Between 1996 and 2001 The Vegetation Committee of Armidale City Council and subsequently a sunset Dumaresq Creeklands Catchment Committee of Council, decided to form a Rivercare Committee to progress rehabilitation of Dumaresq Creek.

Armidale Urban Rivercare Group (AURG) initially formed as a group under the Department of Land and Water Conservation, and subsequently became a sub-group of Southern New England Landcare Ltd.

The group formed to “rehabilitate the creeklands to preserve or restore the natural morphology and hydrology of the stream by natural processes and to re-establish native vegetation indigenous to the local area.”

A rehabilitation process was chosen as opposed to remediation or restoration because:

• Remediation involves massive interventions to create or recreate natural or modified water bodies. Some remediation proponents wanted to establish permanent flowing water and dam structures in Dumaresq Creek. This is considered very detrimental to the environment and involves huge costs. These types of activities are not eligible under State nor Federal Government environmental grant guidelines.
• Restoration was considered impossible because there was an extremely low percentage of native vegetation left along Dumaresq Creek.

Since 2002, the group has sourced grants to undertake rehabilitation plantings along Dumaresq Creek, Armidale.

In 2005, Armidale Regional Council began providing financial support for the maintenance of native plantings along Dumaresq Creek.

In 2012, the funds for this ‘project’ became known as the Armidale Urban Planting Maintenance (AUPM) project, and has been hosted by Southern New England Landcare Ltd.

On 9 December 2021, AURG had a very special photo shoot with NSW state government member, Adam Marshall, to launch receipt of our successful grant application Stronger Communities Fund Round Four “Weedy Wasteland to Wildlife Wetland”. Read more here, in the SNEL media release, or watch the NBN News story here.


Our Current Projects:

2022-2023 Weedy Wasteland to Wildlife Wetland

Progress of the WW2WW project in 2022
Upcoming Community Event in early 2023: more info soon.