Water for environment outcomes 2024–25

Water for the environment is a share of the water available in our dams and rivers that is managed to support the ongoing health of local waterways along with the native plants, animals and local communities that rely on them.

We help manage water for the environment to deliver benefits for communities and important environmental assets across New South Wales.

New South Wales is home to a unique array of native plants and animals that rely on our rivers and wetlands. Since river regulation, our rivers and floodplains connect less often than is needed to remain healthy.

We use the best available science, management experience and local knowledge to identify priority watering sites.

In 2024–25, the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Water for the Environment program managed the protection and delivery of 1,550,842 megalitres of water across 45 delivery events for the environment. This water for the environment was sourced from NSW, Commonwealth, and joint government water accounts and delivered to key sites across the state.

Teams worked to support restoration of habitat to provide feeding, breeding and movement opportunities for native fish, waterbirds and frogs.

In natural flowing rivers we worked with other water agencies to protect some instream flows to provide benefits for communities and the environment.

We continued our work with NSW community-based environmental water advisory groups to prioritise sites to receive water and build on the successes of previous years. We collaborated with numerous landholders, Aboriginal people and community members across the rivers and floodplains where we work. The support and cooperation of stakeholders is critical to the successful outcomes achieved.

Water was used strategically to:

• support water bird health
• support native fish health
• support native vegetation health
• connect and replenish refuge sites, wetlands and rivers.

Monitoring, evaluation and reporting update

The Water for the Environment Monitoring, Evaluating and Reporting team measures environmental responses to flow and inundation regimes, which includes water for the environment deliveries. It does this by tracking indicators of river and wetland health across 4 environmental themes:

• river flows and connectivity
• native vegetation
• waterbirds
• other species, such as frogs.

By monitoring the different aspects of these indicators over time, we can measure progress toward meeting NSW long-term water plan and Basin Plan objectives. We can also continually improve how we deliver water for the environment by increasing our understanding of how river and wetland systems respond to flow and flooding regimes.

Our monitoring efforts focus on wetlands that receive water for the environment, including the Gwydir Wetlands, Macquarie Marshes, lower Lachlan wetlands, Lowbidgee floodplain, the mid-Murray and Narran Lakes. We also extended our monitoring efforts to systems outside of the Basin, including the Snowy River.

We track inundation extent in floodplain wetland habitats, vegetation community composition and extent, and responses of waterbird and frog communities to flows including water for the environment.

We use a variety of approaches to monitor important indicators of water-dependent ecosystems such as:

• satellite imagery to track inundation and flooding regimes
• water- depth loggers to understand wetland hydrology
• aerial and ground surveys of waterbird populations
• vegetation mapping
• on-ground surveys of plant species composition and community structure
• acoustic recordings and ground surveys to monitor frogs
• drone image capture of waterbird breeding sites, vegetation survey sites and of inundated habitats.

We partner with other agencies, including the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder, to collaborate with their monitoring, evaluating and reporting providers including independent researchers, tertiary institutions, and community groups to improve our understanding through complementary monitoring programs.

We work closely with other programs within our department, such as Saving our Species and NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. We also work with other agencies such as the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development – Fisheries, and the Murray–Darling Basin Authority through The Living Murray Program.

We report our findings to the Murray–Darling Basin Authority to meet Schedule 12 requirements of the Basin Plan. Schedule 12 includes annual reporting of water for the environment use (Matter 9.3) and a 5-yearly evaluation of ecological outcomes at the asset scale (Matter 8) completed in 2024. 

The NSW Basin Plan Matter 8 Report 2024: Environmental Outcomes at the Asset Scale, is available on the Murray–Darling Basin Authority website under 2025 Basin Plan Evaluation – Publications and Information.

We provide regular updates to the community through environmental water advisory groups, our website and stakeholder engagement.

The year in review

The 2024–25 water year began with relatively wet conditions, featuring average to above-average rainfall across most catchments, and residual water from the previous year remained in parts of the landscape.

Conditions began to dry out during winter and spring. In the southern catchment, rainfall was below average throughout the winter, leading to moderate to dry conditions. These conditions influenced the delivery of water for the environment to rivers and wetlands in line with annual watering plans. Water for the environment was delivered to improve connectivity between rivers and wetlands, and support native vegetation, waterbirds, and frog populations – in particular endangered species dependent on flows – as well as native fish spawning, recruitment, and movement.

River flows and connectivity

Water for the environment deliveries and natural river flows inundated areas of floodplain wetland throughout the year. This included critical flood-dependent habitats within non-woody wetlands and river red gum forests and woodlands, as well as lignum shrublands, and coolibah and black box woodlands in some wetlands.

Satellite imagery was used to measure how much of the floodplain was inundated during the 2024–25 water year in major wetland systems:

• Gwydir Wetlands, including Mallowa Creek and Mehi River: following autumn rainfall and river flows, approximately 200,000 hectares of the greater Gwydir floodplain were inundated. This included 84% of non-woody wetland habitat, 82% of river red gum forests, 79% of river red gum woodlands, 76% of flood-dependent shrubland, and 50% of flood-dependent woodland, as well as around half of the remaining Gwydir floodplain.
• Macquarie Marshes: almost 40,000 hectares were inundated across the Macquarie Marshes, including 44% of non-woody wetland habitat, 72% of river red gum forest, 35% of river red gum woodlands and almost 16% of flood-dependent shrubland.
• Lower Lachlan: 56,700 hectares were inundated, including almost half the non-woody wetland habitat, 70% of river red gum forest, 48% of river red gum woodlands, and 20% of flood-dependent woodland.
• Lowbidgee floodplain: 18,500 hectares of the Lowbidgee floodplain were inundated. Most open water lakes and lagoons were full at the start of the water year, with drawdown in some lagoons occurring during spring. The inundated area was mainly confined to 80% of non-woody wetland vegetation and approximately 10% of river red gum forests and woodlands. About 2,000 hectares of lignum shrubland were inundated, as well as 8,000 hectares of river red gum forests and woodlands.
• Millewa Forest: 9,600 hectares were inundated, which included all non-woody wetland habitat and a quarter of river red gum forests and woodlands.

The inundation of available habitat in different vegetation communities supported many different waterbird and flow-dependent frog species.

Vegetation outcomes

Vegetation ground surveys were conducted in spring 2024 and autumn 2025 across the Gwydir Wetlands, which are characterised by non-woody wetland and flood-dependent woodland vegetation communities. Amphibious native plants formed the dominant ground cover within non-woody wetlands and the understorey of flood-dependent woodlands, such as coolibah woodlands. The survey found that conditions supported a variety of native plants, including both land- and water-based species. In non-woody wetlands, water-based native plants made up 72% of ground cover in spring and 65% in autumn. In the understorey of flood-dependent woodlands, cover was lower and ranged from 36% in spring to 30% in autumn.

In the Macquarie Marshes, vegetation ground surveys were carried out in autumn 2025, about 3 months after the spring–summer inundation. Amphibious native plants dominated ground cover in non-woody wetland vegetation communities and in the understorey of river red gum and flood-dependent woodlands, despite 83% of sites being dry at the time of survey. Conditions supported a variety of land- and water-based native plants. In non-woody wetlands, ground cover from amphibious plants exceeded 60%. Cover ranged between 25% and 29% in the understorey of river red gum and flood-dependent woodlands, which was expected given the dry conditions across most woody sites.

Updated vegetation maps now show the extent of flood-dependent vegetation for several key wetlands that received environmental water.

These maps are available on the department’s Sharing and Enabling Environmental Data (SEED) catalogue for:

• Vegetation of the Gwydir Wetlands 2022
• Wetland Vegetation of the Macquarie Marshes 2022.

A new vegetation map for the Great Cumbung Swamp region will soon be available on SEED. This map was developed using a new more efficient and accurate method that will enable us to expand wetland vegetation mapping across the basin.

Waterbird outcomes

The University of New South Wales aerial waterbird survey was conducted during spring 2024. The survey found that waterbird abundance had decreased sharply from the previous very wet year.

Waterbird ground surveys conducted by our team in spring 2024 detected many different species across the monitored wetland regions in the NSW Murray–Darling Basin.

In the Northern Basin, water for the environment supported a variety of waterbirds, including many threatened species. In the Gwydir, 46 species were recorded, including brolga, magpie goose and sharp-tailed sandpiper, that are all listed as threatened waterbird species in New South Wales. The Macquarie Marshes supported 47 waterbird species, including a number of threatened species such as the Australasian bittern, brolga, black-necked stork, sharp-tailed sandpiper and magpie goose. Narran Lakes remained wet through winter and spring, supporting 39 waterbird species including a number of threatened species such as the black-necked stork, brolga, freckled duck and sharp-tailed sandpiper.

In the Southern Basin, water for the environment supported diverse waterbird species. A total of 47 waterbird species were detected in the lower Lachlan areas of Booligal, Great Cumbung Swamp, Kalyarr National Park and Willandra National Park, including the threatened blue-billed duck, Australasian bittern and sharp-tailed sandpiper. There were 41 waterbird species identified in the mid-Lachlan, including the magpie goose, sharp-tailed sandpiper and Latham’s snipe, which are all listed as threatened species. Across the Murrumbidgee 41 species were recorded on the Lowbidgee floodplain, including the Australasian bittern and Australian painted snipe and 2 migratory species, the caspian tern and sharp-tailed sandpiper. In the mid-Murrumbidgee, 20 species were recorded. Along the Murray, 30 different species were detected in the lower Murray and 32 waterbird species were observed in the mid-Murray, including private property wetlands and the Millewa Forest.

Overall waterbird breeding activity was low due to drier conditions across all wetland regions. Group-nesting activity was confined to the Lachlan and Murray catchments. In the Lachlan catchment at Lake Cowal an estimated 5,200 ibis and spoonbill nests were detected from drone imagery. Australian pelicans nested on Lake Brewster for the fourth consecutive year, with 4,400 nests estimated from drone imagery. In the NSW Murray, around 1,050 active ibis and spoonbill nests were estimated from drone imagery captured at Reedbeds in Millewa Forest.

Monitoring of waterbird breeding sites is vital for seasonal adaptive management of water for the environment deliveries to support waterbird recruitment.

Acoustic monitoring of the endangered Australasian bittern across multiple wetland regions was undertaken in collaboration with the Saving Our Species program, the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder’s Flow-MER program, the Greater Cumbung region water management plan project, The Living Murray, and NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. The aim of this work is to better understand the distribution, wetland conditions, and habitat needs of the Australasian bittern, enabling more effective environmental water management to support successful breeding. In 2024–25, acoustic analysis confirmed the presence of the Australasian bittern in at least 5 wetlands of the Great Cumbung region and 5 wetlands in Millewa Forest. Ground surveys in the Lowbidgee Floodplain confirmed Australasian bitterns in 2 sites in the Gayini Wetlands in summer 2024. Processing of acoustic data is ongoing for the Lowbidgee, Macquarie Marshes and Narran Lakes.

Frog outcomes

During the 2024–25 spring–summer, delivery of water for the environment along with other water sources provided wetland habitat for frogs and supported breeding across many monitored sites.

Frog surveys in the Northern Basin are in their tenth year. All sites were surveyed in September and November 2024. In the Macquarie Marshes the spring began wet and ended with conditions drying back. All 6 flow-dependent frog species known to occur in the Macquarie Marshes had distributions above their long-term average. The most abundant species were the barking marsh frog, spotted marsh frog and eastern sign-bearing froglets. Male calls were detected at all sites in September, indicating breeding activity in all 6 flow-dependent species.

Further evidence of breeding was seen in response to inundation with egg masses and tadpoles at 50% of sites. The presence of young frogs at almost all sites in November confirmed that environmental flows led to widespread successful frog breeding.

In the Gwydir Wetlands, 50% of survey sites were inundated along the Gingham and Lower Gwydir River during the spring 2024 surveys. Only one of 6 flow-dependent frog species known to occur in the Gwydir had a distribution above the long-term average. 

The most common frog species in the Gwydir was the barking marsh frog. Frog breeding calls were detected at about 66% of sites in September. The presence of young frogs at half the sites provided evidence of successful breeding.

In the Southern Basin, ground and acoustic surveys were undertaken in collaboration with the Saving Our Species program in the Greater Cumbung region of the Lachlan catchment for the fourth year in summer 2025. The 6 flow-dependent frog species known to inhabit the Cumbung were recorded. This included the endangered southern bell frog and the spotted marsh frog, inland banjo frog, barking marsh frog, eastern sign-bearing froglet, and Peron’s tree frog. These species will breed when the wetlands are wet, regardless of rainfall. Southern bell frogs were detected at 16 sites in the Great Cumbung, including 12 sites monitored acoustically. Male frogs continued to call late into summer. Juvenile frogs were detected at 4 sites in November and January providing evidence of successful breeding.

Water holdings and trade

The NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water is the lead agency for the delivery of water for the environment in New South Wales. This includes collaboration on the delivery of Commonwealth water held by the Commonwealth Environment Water Holder.

This chart summarises current water holdings, or State ‘held’ water for the environment, recovered to 30 June 2025 (megalitres).

Water trade

The department uses the water market to:

• move water to where it is needed most
• support small infrastructure projects to improve environmental outcomes
• purchase water for high priority needs
• enable carryover of water into future years.

Trades typically commit less than 5% of the water available to the environment and are a small proportion of the total trades made by other market participants. In 2024–25, a net volume of 1,200 megalitres of surface water allocation was sold across catchments. An additional 1,857 megalitres of groundwater was sold in the Murrumbidgee.

Find out more about water trade announcements and reporting.

Partners

We work with a range of partner agencies, organisations and individuals to achieve/secure effective and efficient delivery of water to our rivers and wetlands.

These include:

• Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development – Fisheries
• Southern Connected Basin Environmental Water Committee
• environmental water advisory groups
• Aboriginal peoples
• Murray–Darling Wetlands Working Group
• Lake Cowal Foundation
• field naturalists and bird-watching community groups
• landholders
• recreational fishers
• universities
• Murray–Darling Basin Authority
• Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder.

More information about some of our partner agencies is available on our terms and definitions webpage.