The Concerned Waterways Alliance has made a submission to Melbourne Water’s review of the environmental flow recommendations for Birrarung (the Yarra River). https://letstalk.melbournewater.com.au/birrarung-flows-study-review
The review will update the 2018 recommendations using current scientific evidence, climate-change projections, Traditional Owner knowledge and community observations. The resulting recommendations are intended to guide future management of environmental water and inform broader water strategies and plans.
CWA’s submission argues that the credibility of the review will ultimately depend not only on identifying the flows Birrarung needs, but on securing enough water to deliver them.
The Central and Gippsland Region Sustainable Water Strategy identified an environmental water deficit of 34 gigalitres a year for Birrarung and committed to returning up to an additional 11 gigalitres by 2032. However, that additional water has not yet been secured. CWA is therefore calling for every revised flow recommendation to clearly distinguish between what can be delivered through the existing Yarra Environmental Entitlement and what depends on the outstanding 11-gigalitre recovery commitment.
The submission also calls for the review to:
- assess flow requirements against a dry, high-impact climate scenario rather than relying principally on historical averages;
- establish clear ecological priorities for increasingly water-scarce years;
- investigate the effects of tributary diversions and inadequate passing flows before water reaches the main river;
- improve public flow gauging and reporting, including around the Watts River, upper Birrarung and Yering Gorge;
- embed Traditional Owner knowledge and self-determined cultural flow objectives; and
- treat Birrarung as the “one living and integrated entity” recognised in Victorian law.
This living-entity approach requires more than assessing isolated reaches of the river. It requires consideration of the connections between the main river, tributaries, groundwater, wetlands and riparian land, and of the cumulative effects of interrupted or inadequate flows along the entire river system. For a river to remain alive and healthy, it must receive sufficient water at the right times, in the right places and across seasons.
CWA has also raised concerns about the consultation survey, which invited community comment on river values and uses without clearly explaining the scale of the environmental water deficit or the implications of declining future inflows. The submission recommends that these issues be placed prominently before the community when Melbourne Water consults on its draft recommendations.
As natural inflows decline, every gigalitre returned to Birrarung and every improvement made to passing-flow and diversion arrangements will become increasingly important. The review must therefore connect its ecological recommendations to a transparent and achievable pathway for delivering the water the river needs.