CREATING PLATYPUS PARKS ON THE HAWKESBURY-NEPEAN RIVER
The Albanese Labor Government is investing $1 million to help better protect the Hawkesbury-Nepean River’s local platypus population.
The project will establish 3 ‘Platypus Parks’ along a 50 kilometre stretch of the iconic river, protecting and providing habitat for this precious species into the future.
This project will be delivered by Western Sydney University in partnership with Hawkesbury Environment Network.
This is part of the Government’s $200 million investment in projects that help community groups, NGOs, councils and First Nations groups clean up and restore local urban rivers and waterways. This includes activities like planting native species along creeks and building small-scale wetlands to improve water quality.
Quotes attributable to the Minister for the Environment and Water, the Hon Tanya Plibersek MP:
“We want to leave nature better off for our kids and grandkids, and that means repairing damage to our environment and better protecting it for the future.
“That’s why we’re investing $200 million in projects to revitalise our urban rivers and creeks. We want to support the groups on the ground who understand the needs in their community and are working to better manage and restore their local environment.
“Nearly half of all nationally listed threatened animals and a quarter of our threatened plants occur in urban areas. We need to act now to protect them.”
Quotes attributable to the Member for Macquarie, Susan Templeman MP:
“Delivering this $1 million investment with the Hawkesbury Environment Network (HEN) means we have local voices, working on the ground, who understand our complex region, making the decisions about how to best protect our waterways.
“HEN have teamed up with their trusted partner Western Sydney University, who are world leaders on platypus research, to deliver this project.
“With the overall platypus population across Australia decreasing the work of the Hawkesbury Environment Network and organisations that work to protect our local platypus population, is more important than ever.”
