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Parks Victoria Annual Report 2016–17 Acknowledgement of Country

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Parks Victoria Annual Report 2016–17 Acknowledgement of Country Parks Victoria Annual Report 2016–17 Acknowledgement of Country Aboriginal people, through their rich culture, have been connected to the land and sea, for tens of thousands of years. Parks Victoria respectfully acknowledges Aboriginal Traditional Owners, their cultures and knowledge and their continuing connection to and cultural obligation to care for their Country. Parks and waterways Parks Victoria manages many sites such as piers, waterways, ports, bays, historic buildings, trails, urban parks, small conservation reserves and large national and state parks. For the sake of brevity, these are collectively referred to in this document as ‘parks’, unless a specific type of site is stated. For further information about Parks Victoria and the parks it manages visit www.parks.vic.gov.au or call 13 1963. Copyright © State of Victoria, Parks Victoria 2017 Level 10, 535 Bourke Street, Melbourne VIC 3000 ISSN 1448 – 9082 ISSN 1448 – 9090 (online) Published on www.parks.vic.gov.au 2 About Parks Victoria Contents About Parks Victoria 4 Shaping Our Future 6 Healthy Parks Healthy People 7 Chairman’s message 8 Chief Executive Officer’s message 9 Our achievements 10 Strengthening Parks Victoria 12 Connecting people and parks 13 Conserving Victoria’s special places 19 Providing benefits beyond park boundaries 25 Enhancing organisational excellence 31 Compliance and disclosures 41 Compliance with the Australian/New Zealand Risk Management Standard 53 Financial report 54 Parks Victoria Annual Report 2016–17 3 About Parks Victoria Who we are What we manage Parks Victoria commenced operations on 12 December The network of parks that we manage includes 1996 as a statutory authority to manage Victoria’s national parks, marine parks and sanctuaries, diverse parks system. In recent years, the area that we wilderness areas, state and metropolitan parks, care for has increased to 18 per cent of the State or thousands of Aboriginal cultural places and post- 4.11 million hectares. European heritage sites, and around 70 per cent of Victoria’s coastline. Parks Victoria is also the Local We manage the estate in partnership with Traditional Port Manager for Port Phillip Bay, Western Port and Owners, government and non-government organisations, Port Campbell and the Waterways Manager for the park neighbours, friends’ groups and the broader Yarra and Maribyrnong rivers. community. Established under the Parks Victoria Act 1998, our functions are: Our ministers • to provide services to Victoria and its agencies for The responsible ministers for the reporting period were: the management of parks, reserves, and other land, under control of the State • from 1 July 2016 to 30 June 2017, the Hon Lily D’Ambrosio MP, Minister for Energy, • to provide services to Victoria and its agencies Environment and Climate Change for the management of waterways land (within the meaning of the Water Industry Act 1994) for • from 1 July 2016 to 30 June 2017, the purposes of conservation, recreation, leisure, the Hon Luke Donnellan MP, Minister for Ports. tourism or water transport • with approval of our Ministers, to provide services Regional boundaries to the owner of any other land used for public purposes, for the management of that land. Our organisation manages land and facilitates on- In carrying out our functions, we act in an water recreation across five regions: environmentally sound and responsible manner. • Melbourne Metropolitan Parks • Melbourne Marine and Maritime • Northern Victoria • Western Victoria • Eastern Victoria Optimised map 4 About Parks Victoria Parks network Assets Parks Victoria manages Parks Victoria’s built asset portfolio has an estimated 4 .1 million replacement value of hectares $1.8 billion This equals 18% and includes 46visitor centre buildings 757 shelters 830 toilets 512 viewing lookouts 45 national parks 58 playgrounds 26 state parks 15,500 kilometres of road (approx.) 60 other parks 1,321 pedestrian and vehicular bridges 30 metropolitan parks 3,700 kilometres of walking track (approx.) 2,700 natural features and conservation reserves 124 sporting facilities 202 piers and jetties 130 water access points 70% 1181 navigations aids of Victoria’s coast 13 marine national parks 11 marine sanctuaries Visitation Each year, Parks Victoria welcomes 106 million visits to the Parks Victoria estate, including 42.3 million 39 million 24.7 million to national and state parks to piers and jetties to metro parks Parks Victoria Annual Report 2016–17 5 Shaping Our Future Parks Victoria is a world-class park service ensuring healthy parks for healthy people. Our purpose At Parks Victoria, we inspire the community to conserve and enjoy Victoria’s unique natural and cultural heritage. Together, we care for Country and promote the value of our parks and waterways for the benefit of all Victorians and their visitors. As outlined in our long-term strategy Shaping our Future, Parks Victoria delivers these benefits by focussing our work across four strategic themes: 1. Connecting people 3. Providing benefits and parks beyond park boundaries Improve the health and wellbeing of the Contribute to the safety, living standards and community through management of a parks wellbeing of Victorians. estate that is valued by the community. 2. Conserving Victoria’s 4. Enhancing organisational special places excellence Increase the resilience of natural and cultural Focus on delivering our priorities to ensure assets in parks, and maintain ecosystem services continuous improvement and effective and in the face of climate change and other stressors. efficient delivery of services. organisational ing exc nc elle ha nc En e Connecting people and parks Vision Conserving Providing benefits Victoria's Purpose special places beyond park boundaries V i c s t t o n r e ia n m it P u m b m li o c c S ’s er ia vi or ce t v ic a s V lu rk es Pa 6 Shaping Our Future Healthy Parks Healthy People By experiencing, understanding and benefitting from the values generated by parks, people invest in, advocate, care, and act for the health of parks. Traditional Owners have long understood the integral Our commitments link between nature and human health and wellbeing, as expressed by the phrase ‘Care for Country and Supporting our vision, purpose and approach are six Country cares for you’. commitments that enable Parks Victoria to be a high- Parks Victoria’s adoption of Healthy Parks Healthy performing organisation. Our six commitments are: People builds on this traditional knowledge and • put safety first reflects an ever-growing body of research that • provide excellent customer service confirms that the time we spend connecting with nature has a positive impact on our health and • collaborate wellbeing. • lead innovation Healthy Parks Healthy People aims to unlock the • be accountable power of nature and parks for their preventative and • act with integrity. restorative health and wellbeing benefits, whilst also conserving biodiversity. Healthy Parks Healthy People is our approach. it has Our values become a global movement, and became part of Parks Victoria staff subscribe to the seven core values IUCN policy in 2016–17. of the Victorian Public Sector Code of Conduct. These values are: • responsiveness • integrity • impartiality • accountability • respect • leadership • human rights. Healthy Choices program Parks Victoria continued its partnership with Nutrition Australia and the Department of Health and Human Services in 2016–17 to encourage improved nutrition for visitors to Parks Victoria-managed outlets and to staff. By putting health at the centre of our everyday lives through a place-based systems approach to prevention and health promotion, this increases access to healthy foods and drinks in the places where people spend their time. Healthy Choices Policy Guidelines for Parks is a settings-specific approach to implementing Healthy Choices that was developed and released in December 2016. All five Parks Victoria-managed food outlets are in the process of implementing the Healthy Choices guidelines. They were assessed using the Healthy Choices food and drink classification guide and recommendations for improvements were made. Parks Victoria Annual Report 2016–17 7 Chairman’s message A strengthened Parks Victoria will benefit all Victorians and park visitors. In accordance with the Financial Management Act These learnings informed the development of 1994, I am pleased to present the 2016–17 Parks a business case and funding bid in the 2017 State Victoria Annual Report, my sixth and final report Budget, which resulted in a really positive outcome as Board Chair. for Parks Victoria (details of which are outlined on page 12 of this report). The benefits of this work 2016–17has been one of great achievement and will materialise in the 2017–18 year and for a number considerable progress for Parks Victoria. We have of years to come. seen off some challenges and proactively pursued an ongoing change process, which has included As I complete my tenure as Board Chair, I look back a further restructuring of our Executive team, and with great pride on our achievements during the the appointment of a new Chief Executive Officer, last six years, and feel great optimism about Parks Matthew Jackson, in February 2017. Under his Victoria’s future. leadership, together with the Board’s commitment to best-practice governance and outcomes, Parks Victoria is positioned to be a stronger, more sustainable organisation. We have continued to partner with key stakeholders, including our communities, Traditional Owners, volunteers and all levels of government, in order to achieve our objectives. The effort and commitment Andrew Fairley AM of our 968 staff to implement our vision to be a Board Chair 2011–2017 world-class park service for all Victorians and our visitors has been profound. A key example of our community engagement in 2016–17 was our Strengthening Parks Victoria project. An extensive consultation process identified the key priorities that we need to provide and deliver for our various communities, and provided the foundation for a report to the Minister in early 2017, which outlined seven key learnings.
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