Healthy waterways and catchments Progress snapshot December 2019 Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning Our record investment in waterways and catchments Taking action Intensive on- Target ground works such achieved We have invested $222 million over four years to as vegetation, Waterways and weed and pest catchments are improve the health of our waterways and catchments management, healthier and erosion control, Recovery more resilient to instream habitat challenges. – Victoria’s largest ever investment. With this funding, improvements and growth and water for Place-based we are working to protect the rivers and landscapes the environment actions drop to a Planning management. maintenance level. that people love and use. and target setting The wellbeing and prosperity of Victorian communities depend “In coming decades, Identifying on healthy waterways and catchments, yet so many of our most long-term our waterways will be outcomes with loved rivers, estuaries and wetlands have been degraded over under pressure from partners and time. Increasing urban development, climate change and a lack of communities. awareness about the activities that affect waterway health are putting increased population our waterways and catchments at risk. and a changing climate. We have made a long- This investment is helping to deliver Water for Victoria, our plan to term commitment to Dec 2019 manage water to create more liveable and thriving communities for all restore and improve Victorians, now and into the future. waterway and catchment health, so we can meet Our approach focuses on: 2.5 YEARS 10 YEARS 30 YEARS these challenges now and strengthening local relationships for future generations.” putting community at the centre of decision-making Environmental condition Management effort Community benefit range Minister for Water Lisa Neville delivering a wide range of waterway and catchment projects for Victoria’s cities, towns and regions. Our successes come from working in partnership with Victoria’s catchment management authorities, water corporations, the Victorian Restoring waterway and Environmental Water Holder, Traditional Owners, local government and community partners. catchment health takes a long-term commitment. We COVER: Aerial Davis Creek, Three years into delivering our $222 million investment, Arthur Rylah Institute (ARI) will see the full benefits of our RIGHT: Merbein Common, North Central it’s time to take stock and look at how we are tracking. Catchment Management Authority (CMA) investment in decades to come. 1 Healthy waterways and catchments Healthy waterways and catchments 2 Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning How are we improving the health of our waterways Partnerships Bring it all together and catchments? We are partnering with Traditional Integrated catchment Owners, community groups and management is about bringing individuals to achieve better, more the right people together to 15,000 Victorians are We are working with our partners lasting change. share knowledge and effort. It’s helping us restore and communities across the state about managing land, water and our waterways and We are: biodiversity resources together catchments – enough to and being able to respond and on projects to restore waterway and strengthening partnerships with adapt to local needs. fill Rod Laver Arena. catchment health, while also planning Traditional Owner groups and ahead for the future. Aboriginal Victorians We are delivering Our Catchments, partnering with recreational Our Communities, Victoria’s first groups such as anglers statewide strategy for integrated catchment management, in collecting data with thousands partnership with catchment 2,172 gigalitres of water of citizen scientists management authorities. Under for the environment working with community groups this strategy, we are delivering on projects to restore waterway new projects and building new delivered at more than and catchment health. partnerships and leadership skills. 80 sites across Victoria. That’s equivalent to Target priority areas Monitor our progress over 10,000 MCGs. Healthy waterways and their We monitor, evaluate and report catchments support a diverse on our actions at hundreds of sites range of native plants and across the state, so we can identify animals, and underpin a healthy what works, adjust our approach ecosystem. They also give us and report back to the community. recreational opportunities and Citizen science data also helps fill knowledge gaps. 10 new Catchment support economic development Partnership Agreements through important industries such We look at how our ecosystems as tourism. with 222 partners. are changing – whether the trees are healthy, how many different With community support, we have types of plants there are, and identified priority areas and we are: the numbers, distribution and managing vegetation breeding activity of waterbirds, fish and frogs. This means we can creating or improving identify issues earlier and act to 10 large-scale and long- in-stream habitats prevent any decline or threat to term flagship waterway releasing water for the our waterway ecosystems. projects are restoring 2,280 environment. priority waterways and kilometres catchments across of land alongside Victoria. our waterways improved. Twenty years of regeneration efforts at Critical Bend on the Cann River. 43,500 hectares of environmental TOP: Lake Hawthorn fish release, Mallee CMA works in LOWER: Revegetation works, catchments East Gippsland CMA completed. RIGHT: River regeneration, East Gippsland CMA 2000 2008 2019 3 Healthy waterways and catchments Healthy waterways and catchments 4 Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning Fish Native fish are reaping the benefits from improvements to habitats and water for the environment. Our work to date is achieving positive results, and pointing us in the right direction for future planning. Better fish habitat Native fish returning Better fishing Over the past 200 years, our At-risk native species are now Coordinated delivery of water for waterways and catchments have being seen for the first time in the environment and extensive been highly modified. This has decades, and in some cases, revegetation and habitat works Australian Grayling Murray Hardy-head Resnagging the affected our native fish in different more than a century. have boosted Victoria’s native fish back from the brink makes a comeback Seven Creeks ways, and many species are now populations, with anglers reporting threatened. One of Australia’s most that 2018 was the best year they’d The endangered Australian This critically endangered Trout Cod numbers are endangered native fish, the had in a decade. Instream habitat works, Murray Hardy-head was Grayling has been spotted fish was found in record increasing at Seven Creeks, including rocks, snags and fish found in record numbers in Silver Perch have returned to in the Glenelg River for the numbers at Lake Elizabeth, thanks to 28 new hand- hotels are benefiting fish, insects the North Central region in places like the Campaspe and first time in 122 years. after being manually made wooden snags. and other aquatic fauna that autumn 2019. Goulburn rivers for the first time re-introduced back in 2015. live in or near our rivers. in 10 years. Abundances and distributions Water for the environment of juvenile Murray Darling Murray Cod have returned to This means we are creating the Snags are instream woody allows us to create the right Rainbowfish have increased the Campaspe and Goulburn right conditions for this flow- The North Central Catchment habitats that provide vital habitat conditions for native fish to in the Broken and Campaspe rivers and are at a 10-year high dependent species. We have Management Authority used water for fish, birds, frogs and bugs, breed and migrate over longer Rivers. in the Broken River system. worked hard to restore the for the environment and revegetation giving food, shelter and spawning Glenelg River, including building distances. We’re seeing higher numbers of to improve water quality and reduce sites for breeding. In the past, fishways and providing water for Critically endangered juveniles at more sites. salinity levels, creating better snags were deliberately removed Removing barriers to fish Variegated Pygmy Perch the environment to mimic ideal conditions for this little fish. to help the flow of floodwater. But migration has noticeably have increased tenfold in Estuary Perch and Tupong have breeding conditions for the species. this led to erosion. We now know Only a small number were released, improved the abundance and the Glenelg River. migrated to the upper reaches The Grayling is not the only native that snags actually protect the fish to benefit; Estuary Perch and showing how successful relocation range of native fish species. of the Glenelg River, and stream bed and bank from erosion. Tupong have returned to areas can be. Blackfish numbers have more more than 330 km upstream of Newly built low-level bridges than doubled. Through the Wetland Monitoring While seemingly simple, lots of and fish passages are helping where they were seven years ago in science and engineering goes into the Glenelg Estuary at Nelson. Assessment Program (WetMAP) native fish to breed, feed and in autumn 2019, we also found replacing snags. Since building succeed. “The Glenelg River