Our Legacy
25 Year highlights
- Empowered Traditional Owners to assist in managing of water for the environment at Ranch Billabong at Dimboola to improve community and environmental health.
- Improved environmental, social and economic values of the Wimmera River catchment since the millennium drought through water for the environment, waterway health works and improved recreational access.
- Supported strong and active Landcare, agricultural and citizen science community organisations to deliver grass roots actions to achieve Regional Catchment Strategy outcomes.
Farmers are continually trialling new practices in the Wimmera.
“Over the last 25 years uptake of new tools, technologies and practices has enabled our region’s farmers to tackle extremely complex challenges and adapt to significant changes in climate, weather and markets.”
Peter Hilbig, Wimmera CMA Chair
Wimmera farmers and communities have a proven ability to adapt and manage a wide range of risks including climate variability, soil constraints and drought. Since its establishment Wimmera CMA has focused on supporting these efforts through strategic partnerships that improve access to science and ag tech tools promoting soil health.
A quarter of a century of partnerships has contributed to:
- Farmers accessing more opportunities to educate themselves.
- A stronger science base.
- Farmers with more confidence and capacity to adopt and adapt to advanced technologies.
Across the decades, some of the many highlights include:
- Establishment of Vic No-Till in 2002 by local farmers who shared an interest in soil health.
- Social Drivers of NRM in the Wimmera landholder survey in 2002, which has become the longest running social benchmarking survey of its kind in Australia.
- First Wimmera Cropland Management Transect survey to track trends in land cover and management practices in 2006. Today it is Australia’s longest running land use and land management field survey held twice annually across over 1,000 paddocks.
Looking to the future, data sharing is an area of increasing focus along with farm sensor connectivity and emerging technologies such as robotics, machine learning and drones to support ongoing efforts to build capacity to adapt and manage risk.
Output
1.0 Structural works
1.1 Waterway structure (No.)
- Target = 3
- Actual: State = 3, Federal = 0, Other = 0, Total = 3
1.2 Monitoring structure (No.)
- Target = 0
- Actual: State = 2, Federal = 0, Other = 0, Total = 2
1.3 Fence (Km)
- Target = 19
- Actual: State = 20, Federal = 7, Other = 0, Total = 27
1.4 Visitor Facility (No.)
- Target = 2
- Actual: State = 0, Federal = 0, Other = 0, Total = 0
1.5 Crossing (No.)
- Target = 1
- Actual: State = 0, Federal = 0, Other = 0, Total = 0
2.0 Environmental works
2.1 Vegetation (Ha)
- Target = 20
- Actual: State = 20, Federal = 0, Other = 0, Total = 20
2.2 Weed control (Ha)
- Target = 1621
- Actual: State = 3173, Federal = 201, Other = 0, Total = 3,373
2.3 Pest animal control (Ha)
- Target = 43521
- Actual: State = 2954, Federal = 42261, Other = 0, Total = 45,214
3.0 Management services
3.1 Grazing (Ha)
- Target = 131
- Actual: State = 131, Federal = 200, Other = 0, Total = 330
3.2 Agricultural practice change (Ha)
- Target = 0
- Actual: State = 20, Federal = 0, Other = 0, Total = 20
3.3 Water (No.)
- Target = 13
- Actual: State = 20, Federal = 0, Other = 0, Total = 20
4.0 Planning and regulation
4.1 Approval and advice (No.)
- Target = 268
- Actual: State = 370, Federal = 1, Other = 0, Total = 371
4.2 Management agreement (No.)
- Target = 98
- Actual: State = 17, Federal = 81, Other = 0, Total = 98
4.3 Assessment (No.)
- Target = 3
- Actual: State = 39, Federal = 1724, Other = 0, Total = 1,763
4.4 Engagement event (No. of participants)
- Target = 701
- Actual: State = 3054, Federal = 3869, Other = 0, Total = 6,923
4.5 Partnership (No.)
- Target = 20
- Actual: State = 20, Federal = 0, Other = 2, Total = 22
4.6 Plan (No.)
- Target = 3
- Actual: State = 33, Federal = 4, Other = 0, Total = 37
4.7 Publication (No.)
- Target = 23
- Actual: State = 13, Federal = 13, Other = 0, Total = 26
4.8 Information management system (No.)
- Target = 1
- Actual: State = 0, Federal = 0, Other = 0, Total = 0
2021 – 22 Achievements
- Discovered three new juvenile platypuses and one sub-adult in a stretch of the MacKenzie River, in the Gariwerd (Grampians) National Park.
- Coordinated a range of professional development opportunities to support Aboriginal staff as future leaders in catchment management.
- Supported farmers to install a Wimmera wide network of soil moisture probes and weather stations, at 72 sites, under the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.
Our Future Vision
A healthy Wimmera catchment where a resilient landscape supports a sustainable and profitable community.
Future aspirations
- First Nations communities have developed stronger connections between the RCS and their own strategies and plans and have implemented relevant actions.
- Integrated catchment management has contributed to health, wellbeing and economic development (liveability) of the Wimmera region.
- New and emerging leaders in integrated catchment management are supported.
