Hawkesbury Nepean Catchment

The Hawkesbury Nepean catchment covers more than 22,000 square kilometres (2.2 million hectares). It extends from the top of Wollembi National Park in the north, through Lithgow, as far west as Oberon and Crookwell and south to Lake George. The eastern boundary extends alongside the Wollemi National Park, touches the coastline briefly just south of Gosford, circles the Sydney Basin and then traverses from Moss Vale across to Goulburn.

The catchment supports a population of 800,000 and provides nearly all of the drinking water to four million people living in Sydney, the Illawarra and the Blue Mountains. Its major rivers include the Hawkesbury, Nepean, Wollondilly, Mulwaree, Tarlo, Wingecarribee, Nattai, Nepean, Coxs, Kowmung, Grose, Capertee, Colo and Macdonald.

Almost half of the Hawkesbury Nepean catchment is protected in national parks and water catchment reserves. This includes the one million hectare Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, which protects 91 species of eucalypt.

Download the Hawkesbury Nepean CMA July 2004 Newsletter (722KB PDF).