Integrated Policy & Investment

Investing in Victoria’s rivers.

At a State level, the Office of Water at DSE (Sustainable Water Innovation and Environment Division) is responsible for coordinating the implementation of the Victorian River Health Program, including the management and oversight of the institutional, investment and policy frameworks.

Regional Catchment Management Authorities (CMAs) and Melbourne Water are responsible for the delivery of regional river health programs.

River Health Policy Framework

The Victorian River Health Program develops frameworks and management tools that give direction to river managers. Some key issues that the program addresses are:

Riparian (riverbank) Management

A healthy river need to have its riparian areas protected, through stock exclusion and weed control and by restoring native vegetation. To improve the implementation of these management actions, a riparian management framework is currently being developed (due end 2009) to identify and overcome barriers to effective management and policy implementation.

Willows

Willows are declared as a "Weed of National Significance" and are recognised as a major threat to riparian health across the state.

These ‘woody weeds’ can choke our waterways. They spread fibrous root mats across river beds, blocking the stream channel, causing erosion and preventing aquatic plants from growing (cutting off vital food supplies to native fish and fauna).

Consequently, the Victorian River Health Program, working with the National Willows Coordinator and The Department of Sustainability and Environment’s Pest Management provides considerable investment and management aimed at eradicating willows in priority areas.

This includes consideration of biological control, improved mapping of various willow types, coordinating willow management efforts by individual CMAs and funding research into issues such as genetic diversity of willows and impacts of the willow sawfly on willow defoliation.

Water Quality

Deterioration of water quality is a major threat to Victorian waterbodies causing social, economic and environmental problems. The Victorian River Health Program invests in actions to improve water quality, as well as providing strategic input to a range of Government and agency programs which impact on water quality (such as urban stormwater and agricultural programs).

Waterway Management

Waterway management includes the protection of public assets from bed and bank erosion, as well as the restoration of in stream habitat and connectivity to protect and restore environmental values of a waterway.

Catchment Management Authorities (CMAs) coordinate these activities, and priorities are established through the Regional River Health Strategies. Each CMA has a Waterway Manager who oversees the strategic planning and on-ground management directions for river health.

At a state level, the Office of Water supports this work by building waterway management capacity and knowledge, such as:

The development and publication in 2007 of “Technical Guidelines for Waterway Management”
the establishment of a postgraduate course in River Health in conjunction with Melbourne University.

Program implementation through on-ground works

Victoria is targeting on-ground, restoration works in river systems that have been identified as a priority at a national level, a state level or within the Regional River Health Strategies.

Nationally Significant Systems

At a national level, several systems have been identified as being important to maintain into the future for the benefit of all Australians. The State government is targeting the nationally significant systems within Victoria for major restoration works. Commitments have been made to large-scale, long-term river health projects for the following systems:

Large Scale River Restoration Projects

Government has committed to large scale projects within each catchment as part of the Our Water Our Future initiative, to accelerate the protection and enhancement of priority river systems. Management actions are delivered by catchment management authorities (CMAs) and Melbourne Water (MW) working in partnership with communities. The State government oversees these programs.

The Large Scale River Restoration program aims to contribute to the government’s policy commitment to significantly improve the health of Victoria’s rivers, floodplains and estuaries by 2010. This will be achieved by the following actions:

coordination of integrated large-scale restoration activities on priority river systems to maximise river health outcomes for investment
use of these restoration programs to demonstrate and inform the community of the effectiveness of investment in river health.

Currently, Large Scale River Restoration Projects are being undertaken for:

Water in the Environment

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