The Hexham Swamp Rehabilitation Project is a partnership between private landholders, industry groups, local community and state and federal government agencies and aims to restore 1,946 hectares of Hexham Swamp to a healthy, functioning wetland.

Hexham Swamp is the Hunter's largest and most biologically diverse wetland and one of the largest in New South Wales. But after thirty years of limited tidal exchange from the operation of floodgates at the mouth of Ironbark Creek, the estuarine, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems of the wetland have become severely degraded.

Lack of tidal flushing, vital to the health of an estuarine wetland, has dramatically changed the swamp's environment. A freshwater system has largely replaced the extensive mangroves and saltmarsh communities which once thrived throughout the swamp, significantly reducing vital aquatic and terrestrial habitat for native species.

The once extensive saltmarsh plains have been replaced by dense stands of common reeds, which provide limited food and habitat value for fish and bird communities. The mangroves that once lined the creeks have either died, or are in a poor condition. Mangroves provide habitat for fish and other marine life as well as being an important source of leaf litter, which is a key component of many estuarine food chains.