Far East Gippsland

This ongoing action helps to formalise the operating arrangements for Gippsland’s surface water systems, improving the transparency of their management.

Ministerial guidelines were released for new and to amend existing local management plans. See Action 3.4 for more information about this action.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and ongoing

Delivery period: Ongoing

This action is to revise the caps on the amount of unallocated surface water available for winter-fill diversions in the Mitchell and Tambo catchments. The winter-fill sustainable diversion limits (SDLs) were amended to account for reduced volumes of additional available water. Rural water corporations are managing to the revised SDLs.

The PCV Surface Water Order 2010 will be updated to reflect these changes. The amount of water available for new entitlements in the Mitchell and Tambo catchments is to be reviewed as part of the GRSWS review process.

The Progress report considered that this action is progressing. The 2010 order applies to (PCV orders): Thomson, Latrobe, Bunyip, Yarra, Maribyrnong, Werribee, Moorabool, Barwon, Otway Coast River Basins.

The department plans to update the 2010 PCV Surface Water Order.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Partly or not yet achieved

Delivery period: NA

This action contributed to the establishment of a drought reserve in Blue Rock Reservoir, meaning more water will be available for entitlement holders in the Latrobe system. The drought reserve was established through the Bulk Entitlement (Latrobe Reserve) Order 2013.

Southern Rural Water holds the entitlement, and it calculates how much water is available in the drought reserve each month and offer it to Latrobe system entitlement holders.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and completed

Delivery period: July 2013

This action contributed to the revision of the operating arrangements for Lake Narracan. Southern Rural Water revised storage management rules to specify how it will operate Lake Narracan to maintain water levels for water skiing (as explained above).

The rules also specify how bulk entitlement holders will be compensated for any water losses incurred as a result of the action.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and completed

Delivery period: Achieved

This action contributed to greater access to water for urban use. An additional permanent 3.87% inflow and storage capacity share (corresponding to a long-term average of 3 GL/year) from Blue Rock Reservoir was made available for purchase by Gippsland Water to meet its immediate demand growth needs.

In 2014, Gippsland Water’s Blue Rock bulk entitlement was amended to increase Gippsland Water’s share of Blue Rock by 3.87% to 16.27%. This was later increased to 17.08% to reflect the change in the recorded storage volume of the reservoir, due to silt.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and completed

Delivery period: July 2013

The action has been completed as per the Hazelwood Mine Fire Inquiry: Implementation of recommendations and affirmations. Open-cut coal mine closure and restoration strategies advanced greatly, driven by the Hazelwood Mine Fire Inquiry Report 2015/16 Volume IV – Mine Rehabilitation.

The Latrobe Valley Regional Rehabilitation Strategy supports this action.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and completed

Delivery period: Achieved: December 2016

This action contributed to effective and comprehensive water supply and demand planning to ensure the reliability of supply for urban and industrial users. East Gippsland Water developed water supply-demand strategies in 2010 and 2011 for each of its nine water supply systems.

WfV now requires Victoria’s urban water corporations to develop urban water strategies, which provide detailed, 50-year forecasts of demand, and supply options. Urban water strategies are to be based on the government’s climate guidelines, which set out essential data and advice about how to assess the impact of climate change on water supplies.

East Gippsland Water subsequently developed one urban water strategy for all systems in 2017.

East Gippsland Water publishes an annual water outlook in December each year, to tell its customers the current status of its systems, how they compare to the long-term trends forecast in the urban water strategy, the climate outlook and the likelihood of water restrictions in each system.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and completed

Delivery period: 2010, 2011, 2017

The Progress report confirmed that this action is progressing.

This action was to enable additional permanent entitlement, corresponding to a 1% inflow share to Blue Rock Reservoir, to be made available for purchase by irrigators in the lower Latrobe River. SRW and the department are currently working together to achieve the action.

Investigations are currently being undertaken by SRW and the department to determine the volume the 1% inflow share corresponds to and how it can be made available for purchase by irrigators. This work will inform the next steps.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Partly or not yet achieved

Delivery period: NA

The action improved the reliability of supply to Latrobe River irrigators, as Southern Rural Water amended the rules to confirm that return flows to the river from power stations and industrial water users would continue to be shared 50:50 between the environment and irrigators.

This arrangement helps irrigators in dry periods, and it also provides additional water for the environment.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and completed

Delivery period: July 2013

This action helped Southern Rural Water seek a government contribution for the MID 2030 project. In May 2013, the Victorian Government committed to provide $16 million for Phase 1A of the MID 2030 Project, a project to modernise a section of the Macalister Irrigation District.

An equal co-contribution was made by MID customers through SRW. The government made a further $20 million contribution in the 2016-17 State Budget towards MID Phase 1B, along with contributions from SRW and the Commonwealth Government.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and completed

Delivery period: 2011

This ongoing action helps to promote sustainable irrigation in the Gippsland Lakes catchments. the department, Agriculture Victoria and CMAs are delivering the Sustainable Irrigation Program with funding from the Environmental Contribution Levy, Tranche 4, of $59.5 million over 4 years.

The program provides incentives to irrigators to implement whole-farm planning and to implement efficient water use measures. The focus in the region is on reducing nitrogen and phosphorus on farms.

The Sustainable Irrigation Program Biennial Report 2013-15 notes that the 2015 review of the Victorian Irrigation Drainage Program found the program had successfully mitigated the most severe waterlogging, salinity, water quality and drainage risks in Victoria’s landscapes.

The Victorian Government’s Gippsland Lakes Rescue Package is funding activities to improve water quality in the Gippsland Lakes.

The Gippsland Lakes and Catchment Task Force was established in 2001 and it developed the Gippsland Lakes Future Directions and Actions Plan, and $6 million was invested in phase 3 activities under the plan from 2006–07 to 2008–09.

West Gippsland CMA is reviewing the Macalister Land and Water Management Plan, after which the plan will be replaced by the Lake Wellington Land and Water Management Plan.

Under the action, the Gippsland Irrigation Development Guidelines were prepared. Having established the frameworks for sustainable irrigation, they are to be applied consistently to ensure the objectives are achieved in the long term.

This is an area for ongoing focus to ensure that plans are developed consistently with the guidance, and that triggers in plans are applied or any variations from them are clearly documented.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and ongoing

Delivery period: Ongoing

This action provided irrigators with the opportunity to purchase additional entitlement, if storage capacity exceeded the annual extraction limit. Under the action, eight applications to purchase additional entitlement were approved, for a total 131.8 ML.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and completed

Delivery period: June 2015

This action contributed to the establishment of a new environmental entitlement which provides a long-term average of 10 GL/year for the environment in the Latrobe River system.

The Blue Rock Environmental Entitlement 2013 provides a 9.45% inflow and storage capacity share of Blue Rock Reservoir.

This entitlement has been used to provide environmental benefits in the lower Tanjil River, in the Latrobe River downstream of the junction with the Tanjil River and in the fringing wetlands along the lower Latrobe River near Lake Wellington.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and completed

Delivery period: July 2013

This ongoing action contributes to establishing the processes for managing the environmental entitlement for the Latrobe River. The VEWH’s annual seasonal watering plan, which addresses use of the entitlement under a range of possible seasonal climatic scenarios to mitigate risks to the river, is based on West Gippsland CMA’s seasonal watering proposal.

DEDJTR is preparing a Latrobe Valley Regional Rehabilitation Strategy, which will involve extensive water, geotechnic and environmental studies (including ongoing monitoring) as part of preparing and implementing it. As part of preparing the strategy, the West Gippsland CMA are working with the department and the VEWH on the regional water study, which includes an updated flows study to inform future environmental flows in the system.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and ongoing

Delivery period: Ongoing

This action intends to maximise environmental benefits from investments made to manage the environmental impacts of coal mining on the Latrobe tributaries. The lower reaches of the Morwell River, a tributary of the Latrobe River, and other waterways near the Latrobe Valley coal mines had been highly modified as a result of their proximity to the coal mines.

The WGCMA recently approved the diversion of Sheepwash Creek which is a tributary of the Latrobe River.

As part of the approved operation of the Loy Yang mine a portion of Sheepwash Creek and its catchment will be lost as mining progresses over the next few years. The loss of the waterway requires a diversion channel to be constructed to divert the remaining catchment around the mine workings.

To manage the environmental impact of the diversion the mining operator contributed towards a LandCare program that is working with landholders to fence and revegetate nearby tributaries of the Latrobe River.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and ongoing

Delivery period: Ongoing

This action contributed to the provision of additional water for the environment in the Thomson River through a new 3.9% inflow and 8 GL storage capacity share in the Bulk Entitlement (Thomson River – Environment) Order 2005, equivalent to a long-term average of 8 GL/year. The action was in line with a previous government commitment. The additional water enables delivery of more of the high-priority watering actions in the seasonal watering plans for the Thomson River.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and completed

Delivery period: May 2017

This action helped to allow passing-flow water-sharing rules to be more flexible. Passing flow requirements were amended in 2013 via the Bulk Entitlement (Thomson River - Environment) Amendment Order 2013. Although the work to allow this occurred over many years, the first trial was in July 2017.

The accrual of this water allowed the delivery of higher-priority water actions at other times during the year.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and completed

Delivery period: May 2013

This ongoing action contributes to the management and protection of the Gippsland Lakes. The Victorian Government has continued to invest in CMAs, which use these funds for ongoing catchment management works. These works are typically guided by the CMAs regional catchment strategies and waterway strategies, and by Ramsar site management plans.

These strategies and plans set out frameworks for managing land, water and biodiversity programs. They also identify works needed to protect, restore or enhance natural resources in the medium and longer terms. The Lower Latrobe Wetlands are managed by West Gippsland CMA and other partners, who undertake on-ground actions and provide advice to VEWH about environmental watering through the Lower Latrobe

Wetlands Environmental Entitlement 2010. The Thomson, Macalister and Latrobe rivers also have environmental entitlements managed by the VEWH, that provide flow-on benefits to the Gippsland Lakes. The East Gippsland CMA is the Ramsar site coordinator, and in 2016, they published the Gippsland Lakes Ramsar Site Management Plan.

Hydrological data for basins feeding into the Gippsland Lakes are reported annually in the Victorian Water Accounts.

The department monitors the environmental outcomes (such as fish spawning) of environmental watering in the Thomson River through the VEFMAP program, and it also monitors blue-green algae conditions in the lakes. The VEWH monitors some hydrological and ecological conditions.

Other agencies also conduct monitoring, some of which is funded by the VEWH (such as monitoring of water quality and water level in Heart and Dowd Morass, the Latrobe River and Lake Wellington) and the department.

The Gippsland Lakes Coordinating Committee fosters collaboration between agency and the community stakeholders to better coordinate the environmental management of the Gippsland Lakes.

The committee was allocated $12.5 million over the 2015–16 to 2019–20 period through the Gippsland Lakes Environment Fund. The funding was allocated to implement the Gippsland Lakes Priorities Plan and the Gippsland Lakes Ramsar Site Management Plan.

The 2014 Mitchell River Basin LMP describes allocations and the number of licences for the Mitchell, Tambo and Nicholson catchments, and it identifies 6 GL of new winter-fill water entitlements.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and ongoing

Delivery period: Ongoing

This ongoing action contributes to improving the health of the lower Latrobe wetlands and estuary. The Lower Latrobe Wetlands Environmental Entitlement 2010 was established, and it provides for water to be diverted from the Latrobe River to inundate floodplain wetlands.

The West Gippsland Waterway Strategy 2014-2022 aims to improve the condition of the Lower Latrobe wetlands through a program of environmental watering, weed control and rehabilitation of remnant riparian and floodplain vegetation. The VEWH’s annual seasonal watering plans provide the ongoing direction to complete this action.

The Victorian Government has funded WGCMA to undertake work to inform the watering plan for the wetlands and to design and cost wetland watering infrastructure. The environmental water requirements of the Latrobe estuary were investigated in 2013 and the flow, level and salinity effects of inflows to the Latrobe estuary monitored since 2017.

A risk assessment for Dowd Morass is being conducted of short- and medium-term implications of sea level rise for this wetland and its management. To improve the effectiveness and efficiency of environmental watering in the wetlands, Sale Common’s regulator was upgraded in 2012, while a regulator in the Heart Morass was upgraded in 2018.

Earthworks were also undertaken in 2015 to facilitate water inflows from Flooding Creek to Heart Morass.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and ongoing

Delivery period: Ongoing