New discussion paper highlights hidden pressures on water-stressed rivers
November 2025
Across Victoria, many of our rivers are struggling to sustain themselves under the combined weight of climate change, extraction, and growing demand. Yet there is another pressure which is less visible to most of us, but increasingly significant in quietly altering the fate of our waterways, it is the steady increase in private dams capturing water before it ever reaches creeks and rivers.
This week, People for a Living Moorabool (PALM) in partnership with the CWA released an important discussion paper, Regulation of Private Dams, authored by Bryce Morden. The paper shines light on the current system where thousands of small private dams, many unlicensed, little-monitored, and often outside the regulatory system, are intercepting flows in already stressed catchments. While these dams may appear modest one-by-one, their cumulative impact is anything but.
Communities and groups across the state are working hard to restore river health from advocating for environmental flows to restoring riparian land and supporting community-science programs. But without a clear picture of how much water is being intercepted upstream, these efforts are fighting with one hand tied behind their back.
In places like the Moorabool and Maribyrnong rivers, already recognised as Victoria’s most flow-stressed rivers, this unaccounted-for water take means diminished summer flows, reduced baseflows, and fewer opportunities for ecosystems to recover. It also raises questions of fairness for downstream landholders, environmental flows, Traditional Owners, and the communities who depend on healthy rivers.
Rather than simply raising a problem, the paper traces how gaps in legislation and administrative practice have allowed this situation to persist. It highlights:
- complicated rules around what counts as a “waterway”
- licensing exemptions that leave large volumes unregulated
- limited auditing of historic and new dams
- lack of clarity around cumulative impact
It also points the way forward, suggesting practical improvements from clearer definitions and better enforcement tools, to improved transparency and catchment-wide assessment.
As a statewide alliance focused on protecting waterways, the CWA welcomes this contribution. PALM’s work in the Moorabool and MRWA's in the Maribyrnong catchment demonstrates how community groups, equipped with data and lived experience, can surface policy gaps that affect rivers right across Victoria.
Whether you live along the Moorabool, the Barwon, the Yarra, the Latrobe, or a small rural or urban creek whose flow dwindles a little sooner each summer, this is an issue with statewide relevance. If we care about environmental flows, biodiversity, and the long-term resilience of our rivers, we must ensure the rules governing water take are fit for purpose and grounded in real-world hydrology.