[On-screen text: Rohan Hogan, Strategy and Partnership Manager, North Central Catchment Management Authority, Healthy Coliban Catchment Project]

Rohan Hogan: Hi, I'm Rohan Hogan. I'm the Strategy Partnerships Manager at the North Central CMA.

We're working on the Healthy Coliban Catchment Project, which is being funded through Our Catchments, Our Communities, and the project is a 20-year, integrated catchment plan for the Upper Coliban catchment and it's really about getting good environmental outcomes, good water quality outcomes and also protecting the catchment for the future.

[On-screen text: David Sheehan, Executive General Manager Water Quality, Coliban Water, Our Communities, Our Catchments]

David: This catchment supplies water into Coliban Water’s 3 major drinking water storages, that supply drinking water to the townships of Bendigo, Kyneton and Castlemaine and we see that this partnership in doing catchment management helps us achieve our objective of providing safe water to our communities, as well as improving river health for the catchment.

[On-screen text: John Walter, Local Landholder and President Malmsbury District Landcare Group, Healthy Coliban Catchment Project]

John: I've lived in the area here for 20, odd years. We've been doing lots of different Landcare projects over the years, but it became apparent to us that funding for Landcare groups was something that would be easier if you were working on larger scale projects as a Landcare group.

We were approached by some local residents to ask, was it possible to do something about this monstrous gorse patch right on the edge of town. Initially it looked as though it was going to be a daunting task, but then after discussions with the CMA and realising the availability of funding, we saw an opportunity to start working on this particular site and have the confidence that we have ongoing funding to continue it for several years.

Rohan: It's a really good place to live. So, we're getting a lot of people coming up from Melbourne wanting to live here. So, the development pressures are increasing. So, we're looking at, how can we protect the catchment into the future, but allow people to live and enjoy, but do it in a sustainable way. Coliban Water are a key partner in this project, but we’ve also got local government. So, one of the key things here is to look at planning scheme amendments to make sure that future development is done in a sustainable way.

We've got our Landcare groups that are really passionate around their local environment and they're very involved and we have our Traditional Owners that are involved as well, Dja Dja Wurrung, and they're working with us to kind of achieve this long-term vision. So, the Our Catchments, Our Communities funding is really a glue that really brings all that together and helps us kind of achieve those multiple outcomes.

John: Working on a project like this is a great benefit because it allows us to plan over several years. So, we can in this instance, we can come in and groom down the gorse so that we can get access onto the site. Once we've got that access, then we can look at the next stage of development, which will be in this case will be respraying and dealing with the weed regrowth that will occur over the next couple of years. That then allows us to move on to revegetation works and start to build those biolinks along the waterways that are so important to us and to our wildlife, and just the general well-being of the community.

Rohan: The Our Catchments, Our Communities program is really critical for CMAs to deliver integrated outcomes and I think that a great example for this project is the is the leverage that we have and the partnership that we've developed with Coliban Water So, we've been able to use Our Catchments, Our Communities investment to leverage significant investment from a water corporation, which is fairly unique. And you know, we're really proud of our partnership with Coliban Water and I think the Our Catchments, Our Communities program has really helped make that happen.

David: The benefit of this project to Coliban Water is it really allows us to partner with organisations such as the North Central Catchment Management Authority and Landcare groups to manage complex catchment issues.

This is a very attractive catchment to live in, but we want to see it developed in a way that balances people's desire to live here along with the desired outcomes of improved river health and that integrated catchment management approach that we’re working with across organisations allows us to achieve that.

Rohan: The benefits of the Our Catchments, Our Communities program has really been around the flexibility with the funding and being able to really get the outcomes that we're looking for from the project and meeting those multiple objectives from all the partners.

Page last updated: 22/11/23