Australian flat oysters went extinct in Botany Bay during the late 1800s. A conservation project has been working to bring them back.
The reefs were built at a depth of five metres in Botany Bay in mid-2023 with one million baby Australian flat oysters placed at the site.The Nature Conservancy has approval to build two more reefs at Taren Point and Audrey Bay in the Woronora River.
This new 3-hectare haven, dubbed Kurnell Reef, was built in the middle of 2023 and has since become a functioning habitat in an effort to re-establish the flat oysters, which used to be a feature of Botany Bay and the Georges River estuary.The Nature Conservancy's Kirk Dahle says it is the first time in 100 years that the oysters have called Sydney home."We'll be doing another two to three million oysters this year on the Kurnell Reef site.
Both oysters became a food source and a building material for the colonists. Many of the earliest buildings, including Sydney's first Government House, were built using shell mortar produced from oyster shells. Unlike the tonnes of oysters that used to be farmed, the project's oysters are purely for conservation purposes.
The Nature Conservancy also has approval to build two more reefs at Taren Point and Audrey Bay in the Woronora River, and is currently seeking funding to get those projects off the ground.Mr Dahle hopes the return of the oyster populations will also improve water quality and the biodiversity of the river.
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