Yarra River Regeneration Guide Cremorne Railway Bridge to Westerfolds Park Australian Government Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment Yarra River Ecological Regeneration Guide Written by Andrew Kelly, and Daniel Miller, with Assistance from Tom Frawley Mapping by Karen McGregor © Copyright Yarra Riverkeeper Association First published in 2021 by the Yarra Riverkeeper Association Abbotsford Convent 1 St Heliers Street Abbotsford Vic 3067 Australia Yarrariver.org.au ISBN 978-0-6489834-0-8. Designed by Anthony Despotellis Link to Online version: https://yarrariver.org.au/reports/ Note about authorship: This guide was commissioned by the Yarra Riverkeeper Association from Practical Ecology and the core of the practical advice was provided by the consultants. The thinking underpinning the guide has been the work of the Yarra Riverkeeper, and the Association takes responsibility for the approach to regeneration (or restoration) taken in these pages. Opening Words from the Acknowledgement Yarra Riverkeeper of Country This is the first of our guides to ecosystems on a landscape scale also The Yarra Riverkeeper Association acknowledges that the regenerating, or restoring, our Yarra resonated with the central idea of the lands and waterways of the Yarra Catchment and beyond, river. A lot of thinking has gone into this Yarra River Protection (Willip-gin Birrarung are the unceded territories of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung guide. The thinking behind our use of the murron) Act, which river as ‘one living and people. We pay our respect to their Ancestors, who cared word ‘regeneration’ started with our then integrated natural entity’. for Country since time began, and to all Wurundjeri Woi president Christopher Balmford’s reading Wurrung community, to all the Kulin Nation, to all Traditional of George Monbiot’s Feral: Searching A seed grant was provided through the Owners, who continue to speak and care for their Country. for Enchantment on the Frontiers of Waterkeeper Alliance. We were then We acknowledge that the river now called the Yarra has Rewilding. Christopher was enchanted fortunate to obtain a grant from the federal always been known as the Birrarung by its custodians. by the vision of a wilder, less managed, government to commence this work and less manicured world where people had that grant was augmented from other Practical Ecology acknowledges the Traditional Custodians regained a connection with nature and grants from the electoral offices of Kevin of the land, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin ecosystems were rich in creatures, and Andrews, Katie Allen and Adam Bandt. We Nation, on which our office is located. We pay our respects were self-organising and resilient. Monbiot’s are grateful for all these grants. to their Elders, past and present. We also acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we conduct our book led us to Dave Foreman’s Rewilding business throughout Australia. We pay our respects to their North America: A Vision for Conservation As an association we are just at the Elders, past, present and emerging, and the Elders of other in the 21st Century and then to Isabelle beginning of our regeneration journey. These communities who may be present on those lands. Tree’s Wilding: The Return of Nature to first sites will deliver real outcomes but they a British Farm. We moved from thinking will also create a reservoir of skills both in Prior to the invasion and subsequent colonisation of Naarm about rewilding to wilding and finally to the community and within the Association. (Melbourne), the area around the Birrarung (Yarra River) was regeneration, as the Yarra or Birrarung has The implementation of this work has been and remains culturally significant to the Wurundjeri people. been managed for tens of thousands of made challenging by the covid lockdown, and The connection to places along the Birrarung extends back years by Traditional Owners. I would like to acknowledge the efforts of to the Dreamtime. the staff in keeping our regeneration project All three books are a response to the moving forward in such difficult times. To learn more about the Country of the Birrarung, contact Anthropocene, where people have come to Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal dominate the world on a geological scale. I take this opportunity to acknowledge the Corporation through their website: There is scarcely a single place now on fantastic work done by Friends groups on https://www.wurundjeri.com.au/ earth that is not affected by humans. We the river since 1970s. They are a reservoir now need to recalibrate our relationship of knowledge. A significant portion of the This guide does not presume to summarise or appropriate with the natural world in which we are river and its tributaries have been replanted the knowledge of First Nations people, but here embedded, of which we are but one part. since the first Friends group formed. Friends highlights the importance of listening and collaborating show the power of the community to deliver throughout regeneration planning in both this area and For an association that is the community net gain for our environment. throughout the country. advocate for the whole river corridor, the landscape scale of the wilding or rewilding Andrew Kelly, Yarra Riverkeeper idea resonated. The idea of regenerating 4 What the Yarra Could Look Like in the Future Contents Introduction 8 What the Yarra could look like 76 Study Area 12 General Considerations 78 Purpose of This Guide 14 Ecological Restoration Project Design 80 Choosing & Prioritising Sites 83 The Reference Ecosystem 84 Goals, Targets & Objectives 86 Principles of Ecological Restoration 20 Restoration Types 90 Goals, Targets & Objectives 91 General Habitat Enhancement 96 Principle 1 24 General Habitat Enhancement 98 Principle 2 26 Daylighting 99 Principle 3 28 Priority Weeds & Control Methods 100 Principle 4 30 Pest Animal Control 102 Principle 5 33 Monitoring 104 Principle 6 34 Vegetation Cover 106 International Principle 2 36 Photo Points 109 International Principle 4 38 Bird Census 110 International Principle 7 40 Other Monitoring Methodologies 114 Maintenance 116 Climate Change 117 Image 2. Image 3. What the Yarra looked like in the past 42 ImageAppendix 4. 118 Image 5. Bioregions, Geology & Soils 44 Appendix 1 119 Vegetation Communities 46 Appendix 2 122 Fauna Diversity 64 Appendix 3 132 How the Yarra looks now 66 Soils 68 Vegetation Communities 69 Fauna Diversity 72 Threats to Biodiversity 75 Image 1. Wombat, photographed by Corentin Massuyeau Yarra River Regeneration Guide 7 This practical guide is designed to assist the Yarra Riverkeeper Association and its partners in the implementation of its vision for the ecological regeneration of the Yarra (Birrarung) River corridor from 1 the mountains to the bay. The aspiration of the Association’s vision is altered so radically that the landscape cannot Introduction for the ecological integrity and ecological now be returned to what it was in 1835. The functioning of the river corridor to be ecological functioning and integrity though regenerated for the whole length of the can be returned. Self-organising ecosystems river. It is a long-term vision of a river that are resilient and have a high degree of that is self-organising and made-up of naturalness can be encouraged to develop. a functioning series of interconnected ecosystems that reflect soil, position, The word ‘regeneration’ is more open-ended aspect and climate, and which require a than ‘restoration’. Regeneration is about the minimum of maintenance and interference. operation of processes rather than a defined outcome. The term acknowledges that This guide is based in good part on the trajectories are unpredictable. Regeneration second edition National Standards of also aligns with the ideas of regenerative Ecological Restoration (National Standards) farming, and that is appropriate as much of and is also informed by the second edition the Yarra Valley is now farmed. Regenerative of the International Principles and Standards farming is a system of farming principles and of Ecological Restoration (International practices that rehabilitates the farm as an Principles). As a more recent document, entire ecosystem with an emphasis on soil the International Principles is informed by health but also considering water and extends the thinking in the Australian Management and indigenous vegetation. National Standards. The International Principles in particular have useful The Association acknowledges that the word additional principles. ‘regeneration’ is used in particular ways in the restoration literature. It is most often linked The Association uses the term ‘regeneration’ with the regeneration of the seedbed, natural rather than ‘restoration’. Restoration begs the or assisted. It is also an approach identified question: restoration to what state? There in Principle 2 of the National Standards. The is also a possible implication in the term Association uses ’regeneration’ more broadly. ‘restoration’ of a restoration to a wild natural state, without the presence of humans in the The Association has commenced its ecosystems. Yet the landscape of Australia regeneration work by identifying seven trial has been managed by Traditional Owners for sites on the lower Yarra to replant, and to tens of thousands of years. maintain and monitor. The work on these sites will be a testing ground for the future Settlement has in good part interrupted that implementation of the Association’s vision. management, particularly interrupting the The work will build the Association’s capacity use of the primary tool of cool burning. The to deliver its vision by embedding knowledge landscape of the Yarra catchment has been and experience. Yarra River Regeneration Guide 9 The Association’s work also aligns with the restoring robust ecological processes. the landscape over tens of thousands of years Currently the EVCs are the best guide as declaration of the United Nation’s Decade The use of the term ‘regeneration’ was by Traditional Owners in the Yarra catchment; reference models for the target condition of on Ecosystem Restoration.