This week's budget includes funding to repair the ‘neglected’ sites of Sydney Harbour. 

Sydney Harbour's iconic cultural and environmental sites are set to be restored and safeguarded with a $45 million investment, following “a decade of neglect” by the previous government, says federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek. 

The funds will be used to stabilise a variety of harbourside locations including Cockatoo Island, also known as Wareamah, and its deteriorating wharves and unstable seawalls. 

Of the allocated amount, over $25 million will be spent replacing rotting wharves and docks, $8 million for repairs of rock falls, $5 million for critical maintenance works and more than $3 million for heritage advice and project management.

“The Sydney Harbour Federation Trust is responsible for conserving and managing nine iconic sites around the harbour. After a decade of neglect by the previous government, many of these sites are in a dangerous state of disrepair, putting their environmental and heritage values at risk,” Plibersek says. 

The Trust, which is tasked with the oversight of the key sites in Sydney, includes the Woolwich Dock and parklands, Chowder Bay in Mosman, the Macquarie Lightstation in Vaucluse, and the marine biological station at Camp Cove in Watsons Bay.

The Sydney Harbour, a significant source of pride and an attraction for two million tourists each year, will receive the funds it deserves, the minister says. 

The government's efforts to restore Australia's environmental institutions have been one of the chief tasks of this budget, with Plibersek adding that the Sydney Harbour is one of the nation's “most prominent faces to the world”, reflecting the nation's history of “65,000 years of First Nations connection and culture, the colonial period which began on its shores, the military posts which have defended it, and the waves of new Australians who have disembarked there”. 

Plibersek says the government is keen to protect precious sites and ensure they can be enjoyed by future generations, and the government has already allocated additional funds of $262 million for national parks and $163 million for the Australian Institute of Marine Science.