Photopoint sequences highlight rapid saltmarsh establishment at Windermere Bay in Tasmania

While revisiting some of NGT’s wetland restoration sites in Tassie over the past couple of months, I managed to duck into Windermere Bay, on the banks of the Derwent River Estuary north of Hobart.

You might recall previous stories over the past couple of years about this really interesting spot, where we’ve worked with the Derwent Estuary Program to undo the impact of soil and rocky fill being spread over this area of former saltmarsh back in the 1970s, leading to its becoming a grassed area above the tides. After successful completion of major remedial works in 2025, we were able to almost fully reinstate the original footprint of the saltmarsh area. With did this by removing the fill, excavating the surface level back down to an elevation above mean sea level capable of re-engage with high tides. We determined the exact elevation by using areas of existing healthy residual saltmarsh in the immediate vicinity as our reference benchmark.

Bec provided a great little summary in March, with some observations of the saltmarsh recovery underway since the works were completed last year, so I thought I’d complement her recent update with a fresh batch of photopoint images from my visit in May – to illustrate the changes since before the works were completed and the saltmarsh regeneration response now underway.

First up, we have the birds-eye views from directly above…

Below you will see images from before and after works, and then the latest view from May 2026, which also shows the fenced off and mulched terrestrial revegetation zone along the western bank of the naturally regenerating saltmarsh area.

And here is the same sequence, from an oblique perspective, looking north over the site…

Now let’s get a little bit closer to the action, with some ground-based perspectives (please click on any image to enlarge and click through as a slideshow).

This is looking east over the site from the bridge…

… and here is a view from the newly extended boardwalk through the restored saltmarsh.

Finally, if we take an even closer look, we can start to fully appreciate the fantastic transformation that is now underway.

What you can see below is why the most recent images above show the saltmarsh surface starting to display a faint tinge of green…

With the rapid expansion of germinating saltmarsh plants throughout this entire area, driven by the re-engagement of the restored surface with high tides, we’re now looking forward to the site naturally transforming back into a fully functional ecological community of high conservation value over the years ahead.

This project was delivered by NGT in partnership with the Derwent Estuary Program, with funding provided by the Australian Government’s Urban Rivers and Catchments Program