Acid Sulfate Soils Management Plan
• Detailed design of preferred option

If you have any questions about the project or the draft restoration options, please email [email protected].