The Mambo Wetlands – a provider of multiple services under a myriad of pressures
Presentation by Dr Tom Headley
Senior Wetlands Management Specialist
May 2026
At the Mambo Wetlands community forum “Good Planning, Great Outcomes for Housing in Port Stephens” hosted by the Mambo-Wanda Wetlands Conservation Group, wetland management specialist, Dr Tom Headley took concerned local citizens through the importance of wetland ecosystems as well as the immediate areas surrounding them.
Below is a summary of Tom’s slide presentation
The Mambo Wetlands – a provider of multiple services under a myriad of pressures
A wetland
- is the specialised interface between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems
- has water either over the surface or within the root zone for at least part of the year
- has unique waterlogged soil conditions (low oxygen or anaerobic)
- has plants specially adapted to these conditions (hydrophytes)
Mambo Wetlands
- 175 ha with freshwater wetlands, and estuarine saltmarsh and mangrove
- A Coastal Wetland of state significance under the NSW Resilience and Hazards SEPP (2021)
- In 2021, Port Stephens Council declared the Mambo Wetlands as one of Port Stephen’s most significant environmental assets, as they transferred 7 remaining lots on Port Stephens Drive into “Community Land”. Check Council’s celebration in this article & event
Wetlands and biodiversity
Wetlands are some of the world’s most productive ecosystems
- 6% of the Earth’s surface, supporting 20% of all living organisms
- Biodiversity hotspots, providing: Habitat and shelter, breeding grounds (for birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals), food, habitat diversity (open water, dense swaths of wetland vegetation, swamp woodlands, mangrove forests)
- Critical stopover points for migratory birds
Mambo’s diversity includes
- Habitat for koala (endangered)
- Brush-tailed Phascogale (vulnerable)
- Squirrel glider (vulnerable)
- Little Bent-wing Bat (vulnerable)
- Greater Broad-nosed Bat (vulnerable)
- Wallum Froglet (vulnerable)
Plus 90+ species of birds recorded (2017 – 2018)
- Vulnerable residents: Powerful Owl, Varied Sittella, White-bellied Sea Eagle, Glossy Black Cockatoo, Little Lorikeet
- Several threatened migratory birds winter in Mambo: Far Eastern Curlew, Bar-tailed Godwit, Grey-tailed Tattler, Little Tern, White Fronted Tern
Includes endangered ecological communities
- Coastal saltmarsh (depicted0
- Swamp oak forest
- Swamp sclerophyll forest
- Ghania Swamp Forest
Coastal wetlands provide carbon sequestration and storage
Coastal wetlands including seagrass meadows, salt marshes and mangroves provide one of the most effective natural solutions for carbon capture and long-term storage on the planet.
Wetlands are important for flood mitigation and water storage
- Mambo catchment = 860 ha
- Aquifer recharge: 80% of our drinking water supplied from Tomaree Sand Beds (sand aquifer)
- Urban development in catchment => impervious surfaces => increased runoff (flash flooding) & increased pollution
- Wetlands slow runoff rates, trap sediments and remove contaminants – protecting Salamander Bay from stormwater and infiltration to groundwater
Wetlands have important cultural values
Wetlands have important cultural, spiritual and ceremonial significance for First Nations people (e.g. Worimi-Maaiangal and Mambo/Wanda Wetlands) and traditionally provide an important source of food and resources.
Wetlands also provide recreation and tourism, bird watching, educational and envionmental connection, scientific investigation as well as the simple tranquility, peace and quiet.
Threats and pressures on Mambo Wetlands
- Loss and degradation through draining, infilling for urbanization, agriculture, industrial estates and for Mambo that includes: sand mining, housing, road construction
- Invasive species (weeds and pests) in Mambo includes: Chinese Violet, Willow Primrose, Coral Trees, Salvinia (pictured), Alligator Weed, Bitou Bush
- Litter, dumping
- Excessive stormwater
- Bushfire: an important natural part of the ecosystem, but increasing frequency of fires leads to fire-tolerant plant species dominating
- Without adequate buffers, wildlife such as koalas burn or risk crossing roads, entering backyards and being exposed to dogs
- Without adequate buffers, fires can threaten surrounding houses
- Increasing dry periods increase risk of peat fires > difficult to stop > convert millennia of sequestered carbon into CO2
PSC’s Mambo Plan of Management – Bushfire Management Plan
Strategic Fire Advantage Zones (SFAZ) have frequent prescribed burns to reduce risk of unplanned fires
- SFAZ to act as refuge for fauna during fire
- Salamander Place Plan will remove important SFAZ in the south-east
Most of Mambo is already classed as vulnerable as per Coastal Vulnerability – SEPP 2021 (Resilience and Hazards)
- Land currently or predicted to be subject to coastal hazards like beach erosion, shoreline recession, and tidal inundation
- Mambo threatened by tidal saltwater inundation due to coastal erosion
- Mambo buffer important to help mitigate impact of these risks
- Mambo needs help, not more pressure!
What safeguards are in place?
The Coastal Management Act 2016 (NSW) Resilience and Hazards SEPP 2021 defines Coastal Wetland areas and surrounding proximity (buffer) areas, with the following goals
- to protect coastal wetlands in their natural state, including their biological diversity and ecosystem integrity
- to promote the rehabilitation and restoration of degraded coastal wetlands
- to improve the resilience of coastal wetlands to the impacts of climate change, including opportunities for migration
- to support the social and cultural values of coastal wetlands
Coastal Wetlands are mapped with 100m buffer zone to help achieve those goals
An Environmental Impact Statement ie required with Development Application in mapped Coastal Wetlands (no harm/removal native or marine vegetation, draining of land, levee construction…)
Mambo buffer remnants
Most of the development on Mambo’s buffer pre-dates the 100m proximity area in the SEPP planning protections
But can we afford to lose the remaining areas of vegetated buffers?
Results of pressure on Mambo
- Encroachment and development within the 100m Proximity Area creates a loss of ecosystem buffer capacity and resilience – once these areas are lost, we cannot get them back
- Decline in bird species richness and abundance over the past 25 years (Mambo’s coastal forest birds)
- Decline of key koala habitat
- Loss of mangroves and their health – impacts on fish breeding and carbon capture
- Simplification of vegetation community diversity
- Loss of fire sensitive flora, increase in fire tolerant species (reduced biodiversity)
- Exacerbated localised flooding
- Increased contaminant load from stormwater
- Reduced amenity and public green space
