FUNDED BY: Yarra Community Roundtable Report from the Community Roundtable on the Yarra Strategic Plan | envirojustice.org.au | About Environmental Justice Australia Environmental Justice Australia is a not-for-profit public interest legal practice. Funded by donations and independent of government and corporate funding, our legal team combines a passion for justice with technical expertise and a practical understanding of the legal system to protect our environment. We act as advisers and legal representatives to the environment movement, pursuing court cases to protect our shared environment. We work with community-based environment groups, regional and state environmental organisations, and larger environmental NGOs. We also provide strategic and legal support to their campaigns to address climate change, protect nature and defend the rights of communities to a healthy environment. While we seek to give the community a powerful voice in court, we also recognise that court cases alone will not be enough. That’s why we campaign to improve our legal system. We defend existing, hard-won environmental protections from attack. At the same time, we pursue new and innovative solutions to fill the gaps and fix the failures in our legal system to clear a path for a more just and sustainable world. Donate at: www.envirojustice.org.au/donate For more information about this project contact: Dr Bruce Lindsay, Lawyer, Environmental Justice Australia, [email protected] Environmental Justice Australia Telephone: 03 8341 3100 (Melbourne metropolitan area) 1300 336 842 (Local call cost for callers outside Melbourne metropolitan area) Fax: 03 8341 3111 Email: [email protected] Website: www.envirojustice.org.au Post: PO Box 12123, A’Beckett Street VIC 8006 Address: Level 3, the 60L Green Building, 60 Leicester Street, Carlton Produced and published by Environmental Justice Australia Publication date: 25 November 2018 Images: cover & page 5, 12 – Andrew Kelly; pages 4, 6 – Sarah Firth; others – Environmental Justice Australia Project funded by: Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation // COMMUNITY ROUNDTABLE ON THE YARRA STRATEGIC PLAN 3 Contents Introduction ..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................5 Roundtable program ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................5 Preparatory work ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................5 Generating ideas on the day .........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................5 Main ideas and themes in proposals for YSP content............................................................................................................................... .................................................6 Expand Yarra ‘urban parklands’ and establish standards for the ‘urban parklands’ model.................................................................................................... 6 Swimmable Yarra ...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................7 A revolution in urban stormwater management ...................................................................................................................................................................................................7 Wetlands restoration ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................8 Community advocacy and organisation........................................................................................................................................................................................................................8 The role of tributaries ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................9 Development controls ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................9 Regional infrastructure networks ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 10 Forestry controls ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 10 Environmental flows ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 10 Comprehensive flora and fauna assessment .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 10 Implement Yellingbo Investigation Area recommendations....................................................................................................................................................................... 10 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 11 Community proposals for the Yarra Strategic Plan............................................................................................................................... .................................................... 12 Community Proposals in-depth............................................................................................................................... ................................................................................................ 29 Appendix 1: Proposal from Ed Thexton, Roundtable participant............................................................................................................................... ..................... 33 // COMMUNITY ROUNDTABLE ON THE YARRA STRATEGIC PLAN 4 Introduction discussion was supported financially by the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Fund (LMCF). Environmental Justice Australia (EJA) is a not-for-profit legal The Roundtable took place on 13 October 2018 at the Old practice specialising in planning and environmental law. Council Offices building in Heidelberg. Since 2014, EJA, with the Yarra Riverkeeper Association (YRKA), has been working for innovative legal and policy This document reports on the process and outcomes of that design for protection of the Yarra River. Employing our day. legal and advocacy skills, EJA contributed to design of what has become the Yarra River Protection (wilip-gin Birrarung Given the potential breadth and complexity of matters murron) Act 2017 (the Act), a world-leading example of that the YSP will or may deal with the outcomes from the legislative protection for Melbourne’s largest urban Roundtable ought not necessarily to be considered as waterway. conclusive of views, priorities or proposals community organisation seek from the YSP process. The Roundtable Passage of the Yarra River Act identified further might be considered a starting point for such thinking, albeit opportunities for EJA and YRKA to collaborate around one informed by the long and extensive experience and advocacy for strong legal and policy measures for Yarra River engagement of participating community organisations in protection and care. Foremost among these opportunities river protection and restoration issues. The Roundtable also is preparation of the Yarra Strategic Plan (YSP), the central sought to provide participating groups with a structured and instrument setting out a program for Yarra River protection directed approach to integrating their work, experience and required to be established under the Act. thinking with the intended program and effect of the YSP. The YSP is intended to guide protection and restoration of Conscious of the opportunity