[Speaker: Holly Wilson]

My name is Holly Wilson, and I work in Water Sector Climate Adaptation in the department, in Water and Catchments Group. So, my job is centred on policy and projects to do with climate adaptation in the water cycle system. I started in 2023 as a grad, and I've been there since then.

Why do you like working in water?

So, water's a really interesting space to work in. I didn't know a lot about water before I started here, and I don't think many people think of it that much when they think about maybe different industries or different areas to work in. But water is so diverse, there's so many different problems and challenges to tackle when we consider water.

So, we know that we need to have water as a safe and reliable resource. It's an essential service, so it's really important to Victorians, to communities, has cultural values, has environmental values. We'll need it in the energy transition. So, I find it really interesting because there's so many topical questions to tackle, particularly in the climate adaptation space.

I come from regional Victoria, so I've spent a lot of time out in the lakes and out in nature. So, I think I have a real connection to the natural environment and to natural resources and think that it's really important to be sustainable, consider how these, you know, environments and these resources can be used in the future and be around for future generations.

Why is adapting to climate so important for water?

So, under the Climate Change Act 2017, we have a Water Cycle Adaptation Action Plan, which is looking at how do we respond to climate change and how do we ensure that we have a resilient water cycle system in the future that can bounce back from emergencies.

We know that in the future it's going to be hotter and drier, but there's also going to be less rainfall, more extreme rainfall, more intense rainfall, and more emergencies. So, it's really important that we are trying to respond to those impacts of climate change and try to be more sustainable in our practices and how we use water.

We also help and try to ensure that the water corporations can reach their Net Zero targets, and we have a lot of programs focused on water cycle adaptation projects. So, on ground work with local communities or local councils on projects that have really good adaptation outcomes. So, this might be something like revegetation work and planting trees near a waterway, or building a stormwater harvesting system to take water and use that in a sustainable way to water a football oval or something like that.

When it comes to tackling challenges with emissions reductions and greenhouse gases, we all know that we can change our cars to electric vehicles, but a key challenge in the water sector is actually coming from wastewater emissions. So, when we treat wastewater, which is toilet water, that process actually produces a lot of greenhouse gases. So, this is a really key hurdle that the water sector has to overcome and that we are working towards.

Who helps in water sector adaptation?

So, I work with a lot of different people in my role, particularly because it's focused on the water sector as a whole. So, we work with the water corporations, we also work with the CMAs, which are the catchment management authorities. We work with local councils and local community groups.

For example,  if we're working with them on a specific on ground project. We also work with other departments across Victoria or other state departments to kind of learn about how they're tackling different challenges in their water sectors because they're all set up a little bit differently.

What led you to working in water?

To get into water It was a bit of an unexpected way. I didn't always know I wanted to go into water. At high school, I studied a lot of different subjects like geography and biology and humanities. And then when I went into university, I didn't really know what I wanted to do, but had a lot of interests. So, I did an arts degree and I studied human geography, and then I also studied science and biology. So, while I didn't know I wanted to work in water, I knew I wanted to work in the environment, in sustainability, maybe in climate change.

So, I'm really glad I ended up in water because there's lots of really interesting opportunities and lots of interesting questions that you can try and answer, whether that's water availability, whether that's climate adaptation, giving back water to the environment, giving back water to communities.

There's a lot of really important work to be done in water. It's really diverse, there's lots of different opportunities and you can try and answer some really interesting and curly questions.

Page last updated: 11/08/25