Cleary Bros have commenced what has been described as one the largest offset rehabilitation projects in NSW History. The NSW Land and Environment Court upheld the NSW Government's Development Approval to continue sandmining at the site south of Gerroa. Cleary Bros has been operating the site for over 40 years, and the approval guaranteed the continued employment of over 100 employees in the local area. As part of its commitment to the rehabilitation process, Cleary Bros employs a full time Environmental Officer and several on site staff who are responsible for the implementation and monitoring of the rehabilitation program. Part of the project includes the planting of hundreds of thousands of New trees.

It is estimated that up to 200,000 trees will be planted in a total of 13 different major planting zones, covering more than 30 hectares, on the site. Vegetation communities, or zones, represented on the site include Littoral Rainforest, Blackbutt - Banksia Forest, Bangalay Sand Forest, Swamp Scerophyll Forest on Coastal Floodplains, Swamp Oak Forest and Fresh Wetlands on Coastal Floodplains. Plants will be propagated from provident seed stock specifically for this site. A native seed collection program has commenced on site to support this propagation program. Working with the project ecologist several planting and regeneration trial plots have also been established on site in order to gather important information which we hope will also add to the overall quality and efficiency of our vegetation efforts.

Noxious Weeds will be removed and controlled
Noxious, environmental and invasive weed control will be implemented in accordance with a comprehensive weed assessment survey carried out by the site ecologist. Selective weed control will be carried out in up to 50 hectares of existing bush land as part of our general conservation program aimed at restoring existing bush to a more natural state. This is in addition to the more intensive weed control programs required as preparation for the re-vegetation planting to be carried out in the 30 hectares of mass planting zones mentioned above.

Feral pests and animals will be controlled over the entire conservation site and adjoining rural land holdings to protect and improve the habitat of desirable native fauna species, along with protecting the new plants in the regeneration and planting areas.

Wildlife Corridors will be created and enhanced
A priority of the conservation efforts is to ensure that critical wildlife corridors are enhanced, maintained and also created on the site to maintain links with national parks to the south and east of the site and also to link existing parcels of bush land on the site itself. Work on creating such corridors is well under way in zone 2A.1 to the north east of the site and has included placement of logs, other timber debris and topsoil as well as planting up to 8,000 native plants to promote development of natural habitat which will eventually provide the food and shelter opportunities required to make the corridor(s) effective for native fauna. Weed and feral pest control, in addition to promoting the natural regeneration of desirable plants, will also be implemented to enhance the effectiveness of existing wildlife corridors.

Quality Control and Progress of Site Conservation Works
A recent audit of the conservation and rehabilitation works was performed by a court approved ecologist. The audit confirmed that all conservation and rehabilitation works were running to schedule, were of a high standard and met with the conditions of consent. Included in the works implemented to date were the planting of over 10,000 native trees over five high priority conservation zones, including considerable regeneration of dredge pond batters, installation of protective fencing in three high priority zones. Noxious and other invasive weed control had commenced in five zones with up to 80% of undesirable 'tree weeds' (non native species of trees) being removed from the site.

Since this recent conservation audit further selective weed control has been carried out, a feral animal control program has begun and additional plantings are programmed for early 2010.