GOULBURN BROKEN CATCHMENT MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY ANNUAL REPORT 2016-17 RATINGS LEGEND Well below target Below target On target Exceeded target 2016-17 performance (<50%) (50 to <80%) (80 to <110%) (≥110%) Catchment condition and Critical attribute contribution Very poor Poor Satisfactory Good to excellent to resilience Risk to Trend 2014-17 Increasing significantly Increasing Stable Declining system resilience Long-term Very high High Medium Low Long-term strategy Early Middle Late Watch and maintain implementation stage The Goulburn Broken CMA continues to develop its approach to catchment condition and performance reporting using a resilience model aligned to the Goulburn Broken Regional Catchment Strategy 2013-2019. Appendix 1 (page 127) discusses why and how ratings are applied. Although annual performance indicators have high certainty relative to long-term indicators, the uncertainty in setting and monitoring annual targets is still significant because of irregular timing of projects and project-delivery adaptation throughout the financial year. This uncertainty is reflected in an assessment of delivering ‘on target’ being defined as a large range. ABOUT THIS REPORT This report provides information on the Goulburn Broken Catchment © State of Victoria. Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority’s (CMA) performance and finances, which can be Management Authority 2017. This publication assessed against its 2016-17 to 2020-21 Corporate Plan targets. is copyright. No part may be reproduced by any process except in accordance with provisions of the This year’s report explicitly assesses the Goulburn Broken Catchment’s Copyright Act 1968. resilience, which is a further step in including the Goulburn Broken Regional Catchment Strategy 2013-2019’s emphasis on resilience in the CMA’s ISSN 978-1-876600-02-0 annual reporting. The Goulburn Broken CMA aims to provide information which is relevant, Front cover easily accessed and understood. More detailed and scientific data can Main photo: be accessed via the website www.gbcma.vic.gov.au A separate summary Volunteers after completing a planting day in the of this annual report is available from the website or from the Goulburn Lurg Hills for the Regent Honeyeater project. Broken CMA offices (see back cover). Inset photos (from left to right): This report is prepared in accordance with all relevant Victorian legislation. This includes the requirement under the Catchment and Land Protection Act Installing the 200th nest box for the Turquoise 1994 for the Goulburn Broken CMA to submit “…a report on the condition Parrot project in the Warby Ranges. and management of land and water resources in its region and the carrying Yorta Yorta’s Woka Walla crew re-introduce sweet out of its functions.” This year’s report also includes a catchment condition quandong to Mooroopna’s sand hills. report card that has been developed as part of a statewide trial for Victorian CMAs to adopt a consistent approach to annual reporting on catchment Bank condition monitoring in the lower condition. Goulburn as part of the Long Term Intervention Monitoring project. Design and print complies with Department of Treasury and Finance Reporting Direction 30D, which aims to achieve consistency and minimise Chicks in the Sticks celebration at Mt Buller. costs and environmental impact across government agencies. Feedback on this report is encouraged to help improve future annual reports. Please provide comments by 31 December 2017 to guarantee consideration. A feedback form to help direct comments is available at the website www.gbcma.vic.gov.au Contents Overview 2 Chair’s review 4 Chief Executive Officer’s report 6 Goulburn Broken profile 10 Key events 12 Catchment condition assessment 14 Long-term scorecard 16 Outputs achieved 2007-08 to 2016-17 and forecast 2017-18 18 Annual scorecards Managing for community and environmental resilience 20 The Regional Catchment Strategy, resilience and climate change 28 Community 33 Waterways 43 Floodplain management 47 Biodiversity 54 Land 62 Sustainable irrigation Managing the organisation’s business 72 Human resources 77 Environmental footprint 79 Governance 83 Board directors and officers 85 Compliance 91 Corporate plan key performance indicators Financial report 94 Financial results summary 97 Financial statements Appendix 127 Appendix 1 Understanding progress and ratings 129 Appendix 2 Map of works 130 Appendix 3 Outputs detailed list of achievements 132 Appendix 4 Map of properties covered by a whole farm plan 133 Appendix 5 Role of Catchment Partners 135 Appendix 6 Major Strategic References 137 Appendix 7 Protected Disclosures Act 2012 138 Appendix 8 Grants paid to community groups and organisations 2016-17 142 Appendix 9 RCS Sub strategies progress 144 Appendix 10 Disclosure index Other 146 Glossary of terms 147 Abbreviations 148 Index 148 List of Staff 2016-17 Inside back cover Recognising a major natural resource management contribution – Orlando Talamo Back cover Contacts and office locations GOULBURN BROKEN CATCHMENT MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY ANNUAL REPORT 2016-17 1 Overview Chair's review I am pleased to present Goulburn adaptation pathways planning for the Bogies and Beyond Broken Catchment Management project, while the Woka Walla and Acacia Indigenous work Authority’s 2016-17 Annual Report crews were instrumental in delivering Linking the Lower as we celebrate 20 years of CMAs Goulburn activities. across Victoria. Our commitment to these partnerships is one of the keys While marking this milestone it to delivering the Goulburn Broken RCS. Over the past 12 is timely to highlight how the months we have made particular inroads in continuing activities of each of the State’s 10 to engage meaningfully with Traditional Owners. This CMAs over the past two decades includes participation opportunities through project steering complement the goals and groups and the Goulburn Broken Indigenous Consultation objectives of the Victorian Government’s Our Catchments Group, developing MoUs with the region’s two Registered Our Communities – a statewide approach to integrated Aboriginal Parties (Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal catchment management. Corporation and Taungurung Clans Aboriginal Corporation) and via Whole of Country Plans developed by both This strategy not only recognises the good work that has organisations. The recently completed Goulburn Broken gone before, but has committed to four years’ funding Indigenous Participation Plan details the guiding vision (rather than annual allocations) to each CMA to help them and principles of the cooperative relationship between support community capacity building and coordinate and the CMA and Traditional Owners and complements the manage projects that deliver Regional Catchment Strategy Victorian Government’s Aboriginal Participation Guidelines (RCS) priorities. This funding will also help deliver the state- for Victorian CMAs as well as the goals and objectives wide goals detailed in the Victorian Government’s other for engaging with Traditional Owners outlined in Our key natural resource management (NRM) strategies, such as Catchments Our Communities, Water for Victoria and Water for Victoria and Biodiversity 2037. Biodiversity 2037. Strengthening partnerships Traditional Owner involvement on Country either side of the Murray has also been instrumental in finalising three Thanks to first-year funding of $527,000 through Our projects funded through the Australian Government’s Catchments Our Communities, two major projects Biodiversity Fund. These projects have employed, part-time, identified and developed through our CMA Partnership eight Yorta Yorta people through the Woka Walla work Team (made up of key regional agencies and local crews. Members of these work crews achieved a Certificate government) are well and truly under way. The first, III in Land and Conservation Management delivered Linking the Lower Goulburn, builds on the many years of through Swinburne University and others have gone on effort that has gone into embedding resilience thinking, to develop Indigenous enterprises that are now providing building partnerships and using adaptive management land management services to a range of stakeholders. approaches across the Shepparton Irrigation Region in the Individual crew members have been supported to Agricultural Floodplains. Thanks to these well-established undertake training in a range of land management and partnerships a number of onground activities have been NRM practices including pest animal and weed control, delivered this year: Indigenous work crews completed native seed collection and propagation, GIS mapping and 20 kilometres of revegetation, pest control and rubbish flora and fauna surveys. Other tangible outcomes from removal along roadsides across the Moira Shire; and under the investment by the Australian Government include the management of Parks Victoria, carried out rubbish more than 4,000 hectares of revegetation works and the removal, weed management, fencing removal and repair, establishment of 61 hectares of seed production areas to revegetation and watering in the Lower Goulburn National provide high-quality and sufficient quantity of indigenous Park, Munroes Swamp and Loch Garry. seed for future landscape-scale projects. The second project, Bogies and Beyond, involves communities in the Upland Slopes identifying the Embedding resilience environmental and social values they believe make the Fortunately many of the great NRM outcomes achieved area (extending from near Euroa to around Mansfield),