Repairing the riparian
Published 28 November 2023 28 November 2023
The Upper Barwon region of Victoria, including Dewing Creek and Barwon River, has a series of restoration projects underway. These works focus on the interface between the river and the land, which is called the Riparian Zone. This zone is important to the health of the waterway as it provides shade, organic material, and habitat for aquatic species.
The Barwon Flagship is a long-term project focusing on increasing the health of this area. Restoration projects include treating willow & glyceria infestations which block flow, fencing to exclude stock access to the river, revegetation and increasing landholder engagement with the river.
The Flagship project builds on past investment in the area. A large restoration project on Dewing Creek funded in 2018, improved the riparian zone and water quality in the creek. Historically, the land was grazed to the edge and the riparian zone was in poor condition. This was significant as Dewing Creek forms a key part of Geelong’s water supply catchment, which stock access was threatening.
Management of riparian zones along waterways is an effective way to reduce the risks to water quality from pathogens and nutrients. The benefits of removing stock access at this site were clear with the project also linking to a past riparian restoration project upstream to the Otway National Park.
Barwon Water and Upper Barwon Landcare Network (UBLN) submitted an expression of interest for funding with the Corangamite Catchment Management Authority’s (CMA) Waterway Restoration program. Through this process Corangamite CMA staff created a management plan, costings and an overview of the works to be funded and conducted at the site.
The Corangamite CMA cost-benefit analysis ranked the project very highly as the site has remnant vegetation, threatened species, wide buffer widths of greater than 30 meters on average and over 9,000 meters of creek frontage to protect. Not to mention, the social and economic benefit that would come from improved drinking water for Geelong.
UBLN managed the on-ground works on behalf of Barwon Water. The project was finished 2 years after the expression of interest in 2020. It achieved larger gains than initially planned for, as Barwon Water provided larger buffer widths in sections of the project than the minimum required by the Corangamite CMA.
"Overall, 57 hectares of drinking water catchment were protected, 32,000 plants were grown at the GenU nursery in Geelong and planted on site, 9km of frontage was protected, 8 off-stream waterpoints installed, 18 hectares of remnant bush protected and close to 10km of fencing installed. This was a very large project that will have multiple benefits for the community and environment for decades to come,” says Angus Donaldson, Corangamite CMA Project Officer
“Since the project has finished, eDNA technology has detected platypus on the project site, which is the first time in decades they have been recorded in this section of the Barwon River.”
“This outcome was made possible by successive funding rounds and the key partners, Corangamite CMA, Upper Barwon Landcare Network, Barwon Water and GenU, the not-for-profit organisation’s nursery.”
When this project finished there were 2 small landholdings still unfenced. These sites have now been funded as part of the Barwon Flagship, and works are being undertaken to revegetate the whole of Dewing Creek streamside with native vegetation to support the health of this valued waterway.
Over time, the Flagship works will be extended downstream to create continuous buffers, with the aim of protecting the whole riparian zone to the confluence of the Barwon River and providing habitat to the threatened platypus.
