The Wilderness Society of NSW sprang up in the early 1980s. The Newcastle group branched out to dedicate itself to local and national campaigns.

The Wilderness Society Newcastle has been involved in a range of campaigns for NSW; to have a Wilderness Act, to protect Barrington Tops and Stockton Bight, to achieve a long-term pause on old growth forest logging from Newcastle to the Queensland border, to create a Port Stephens Marine Park and to protect the Williams Valley from the Tillegra Dam—to name just a few!