Extract from the November 2022 issue of The Forrest Post

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About 75 people gathered at the Forrest Hall in late October for a deep dive into the many factors impacting the health of our Upper Barwon River, and a lively discussion about what needed to be done to restore it. Forrest Gerangamete Landcare Group hosted the event in collaboration with Barwon Water, Corangamite Catchment Authority (CCMA) and the Upper Barwon Landcare Network.

Starting with a Welcome to Country from Gulidjan Elder Ebony Hickey, science and engineering experts from Barwon Water, CCMA and Alluvium Consulting presented detailed information on the complexities of managing the river to supply water to Geelong while at the same time maintaining sufficient flow to keep the river ecosystem healthy.

Barwon Water chief scientist Will Buchanan said even though storage levels were healthy today, Geelong’s population was growing rapidly at the same time as the climate was becoming hotter and drier. In response, Barwon Water was planning to take pressure off the region’s rivers by transitioning to ‘manufactured’ (recycled or desalinated) water and facilitating smarter water use.

Difficult questions include how best to bring ‘manufactured’ water into the downstream supply (for non-drinking purposes in the case of recycled water) to take pressure off rivers. Another is how to increase use of the West Barwon reservoir’s guaranteed ‘environmental entitlement’ of 1 gigalitre (1000 megalitres) per

year to 5 gigalitres over the next decade, when the river constrictions and health make it challenging for the river to handle even the current entitlement. A key discussion point was the flow study finding that the river needs 29 gigalitres annually to support healthy ecosystems along its length.

Jayden Woolley from CCMA reported on the Barwon Flagship Waterway project, a 30-year, large-scale project to rehabilitate the river. This project is prioritising the Upper Barwon due to the significant impact of willows and reed sweet grass (Glyceria maxima) in the area. It aims to work with landholders, key agencies and the community to trial strategies that can be applied to ‘choke points’, where willows and glyceria are constricting precious water flow. A common objection from landowners to becoming involved is the fear of losing too much river frontage and the unknown cost. Masters student James Malcher presented his program that can address this by modelling the trade-off between productivity and better water quality, erosion prevention and carbon capture for each farmer.

PhD student Mariah Sampson also presented her study that is evaluating environmental benefits of restored riverbanks in several places in the Upper Barwon over time. These projects, along with scientists’ constant collection of data on water quality, flora and fauna, are helping inform water authorities’ decisions—though we heard that perfect solutions may not exist to some of today’s problems!

Just as we in the audience were reaching information saturation point, the format shifted to a question and answer panel. Audience members through their questions to Eastern Maar representative Brodey Hamilton, Land and Water Resources Otway Catchment representative Neil Longmore, Friends of the Barwon representative Lach Gordon and Environmental Justice Australia representative Juliet LeFeuvre then sharpened the focus on more fundamental concerns.

The question was raised whether the river should continue to be considered as a resource, or whether it needed to be respected as a living entity in itself. The panellists were more or less aligned in the view that the river needed to ‘be allowed to be a river’, whether this perspective sprang from a spiritual need to care for Country, or a justice approach in which the needs of urban users and rural catchments should have more equal weight. Panellists acknowledged Barwon Water’s significant strategic work in this direction, guided by meaningful public consultation and partnership with Traditional Owners.

The fitness-for-purpose of the very legislation governing water management was thrown into question during the discussion. With a State election in a few weeks, Juliet LeFeuvre said she hoped that whoever won the election ‘just gets on with’ the urgent work of protecting river health.

After a break and barbecue lunch, we boarded a bus to the channel diversion point on the East Barwon River, to see for ourselves how Barwon Water physically manages the river flow to divert water to Geelong from the combination of natural flows and flows it diverts into the East Barwon from the West Barwon Reservoir. We also saw how an infestation of willows just downstream quickly turned the remnant passing flow into a braided expanse of channels, swamps and billabongs. Looking upstream we could see the dramatic 3.5km section of the river where Barwon Water had removed willows last summer and nearly 40,000 plants had been planted to revegetate the riverbanks.

Deidre Murphy from CCMA took this opportunity to explain citizen science projects that collected vital data on river waterbugs, and called for volunteers to help survey rivers to establish baseline information. She invited us all to join in these surveys, which will be at Barwon St, Birregurra, on Wednesday 16 November at 9:30 am; and at the Lake Elizabeth campsite on Thursday 17 November, also at 9:30 am.