Strategy progress hasn't been immune to COVID-19
The impacts of a third year of COVID-19 have taken a toll on some of the targets achieved across multiple agencies. Some catching up is needed to get back on track in some areas.
The 2021/22 year is the second consecutive wet year in a region that can swing from drought conditions to flooding rains. The catchment rainfall was largely a positive for supporting multiple environmental values across the region, however localised impacts to social and environmental values can result from the continued high rainfall.
Tracking Healthy Waterways Strategy targets annually keeps us focused on the things that matter most
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significantly off track
Several performance objective themes for wetlands and estuaries are being reported for the first time.
Vegetation extent, environmental water and stormwater are the main targets that are behind where we need to be.
All catchment targets for habitat and maintaining vegetation are on-track. This is great news, however effort needs to continue to ramp up in future years to remain on track.
Progress has been made on all 45 Regional Performance Objectives
The Strategy mid-term review is in progress
We are well underway with assessing data to determine whether our key values are on track to achieving long term targets.
A review on how we are progressing towards achieving Strategy targets and how collaboration is supporting the delivery of these, is about to begin.
Integration of two key delivery organisations
Port Phillip and Westernport Catchment Management Authority has merged with Melbourne Water
Synergising and strengthening the capability of both organisations will deliver better outcomes for catchments and waterways in the region.
Sustainable Water Strategy released
The Central and Gippsland Region Sustainable Water Strategy outlines actions for securing the region's long-term water supplies and provides the framework to help address environmental water shortfalls.
Progress highlights
More effort in priority areas for vegetation is key!
After three years of dedicated hard work across the region, this year the Dandenong catchment is the only catchment still on track to meet the 10-year targets for establishing new vegetation. The 300 ha of riparian vegetation that was established across the region (through planting efforts in 20/21) was less than half what was needed to keep us on track to meet the 10-year targets set in the strategy. We are now significantly off-track in the Werribee, Maribyrnong and Westernport catchments and slightly off-track in the Yarra catchment.
New vegetation is only counted towards the targets once it is established, which is usually when it is 2 years old. This means vegetation targets counted in 21/22 are the result of plantings made in 19/20 that were planned in 18/19, and frequently earlier. So, this years' dip in the vegetation establish targets was due to planning undertaken at the beginning of the strategy when we were still building familiarity with the new priority areas. Subsequent years are looking more positive due to momentum in the program building and an increased focus on vegetation establishment in priority areas.
Over 10,000 ha of vegetation was maintained this year with over half being high quality vegetation. All 5 catchments are still on track to achieve the 10-year target for maintaining vegetation. Even though we are on track we need to improve the way we are assessing the effectiveness of our weed and pest management to better understand the progress we are making.
This is important because the establish buffer targets set in the strategy offset some of the effects of climate change and create secure habitat for a range of species. Revegetating priority areas first is the best way to ensure adequate habitat is available to support platypus, fish and macroinvertebrates.
Next we need to ramp up projects to establish vegetation significantly across the region and refocus our efforts on the vegetation priority areas if we want to meet the strategy targets of 8,000 ha of new vegetation established. Melbourne Water is responding to this by reprioritising and increasing the effort and investment for revegetation works. We also need to investigate opportunities to include and recognise the contributions made by all Strategy partners. Vegetation priority areas are available on the Strategy map.
Stormwater... still going down the drain
The Healthy Waterways Strategy set out ambitious, but critical, targets for harvesting and infiltrating stormwater in response to the community desire to halt further degradation to waterways. The Werribee and Maribyrnong catchments are on track to harvest enough stormwater to offset new urban development because significant harvesting projects are planned and committed to. The Yarra and Westernport catchments are slightly off-track because of limited evidence of sufficient commitment to projects. Whilst significant planning is in place in some areas, few projects have yet delivered substantial on-ground outcomes. Infiltration targets are significantly off-track in the Werribee, Westernport and Yarra catchments.
This is important because in some stormwater priority areas, the rate of development is faster than the delivery of on-ground stormwater projects. This means that some impacts from urban development are happening, even in those catchments where significant plans are in place.
Next we need to review our assumptions about the rate of development and our ways of tracking progress as part of the mid-term evaluation. Also, now that headwater streams have been mapped across the region, we need to understand the extent to which they are being protected from development. For more information about why this is important see Management Regional Performance Objective 16. The Melbourne Water MUSIC Guideline are currently being updated to include new asset guidance and details on how to address the stormwater flow targets in the strategy. For more information on this work see Stormwater Regional Performance Objective 14.
Manufacturing water might leave more in the river
The targets for additional environmental water for Maribyrnong, Werribee, Yarra and Westernport catchments remain significantly off-track. Encouragingly, the recently released new Central and Gippsland Region Sustainable Water Strategy (CGRSWS), released by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning in 2022, provides the supporting policy to improve this over time. The CGRSWS aims to improve water efficiency and use of manufactured water with the aim of returning river water to Traditional Owners and the environment. The targets set in the Healthy Waterways Strategy are supported by the CGRSWS which aims to return a total of 31.3GL to rivers across the region by 2032.
Projects such as the Werribee River Reconfiguration Project, a collaboration between Melbourne Water, Greater Western Water, the Department of Environment Land Water and Planning and Southern Rural Water aims to develop integrated water management options that will improve irrigation, water security and return water to the Werribee River for Traditional Owners and the environment.
This is important because water needs are increasingly a concern for both people and the environment. Shortfalls in environmental water reserves identified in 2006 have still not been recovered. In order to support a growing population in the region in a drying climate and retain the natural values of waterways it is critical that we move away from relying on river water. The use of manufactured water such as desalinised and fit-for-purpose recycled water as well as stormwater will be an important part of the solution.
Next we need to continue the momentum of the CGRSWS and commit resources to support key projects and initiatives set out in the CGRSWS implementation plan and Integrated Water Management forums. We also need to ensure that we continue to investigate and act on opportunities to secure additional reserve volumes where possible. In 21/22 315ML of unused irrigation allocations was temporarily traded in the Maribyrnong catchment and released as a series of summer freshes to improve connectivity and water quality. For more information see Water for the Environment.
More also needs to be done to assess how unregulated waterways and their environmental and social values are being impacted by climate change. Melbourne Water undertook an investigation into how a changing climate is impacting Steels and Pauls Creek now and into the future and similar investigations need to be conducted across the region. It is also a relief that flow conditions have been quite good over the last year given good rainfall across the catchments.
Wetland protection remains a focus
The need to retain and protect natural wetlands from urban development is universally understood by the Region-wide Leadership group, Healthy Waterways Strategy Partners and called for by Traditional Owners. After concerted efforts by the Region-wide Leadership group and the natural wetlands sub-group the pathways to improve natural wetland protections is better understood and actively being progressed.
We continue to be on-track across all 5 catchments to achieve wetland buffer targets and control key weed and pest animal threats in wetlands.
This is important because natural wetlands in urban growth areas are still at risk. In previous years, a total of 4 Healthy Waterways Strategy priority wetlands were lost to urban development. Analysis of 21/22 data suggests no further wetland loss has occurred, but 14 wetlands remain at risk from urban development. Some positive changes in development areas to precinct structure plans and developer services schemes has led to 3 wetlands in the Melton East Precinct Structure Plan (PSP) previously identified as at risk now being assessed to have reduced threat from urbanisation. A further 3 wetlands have this year been assessed as having reducing risk rating for other reasons. However, 5 wetlands are now assessed as at risk due to urban development and another, Cardinia Creek Retarding Basin, a Melbourne Water site of biodiversity significance, is under threat from multiple large infrastructure projects.
Next we need to continue to amplify efforts to ensure sufficient protections are in place for natural wetlands including strengthening urban planning and policy processes and natural wetland information in our region Noteworthy progress has been made this year in a research collaboration between Melbourne Water, Melbourne and Deakin Universities that is developing wetland habitat suitability models that will improve our understanding of how best to support habitat for frogs and wetland birds. Protection of seasonal herbaceous wetlands features as an action in the Regional Catchment Strategy's Natural Resource Management Strategy Action Plan (in development) and considerable progress has been made developing a natural wetland protection framework and tool.
Fish have a few hurdles to jump!
Ensuring connected habitat is available for fish to move freely up and downstream is critical to support this key environmental value. This is achieved by identifying and removing in-stream barriers such as weirs and culverts. Sometimes this involves small projects to improve passage through a pipe, but other barriers may require the construction of large fishways.
This year the Dandenong and Maribyrnong catchments are on track to improve fish passage because a fish barrier at Pillars Crossing in the Dandenong catchment was addressed last year and fishways at Arundel Weir and McNabs Weir in the Maribyrnong have been completed in previous years. Monitoring indicates fish are moving upstream successfully through all fishways. The Werribee and Yarra catchments have multiple barriers to address and both catchments are slightly off-track due to uncertainties associated with several challenging projects that depend on other processes to progress. The Westernport catchment is significantly off-track due to the progress of a critical large fishway on the Lang Lang River being delayed indefinitely. Building a fishway at the Heads Road Weir would open up more than 204km of riverine habitat for a predicted six species of native fish including Australian Grayling, listed as vulnerable in under the Environment Protection and Biodiverstiy Conservation Act 1999. Few of the other 32 priority fishways identified in the Healthy Waterways Strategy open up more river length, and support more fish species in our region.
This is important because the movement and migration of fish past barriers is critically important for the long-term survival of fish species along our waterways and is even more important coupled with pressures from climate change. The science of the Healthy Waterways Strategy tells us that investment in building and maintaining fishways is a very cost-effective management intervention that has immediate effect.
Next we need to prioritise investment in fishways and ensure that priority fish barriers identified in the Healthy Waterways Strategy are addressed. The Healthy Waterways Strategy mid-term Implementation Enquiry will look at developing options to determine how best to move forward.
Using bug trends in the mid-term evaluation
We track waterway condition using macroinvertebrates because they are a good overall indicator of waterway health, as they underpin many of the other waterway values (eg fish and platypus).Analysis of our long term macroinvertebrate data set as part of the Healthy Waterways Strategy mid-term evaluation is showing persistent declines in macroinvertebrates in the west, Westernport and the main stem of the Yarra River. While it has been difficult to identify the exact cause, altered flow regimes from urbanisation, water supply and agriculture and climate change are likely factors.
This is important because as we enter the midway mark of the Healthy Waterways Strategy we want to know - are we on the target trajectory or are still on the business-as-usual trajectory? Knowing this will focus our attention on areas that require extra effort to overcome threats.
Next we need to better understand the reasons for declines in particular areas and based on this prioritise interventions to address these observed declines in waterway condition.
Working smarter not harder for platypus in the Dandenong Ranges
A research project aims to provide crucial water to support platypus habitat through the use of smart rainwater tanks and urban lakes. The project, led by the Melbourne University Waterways and Ecosystem Research Group (WERG), is a collaboration with Melbourne Water (MW), Yarra Ranges Council (YRC)the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning and South East Water (SEW).
Using new real-time control technology developed by South East Water, a network of smart rainwater tanks will be created and deployed around the Monbulk Creek catchment, in collaboration with Yarra Ranges council, householders and local businesses. Each of the rainwater tanks is able to ‘talk’ to the others, coordinating their releases to provide the maximum benefit for the platypus population, while also ensuring each tank has enough water to meet the needs of households and reducing the risk of local flooding. The network will utilise Belgrave Lake and the Monbulk Creek Retarding Basin at Birdsland Reserve as storages to provide a greater ability to hold and regulate the flows.
This is important because the loss of summer and autumn baseflow and the degradation of stream habitat associated with urban stormwater has major consequences for platypus distribution and reproductive success, decreasing their habitat and their primary food source right at the time when the female platypus need abundant nourishment to prepare them for breeding. The creation of a smart network that is able to improve habitat, provide water to households and involve the community as participants in waterway management will demonstrate that distributed stormwater systems can be utilised as integrated water management options.
Next we need to progress work to retrofit of the existing storages, install real time technology and engage with the local community regarding to progress the installation of smart tanks.
A new chair takes a seat at the Region-wide Leadership Group
The Healthy Waterways Strategy Region-wide Leadership Group (RLG) appointed a new independent chair, Cheryl Batagol in May 2022. Rob Vertessey, the inaugural chair of the RLG followed the strategy from its development and led the Catchment Forums held in November 2021. After feedback from the catchment forum attendees, The RLG identified Litter and Pollution and Stormwater as the focus areas for this year and organised a series of Litter Labs (starting in July 2022) with key agencies to consider actions to improve alignment between agencies and data collection to aid litter reduction. A review of the effectiveness of the RLG in supporting and driving the strategy was conducted. The recommendations are being progressively implemented over the next two years and will be integrated into the Healthy Waterways Strategy mid-term review.
This is important because because the RLG guides the co-delivery of the strategy and good coordination, leadership and efforts by key partners supports the consistent progress of strategy implementation. A new video on the Healthy Waterways Strategy has been released that helps to illustrate the need for coordinated co-delivery across multiple agencies and the community.
The mid-term review assesses whether the key values are on track to meet long-term targets and whether adequate progress is being made to implement the strategy. The mid-term review is guided by an independent evaluation panel.
Next we need to complete the Healthy Waterways Strategy mid-term review by mid 2023 and provide the key finding to the RLG for discussion and deliberation. The RLG will respond to the mid-term review in the form of a response report.