The Kurri Kurri Landcare president says the success of the adjacent planned estate will depend on transforming the now toxic waterway into a safe and pleasant wetland.

“I’m all for it,” Mr Maybury said.

His Landcare group had had discussions with the developers, the Winten Property Group, about the measures that would be needed to improve the waterway.

He sees walking paths and landscaping of the shoreline to make an attractive area.

Problems the waterway has now are high acidity and ferrous metals in water that discharges upstream from the disused Glen Ayr mine.

Clean water would see water birds return, he said.

“I remember going to school and seeing flocks of birds nesting here.

“Now there are only a few itinerant birds here who don’t know any better.”

Mr Maybury envisaged that the swamp would be one of the first matters to be resolved when the estate was developed because it would then add to the overall appeal of the project.

“It would be like Rathluba, where they turned a swamp into an attractive wetland and an asset for the community,” he said.