The REZ line's compliance report lists 46.62 hectares of regent honeyeater habitat cleared in a year, and says its offsets were delivered before the deadline

What the state announced

The release, issued by the Minister for Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Heritage and posted by EnergyCo on 6 October, is about the transmission line that carries the Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone: the new towers and wires between Cassilis, Wollar and Goolma, across the Warrumbungle, Mid-Western, Dubbo and Upper Hunter council areas. It says the project is expected to disturb less than 1,200 hectares, and sets the habitat protected against it:

In response, more than 15,000 hectares across the broader region will be protected and restored through stewardship sites connected with the project, delivering conservation benefits well beyond the project footprint.

NSW Government media release, NSW reforms protect native wildlife in Central West NSW, published on EnergyCo's site on 6 October 2026.

Protected: More than 15,000 hectares, which the release says will be protected and restored
Disturbed: Less than 1,200 hectares, expected, for the transmission project
Sites: More than 20, protecting habitat for at least 13 native plant and animal species
Includes: More than 1,400 hectares of regent honeyeater habitat, nearly 1,000 of eastern pygmy-possum habitat, 670 of koala habitat
Money: A new approach introduced a year ago to invest up to $140 million in conservation, guided by a Conservation Investment Strategy for the REZ
Not named: The release does not name or locate any of the sites

Every figure as the 6 October 2026 release states it, with its own qualifiers ("more than", "less than", "nearly", "up to").

15,000 hectaresHabitat the release says will be protected and restored (more than)

1,200 hectaresArea the release says the project is expected to disturb (less than)

Bars drawn to the same scale, at the two bounds the release gives. Source: the 6 October 2026 release.

On the release's own bounds that is more than 12 hectares protected for every hectare disturbed. It is a comparison of areas. The approvals that let the line be built measure it differently, and the project has to report against them every year.

What the line's own report says was cleared

The Commonwealth approved the line under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act on 8 August 2024. One condition is an annual compliance report. The latest, for 8 August 2025 to 7 August 2026, was prepared by ACJV for EnergyCo and published on 4 September. It lists the clearing in that period by species and vegetation type, for the matters the Commonwealth protects, and says: The clearing which has occurred on protected matters during the reporting periods does not exceed the clearing limits listed in condition B21 of the NSW approval.

Threatened animal	Hectares cleared
Regent honeyeater	46.62
Large-eared pied bat	32.09
Pink-tailed legless lizard	8.11
Striped legless lizard	4.93
Key's matchstick grasshopper	2.41
Koala	1.37
South-eastern glossy black-cockatoo	0
Superb parrot	0

Clearing between 8 August 2025 and 7 August 2026 for each threatened animal on the report's list, from the project's EPBC annual compliance report (PDF pages 12 to 13, under condition 2). The approval defines a species' habitat as its species polygon. Areas for different species can overlap, so they cannot be added together. The list covers only matters protected under the EPBC Act: the eastern pygmy-possum, which the release names, is not on it.

The same list gives the vegetation. The largest entry is 83.72 hectares of plant community type 281, which the NSW approval lists as a critically endangered Rough-barked Apple, Red Gum and Yellow Box woodland of valley flats. Plants include 23.75 hectares of tarengo leek orchid and 17.42 hectares of Euphrasia arguta.

The report also records that, during the year, the project notified the Commonwealth 14 times of protected species or their habitat in places it had not reported before. It adds that no new protected matters (entities) have been identified that were not considered in the action's environmental assessment documentation.

Compliant: 28 conditions
Non-compliant: 0
Not applicable: 23 conditions, outside this period's scope
Incidents: Nil
Whose verdict: The approval holder's own assessment, in a report declared by the project's executive project director

Table 4 of the EPBC annual compliance report, 8 August 2025 to 7 August 2026 (PDF page 10).

These are 12 months of clearing, not the total. The report says work started on 7 February 2025, so any clearing before 8 August 2025 fell in the first reporting period. On 8 October EnergyCo's project documents page listed only this year's report.

The offsets, and the deadline

Both approvals made offsets a condition, with a date. The NSW approval required a Biodiversity Offset Package, with confirmation the measures would be implemented and delivered no later than 26 June 2026, unless otherwise agreed with the Planning Secretary. It also required the package to put a price on each measure, the amount which would be required to be paid into the Biodiversity Conservation Fund if the relevant measure is not implemented and delivered. The Commonwealth approval named four species the package must cover: the koala, the regent honeyeater, the swift parrot and the large-eared pied bat.

The compliance report says the state signed off first. EnergyCo sent the Planning Secretary a notice on 3 October 2025, and on 6 November 2025 the Planning Secretary replied that the Offset Condition has been complied with to the Secretary's satisfaction. On 26 June 2026 EnergyCo emailed the Commonwealth, and The Offsets Compliance Report stated that the biodiversity offset measures in the Biodiversity Offset Package have been implemented and delivered.

26 June 2024NSW approval of the transmission project.
8 August 2024Commonwealth EPBC approval.
7 February 2025Work starts, the report says.
25 March 2025Commonwealth approves the Mining Offset Package.
13 May 2025NSW approves the Saddlers Creek stewardship agreement at Ulan.
15 July 2025266 Box Gum Woodland credits retired.
3 October 2025EnergyCo sends the Planning Secretary an Offset Condition Satisfaction Notice.
6 November 2025Planning Secretary: the offset condition has been complied with.
26 June 2026Deadline in both approvals. EnergyCo sends the Commonwealth its Offsets Compliance Report.
7 August 2026End of the reporting year.
4 September 2026Compliance report published by EnergyCo.
6 October 2026NSW Government release: more than 15,000 hectares.

Dates from the EPBC annual compliance report (PDF pages 6, 14 to 16 and 18), the EPBC Act approval, and EnergyCo's publication page and release. The report does not publish the Offsets Compliance Report itself, and names one offset site, Saddlers Creek.

Through two coal mines' offsets

Part of the route crosses land that was already somebody else's offset. The Commonwealth approval names the Red Hills offset area of the Moolarben mine and the enhancement and conservation areas of the Wilpinjong mine, and required EnergyCo to replace what clearing there would take, through a separate Mining Offset Package, also due by 26 June 2026. The NSW approval names Ulan as well. The report says EnergyCo told the Commonwealth that vegetation clearing had begun in the Wilpinjong areas, and dates that to 17 March 2026.

The package had two parts: a new conservation site at Ulan under the Saddlers Creek Biodiversity Stewardship Agreement, and credits to cover the Box Gum Woodland left over. The site came in smaller than planned on that woodland:

The Saddlers Creek BSA did not, however, conserve as much Box Gum Woodland as originally envisaged

EPBC annual compliance report, 8 August 2025 to 7 August 2026, against condition 10 (PDF page 16).

Planned: 29.21 hectares of Box Gum Woodland left to offset with credits
Revised: About 61.5 hectares, once Saddlers Creek conserved less
Rate: 4 credits per hectare: 246.04, rounded up to 247 credits
Retired: 266 Box Gum Woodland credits, on 15 July 2025
Our arithmetic: 61.5 − 29.21 = about 32.3 hectares more than planned; 266 − 247 = 19 credits more than required

From the EPBC annual compliance report (PDF page 16). The last row is our arithmetic on the report's figures.

What is still owed

One commitment has its own clock. The NSW approval requires the project's biodiversity management plan to describe measures for entities at risk of a serious and irreversible impact, including ensuring that:

an additional 241.16 hectares of Box Gum Woodland and 132.58 hectares of regent honeyeater habitat is securely conserved within a Biodiversity Stewardship Agreement within 3 years (over and above the relevant credit obligations)

NSW consolidated approval, SSI 48323210, condition B26(d)(xi), as consolidated after Modification 1 (14 October 2024). The condition does not say when the three years start.

The compliance report reproduces that condition and marks condition B26 compliant. Its comment names the plan's approval, a partial clearing verification report and an Annual Biodiversity Report available on the Project's website, and says nothing about progress on the extra hectares. We did not find that report on EnergyCo's project pages, and the resources page of ACEREZ, the network operator, refused our browser on 8 October. When the next annual compliance report is published, after 7 August 2027, we will report what it says about those hectares.

Our view

Labelled as opinion. The release reads as a bonus: 15,000 hectares for a line that disturbs under 1,200. The approvals show that offsets were the price of building the line at all, set by a method, priced against a state fund if they were not delivered, and due on a date. Both can be true. The protected area may well exceed what the line had to offset. But the release does not say how much of the 15,000 hectares is that obligation and how much is beyond it, or name a single site. The more useful document for anyone living along the route is the dry one: a compliance report that lists the clearing species by species, and admits that one offset site came up short and had to be topped up with credits. EnergyCo deserves credit for publishing it. The next step is publishing where the more than 20 sites are, and what each one secures.

How we sourced this

We read the 6 October 2026 release on EnergyCo's site in full; the EPBC annual compliance report for 8 August 2025 to 7 August 2026 (PDF, 35 pages), with its publication page; the EPBC Act approval (EPBC 2022/09353); and the NSW consolidated approval for SSI 48323210, conditions B21 to B26 and Appendix 2. All figures are in the documents as text; none was read off a chart or image. Page numbers are PDF page numbers. We kept copies of every document.

Our arithmetic. 15,000 ÷ 1,200 = 12.5, so "more than 12"; 1,200 ÷ 15,000 = 8 per cent (the second bar's length); 246.04 ÷ 4 = 61.51 hectares, matching the report's "~61.5 ha"; 61.5 − 29.21 = 32.29; 266 − 247 = 19.

What we have not done. The NSW consolidated approval EnergyCo publishes is the version after Modification 1. The report says the approval was modified three more times, in August, October and December 2025, and we have not read those versions, so we have not compared the year's clearing with the hectare limits, which may have changed. We have not seen the Offsets Compliance Report, the Biodiversity Offset Package, the Conservation Investment Strategy, the first year's compliance report or the Annual Biodiversity Report, and we have not asked EnergyCo where the stewardship sites are.

Sources

NSW Government (Minister for Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Heritage), NSW reforms protect native wildlife in Central West NSW, media release on EnergyCo's site, 6 October 2026 (read 8 October 2026).
EnergyCo (prepared by ACJV), Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone Transmission Project (EPBC 2022/09353) Annual Compliance Report, 8 August 2025 to 7 August 2026 (PDF, 35 pages; publication page dated 4 September 2026; read 8 October 2026): Table 4 (page 10), conditions 2, 5, 8, 10, 18 and 19 (pages 11 to 18), condition B26 (pages 25 to 27).
Australian Government, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Notification of approval decision, Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone Transmission Project (EPBC 2022/09353) (PDF, as published by EnergyCo; read 8 October 2026): offset conditions 7 to 10 and the definitions of habitat and existing offset areas.
NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, Consolidated Approval, Central-West Orana REZ Transmission (SSI 48323210), after Modification 1 (PDF, as published by EnergyCo; read 8 October 2026): conditions B21 to B26 and Appendix 2.

Live or farm along the line, manage a stewardship site, or read the report differently? Tell us and we will check it against the documents and log the outcome here.