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NSW Ports and CVA Announce Renewed Partnership for Conservation

Building on a legacy of successful and impactful collaboration for conservation, we are excited to announce our continued partnership with NSW Ports. Since 2018, Conservation Volunteers Australia and NSW Ports have been working together to restore endangered habitat in Sir Joseph Banks Park and collect pollution along Port Botany beaches and rivers.

Over the next year, we plan to extend our conservation efforts to ensure green, resilient and sustainable cities and engaged communities. Below is more information about our future plans, what we’ve achieved in the past and how you can get involved in conservation volunteering in New South Wales and across Australia.

NSW Ports and CVA join forces again to continue restoration of nature at Sir Joseph Banks Park and nearby river catchments

Conservation Volunteers Australia is thrilled to announce an extended partnership with NSW Ports to ensure the resilience of conservation efforts to date at Sir Joseph Banks Park in Sydney, and to empower even more people to get involved in community clean-up events along the Cooks River and Port Botany catchment areas.

Greening cities by restoring native flora and cleaning up polluted river catchments helps to create more green, resilient and sustainable cities and communities. Our continued partnership aims to help support Bayside Council’s Strategic Plan, to help create greener cities in Australia, improve the ecological functioning of endangered vegetation at Sir Joseph Banks Park, and encourage and support community engagement in conservation and citizen-science data collection.

Through our continued partnership, we will provide on-the-ground community engagement events where volunteers can help with bush regeneration and habitat restoration activities at Port Botany. This will include tree planting, weeding, habitat building and beach clean-ups. We will post details about these upcoming volunteer events on our website and on the CVA App and hope to see you there.

Building a legacy of nature conservation: key achievements to date

Conservation Volunteers Australia is excited to be building on its partnership with NSW Ports which began in 2018 through the Revive our Wetlands program and was followed by another 3-year project to restore the ecology at Sir Joseph Banks Park and remove litter around Port Botany in Sydney between 2021 and 2024.

Since 2018, CVA and NSW Ports have been collaborating to restore local ecosystems and empower local communities to get involved in conservation. Our aim is to create a legacy of nature conservation and community engagement that will benefit the environment and people for years to come.

To date, we’re proud of what we’ve been able to achieve together: 16,500 native species have been planted, over 977.5 kilograms of rubbish has been collected and removed from Botany Bay, and 4.6 hectares of land has been weeded to make space for native biodiversity to flourish.

Between 2021 and 2024, with the support of Bayside City Council and Bayside Council Bushcare volunteers, we have worked to remediate and restore endangered Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub at Sir Joseph Banks Park and remove ocean litter from beaches and rivers around Port Botany.

Over the course of the last 3 years, significant impacts for both community and conservation have been recorded:

• 761 kgs of rubbish was removed from beaches and rivers around Port Botany
• 5000 native seedlings were planted at Sir Joseph Banks Park as part of our restoration efforts
• invasive species, which are a threat to native biodiversity, were removed from 17,784m2 of vegetation
• 661 volunteers were engaged in 36 individual volunteering days around Port Botany and greater Sydney.

David Jones, CVA Project Manager, said that “Thanks to the support from NSW Ports and partnership with Bayside Council, CVA volunteers have been able to transform the bushland at Sir Joseph Banks Park for the betterment of both the local environment and wider community. It’s been really exciting to witness the regeneration of the site over the last 6 years, especially the return of the Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub endangered ecological community.”

How to support conservation in Port Botany, NSW

Are you interested in participating in conservation volunteering and citizen-science initiatives in Port Botany catchment area and Sir Joseph Banks Park in Sydney? CVA empowers people across Australia to take action for nature by hosting a myriad of conservation volunteering events across the country.

To get involved in our restoration and citizen-science events as part of this project, signup for volunteer events on our website or by downloading the CVA App.

Everyone can also take action for nature from the comfort of their own home through our Nature Blocks initiative, designed to build back biodiversity. Find out more about how to create your own Nature Block at home via the CVA App.