Sustainable Water Management - Healthy Waterways

This initiative aims to improve the environmental condition of priority wetlands and estuaries that have been identified as valuable by regional communities, primarily through undertaking physical environmental works in priority areas.

Total EC3 investment: $7.51 m

2015-16 expenditure: $7.005 m
2016-17 expenditure: $0.507 m

Progress

This initiative funded Catchment Management Authorities to carry out the following environmental works and other projects:

Corangamite CMA

Wetlands continue to be managed with the implementation of management plans to maintain or improve the condition of wetlands and surrounding buffers.

The investigation into the extension of the Western District lakes Ramsar boundary is progressing. A project plan and communication plan has been developed. Contracts have been executed at seven sites comprising a total area of 191 hectares for on-ground works. A number of these sites have EPBC listed ecological communities present. All are high priority sites.

East Gippsland CMA

Rehabilitation works to achieve more stability and a healthier functioning river in the Mitchell Estuary have been completed on private frontages, Shire and DELWP land. The works extend the rehabilitation site along the estuary of the Mitchell river, providing more opportunities for people to enjoy the river. Rehabilitation works were completed together with landholders from the Mitchell Floodplain, who entered into formal Environmental Works Agreements. All outputs have been achieved to a high standard. The CMA will continue to work with all stakeholders involved in this project to strengthen relationships and ensure future success of the works areas.

A key achievement of the project is the engagement with the majority of landholders on the Mitchell River from the Barrier to Lind bridge. The landholders are keen to see change in the river and are keen to work with the CMA to make positive changes. The bank stabilisation works were well received and held up well after the recent flooding.

Goulburn Broken CMA

The four year on-ground works program to protect high priority wetlands is complete. This included clearing around Little Rushy Swamp in the Barmah Forest to allow for the construction of a fence to protect moira grass. These works go towards creating landscape scale change on priority wetlands.

Glenelg Hopkins CMA

The Wetland Stewardship Project progressed with a range of sites across the region prioritised for future protection. Final site assessments and landholder negotiations were delivered, followed by the finalisation of management plans and program outputs. The CMA also successfully completed a project to assess the impacts of cropping on wetlands. The key findings from this work identified the wetland types most likely to be exposed to cropping. The project investigated factors that influence the likelihood that a farmer will crop a wetland, and the main ecological consequences from cropping wetlands.

Mallee CMA

Pest animal control works have been successfully completed at the Hattah Lakes Ramsar site. Works assisted the pest plant and animal activities of the Commonwealth Government National Landcare Program. The project delivered rabbit and pig control activities to assist in managing grazing pressure and disturbance impacts to enable native vegetation regeneration and to protect the Ramsar lake habitat.

Works were delivered to protect 12 wetlands on private lands, connected to the Wimmera Mallee pipeline, through managing the threat of pest plant and animals. In particular the project delivered pig, rabbit and fox control activities as well as fencing to reduce rabbit grazing pressure at the wetlands and promote native vegetation regeneration. Fox control helped to manage predator threats to native fauna that use the wetlands as watering points.

North Central CMA

The Kerang Wetlands Ramsar Site Action Plan was developed, for a planned submission date in October 2016. The project has delivered its engagement outputs, with two workshops, five steering committee meetings, and one field visit.

The "Protecting and enhancing priority wetlands" project has been delivered and achieved its objective of maintaining and improving the ecological condition of eight wetlands. The project predominately supported Parks Victoria to achieve key outcomes with landholders engaged for fencing works to replace dilapidated fencing to eliminate stock access to the wetlands.

The Kamarooka Wetlands Protection project is on track to meet or exceed its project objectives, particularly helped by the inclusion of a large wetland area on the floodplain of the Bendigo Creek, located close to Tang Tang Swamp.

Significant works have been completed at the Kerang and Gunbower Ramsar sites, successfully achieving the targeted outputs. This included fencing along the western boundary of Lake Cullen, which reconfigured approximately 3.89ha back into original land tenures.

North East CMA

The wetlands on private land project is due for completion in December 2016. Sites funded so far provide excellent examples of sites within the North East Region. Key achievements of the project involved locating high quality sites and working with landholders who want to protect these sites. Engagement was a key aspect of the project, with an Index of Wetland Condition training event delivered and attended by 11 participants.

West Gippsland CMA

The 2014-15 West Gippsland 'Managing Community Valued Waterways' project was successfully completed in 2015-16. A key achievement was the treatment of Spartina weed across Anderson Inlet, Shallow Inlet and Corner Inlet, totalling 36,000 hectares sprayed. Riparian land and associated wetlands were protected along the Tarwin River West Branch through the installation of 3.6 km of fencing.

On-ground works to protect and rehabilitate wetlands on private land to the immediate west of the Gippsland Lakes Ramsar site are planned for completion by December 2016. Management agreements were established with landholders to protect the wetland at Curtains Flat. Permanent monitoring plots are being established that will see ongoing data collected to understand the effects of management changes on the wetland vegetation along with recording the species survival and growth of revegetation works.

Wimmera CMA

The 'Thriving Community Wetlands 2015-16' project and the 'Improving Wimmera Wetlands' project were delivered to maintain or improve the environmental condition of wetlands.

Key achievements of the projects included an incentives program, which assisted landholders to protect and enhance high value wetlands on their properties, with management agreements protecting over 350 hectares of high value wetlands.

Targeted pest animal control along the riparian zone of Outlet Creek reduced the impacts to the Ramsar site at Lake Albacutya. Across the 740 ha area assessed, 127 rabbit warrens were treated.

Victorian Environmental Water Holder

This initiative also contributed funding in 2015-16 and 2016-17 to the Victorian Environmental Water Holder (VEWH), to help meet additional storage charges and delivery charges for environmental water entitlements, as required under Policy 8.8 of the Victorian Waterway Management Strategy. This funding enabled VEWH and its delivery partners to meet the costs of storing and delivering environmental water and to maximise the environmental outcomes of the state's environmental water holdings. See Implementing environmental water charges for more information.