Reef Builder Final Summary Report. A report prepared for the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. ...

Reef Builder was a partnership between The Nature Conservancy Australia (TNC) and the Australian Government and has supported Australia’s largest marine restoration initiative to date. This $20 million Program sought not only to restore near-extinct shellfish reefs at 13 project geographies across southern Australia, but also to provide much needed economic stimulus to regional and metropolitan economies impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and those devastated by the 2019 bushfires. Shellfish reefs, created when millions of oysters and mussels settle onto each other, are natural solutions to some of our greatest conservation challenges. They improve coastal water quality, boost fish stocks, provide homes for a diverse range of sea life, generate regional employment, and protect Australia’s coastal communities and shorelines from coastal erosion. Once expansive across Australia’s estuaries and bays, most of these natural habitats have been decimated since the 1800s by years of commercial harvesting, ...