Planning Water Management for Dry Times
LOCATION
Wimmera catchment
TRADITIONAL OWNERS
Barengi Gadjin Land Council
ACHIEVEMENTS
- Produced 2 publications.
- Developed 1 Project plan.
- Involved 10 partnerships.
- Held 3 engagement events.
INVESTMENT
Victorian Government (multiple projects) $740,000 year 1, Wimmera Southern Mallee Development
(Agriculture Victoria) – Wimmera Green Spaces – $80,000, year 1 of 1
PARTNERS
DEECA, GWM Water, Victorian and Commonwealth Environmental Water
Holders, Parks Victoria, Wimmera Southern Mallee Development, Arthur Rylah Institute, Wimmera municipal councils
Wimmera CMA is planning to tap into a vast regional piping network to protect environmental waterway assets.
Wimmera CMA is working with GWM Water to develop projects connecting stock and domestic pipeline supply to drought refuge pools. The move combines innovation, adaptation, science, community and Traditional Owner knowledge to protect environmental and socio-economic assets with limited water.
Environmental water allocations, although limited by diminished inflows, have been primary tools in achieving Wimmera waterway health and resilience objectives through drought conditions.
Wimmera CMA identified that pipelines, free of water-loss issues, could provide an efficient alternative to waterway flows as a source of water supply – until regular flows returned after drought.
Wimmera drought-refuge pools can maintain ecological values and increase wildlife resilience until rain returns. But the longer dry conditions continue, the harder it becomes to supply and maintain them with waterway flows.
Projects developed in the past 12 months include preparation and planning of pipeline watering points in lower and upper reaches of key Wimmera waterways.
Construction of connections to lower Wimmera River refuges, co-funded by VEWH, and upper Mt Cole Creek, with DEECA funding, is underway. Wimmera CMA has also launched a feasibility study for MacKenzie River-Burnt Creek connections as a Water Cycle Adaption Plan priority project.
Wimmera CMA has completed preliminary assessments for an upper Wimmera River project based on plans for a new pipeline. Tracking alongside these efforts has been targeted monitoring and fish-salvage or pest-removal and adaptive outcome-driven water-management programs.
Wimmera CMA provided leadership in Wimmera Integrated Water Management that has led to new water sources becoming available in the region. An example is an integrated approach in Horsham to use recycled water for the benefit of agricultural research, community green-space reserves and emerging industry.
Wimmera CMA has also helped five municipal councils create a community ‘priority green spaces’ audit for when drought starts to impact urban supply. This work has provided a foundation and guiding document to allow appropriate community decisions on how best to manage and use future restricted water allocations
Fish Translocation in February 2025 in the Lower MacKenzie River.
