Appropriate mitigation measures are required for dams impaired by excessive reservoir siltation. One common, cost-effective management technique involves flushing accumulated sediment downstream. This practice generates unnaturally high discharges and potentially catastrophic volumes of sediment likely to alter habitat conditions and disturb aquatic fauna. However, there is little scientific information on the ecological impacts of this practice and, more importantly, whether it is a sustainable, practical solution to restore dam functionality. Our study aimed to monitor multiple, simultaneous sediment releases from small flow monitoring weirs in forested headwater catchments and to assess the potential impacts on macroinvertebrate assemblages. Four weirs were desilted during the operations, which resulted in the deposition of large amounts of fine sediment in downstream reaches. Immediately after the sediment release sweep samples revealed a decrease in macroinvertebrate abundance and diversity across all impacted streams. However, based on data from macroinvertebrate colonisation of artificial substrates deployed before and after the sediment release, a generalised macroinvertebrate response to the disturbance was not evident with assemblages returning to pre-impact levels within six weeks. The apparent resilience of the fauna may be explained by the unique hydro-geomorphological conditions of these headwater streams, which already encourage the storage of large amounts of fine sediment and organic matter. Therefore, the biological community may be well adapted to this particular environment and able to withstand excessive sedimentation (i.e. resilience to burial). We contend that the ecological response to sediment release operations, and sedimentation more broadly, depends significantly on local geomorphological context.