A biodiversity offset obligation in New South Wales is a number of credits. It is not a dollar figure.
The dollar figure arrives later, and how it arrives depends on how you choose to meet the obligation. On 1 October 2026 one of those routes changed.
The Biodiversity Offsets Payment Calculator Order 2026 replaced the 2022 Order. It sets how the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust prices a payment into the Biodiversity Conservation Fund, the route where a proponent pays the Trust to find and secure the offset instead of buying credits themselves.
The Trust describes the calculation methods for most credit types as not changing. What changed is how long a price holds, and what it costs to get one.
According to the Trust:
Quotes issued before 1 October keep their price until they expire.
When you pay into the Fund, the payment covers the charge for the credits plus delivery fees on top. The delivery fees go towards the Trust's costs of taking on your obligation and securing the offset. The Trust says the new amounts "better reflect actual costs". There are 3:
On a payment for 100 credits, that is $2,460 + $16,000 + $5,100 = $23,560 in delivery fees, before the charge for the credits themselves. The fixed fee weighs most on small payments: on 10 credits, the delivery fees come to $4,570.
The change that matters most for a feasibility is the first one. A quote that held for 3 years could sit inside a long approval process. A quote that holds for 1 year may not.
There are 3, and they are not priced the same way.
Buy credits on the market and retire them. You find a landholder or broker with the right credit type, agree a price, and retire the credits against your obligation. The department's own consultation paper says credits found on the market "will generally be cheaper" than paying into the Fund.
Pay into the Biodiversity Conservation Fund. The calculator sets the amount. The Trust then has 3 years to secure the offset.
Fund a conservation action, where one is available for the impact.
Possibly, for larger obligations.
The 2024 amendments to the Biodiversity Conservation Act allow a regulation to limit when a proponent can pay into the Fund. That power has no effect until a regulation uses it.
The draft Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Biodiversity Offsets Scheme) Regulation 2026 would. Under the draft, an obligation of 100 or more credits of the same type could be paid into the Fund only after the proponent declares it has first tried the market. The draft lists ways to do that: an expression of interest through a reverse auction, listing on the credits-wanted register for 3 months, or engaging a conservation broker.
Consultation closed on 17 July 2026. As at 27 October we have not found a made regulation, so this is a proposal, not a rule.
The direction is already visible in the numbers. The department estimates that the share of credit obligations met through the Fund fell from around 90 per cent in 2021 to 10 per cent in 2025.
Paying into the Fund is the route that needs no search. The calculator sets the amount and the Trust does the finding. So when the obligation is only dealt with once the conditions of consent are in hand, it is often the route that is left.
The market route takes time. Someone has to find credits of the right type, agree a price and retire them. The department's consultation paper says credits found on the market "will generally be cheaper" than paying into the Fund. Time is what the late decision no longer has.
The credit types are not a mystery until the assessment. They follow the plant community types and threatened ecological communities on the land, and those are mapped. Read at the start, they give a proponent months to test the market: list on the credits-wanted register, talk to a broker, or approach landholders. The Fund stays as the fallback, not the only option.
With a quote that now holds for 1 year instead of 3, that early read matters more, not less.
The credit obligation is set by an accredited assessor applying the Biodiversity Assessment Method. Nothing in a desktop screen replaces that.
What a feasibility can do is avoid being surprised by it. 3 questions are answerable before anyone is engaged:
The constraint is the obligation. The opportunity sits on the other side of it. A landholder whose land carries the credit types developers need is the market the draft regulation is pushing them towards.
The tool the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust uses to set the amount a proponent pays into the Biodiversity Conservation Fund to meet a biodiversity offset obligation. A new Order setting its rules started on 1 October 2026.
From 1 October 2026, 1 year. Under the 2022 Order it was 3 years.
From 1 October 2026, a fixed fee of $2,460 for each payment, $160 for each credit and an external fee of $51 for each credit, added to the charge for the credits. On 100 credits, the delivery fees total $23,560.
Yes. A draft regulation would require proponents with 100 or more credits of one type to try the market first, but as at 27 October 2026 it has not been made.
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