Water, Land and People - Goulburn Broken Catchment ...

PROGRAM REPORTS
38
University fine art students, who visited
Shepparton and depicted the Goulburn River
through various art mediums. The work was
presented during Water Week;
• Rehabilitation at Jordan’s Bend, Shepparton,
started after bushfires in December;
• An audit of the secondary school curriculum
in Shepparton and Mooroopna explored how
schools use the Goulburn River as a resource
and how it can be better utilised in the future;
• Students worked at Jordan’s Bend and Reedy
Swamp as part of the Victorian Certificate of
Applied Learning;
• An Indigenous Oral History Project began; and
• Drought Employment Program crews carried
out works in the RiverConnect area including
woody weed removal, spraying, building bird
hides and collecting rubbish.
Monitoring
Snapshot monitoring and detailed river assessments
were undertaken and include:
• Monitoring native fish movement in the lower
Broken Creek and following construction of
fishways on the Broken River;
• Monitoring flora, fauna and water quality and
channel morphology following flow regime
changes in the Broken and Boosey Creeks;
• Monitoring Victoria’s ‘Index of Stream
Condition’.
Water Quality in Rivers and Streams
Elevated nutrients have been identified as a high
priority issue for water quality in the Goulburn
Broken Catchment because they stimulate excessive
algal growth.
Phosphorus loads are an important indicator of
water quality in rivers and streams. This is because
phosphorous loads are a limiting factor in the
development of toxic blue-green algal blooms and
flow-dependant blooms of the aquatic plant azolla.
Azolla blooms have been linked to fish deaths in the
Broken Creek.
Estimated total phosphorus loads discharged from
irrigation drains are still below the long-term target.
This correlates with substantially lower volumes of
drain flows. Statistical and trend analysis of irrigation
drainage water quality and quantity, which has been
undertaken every two years, shows significant decline
in flows and nutrient loads leaving drains.
A Water Quality plan is being developed in
consultation with other CMAs and the DSE. The plan
will align with the Regional River Health Strategy.
Excavation work for the stormwater treatment
wetland at Gordon Drive (Kialla Lakes) has started.
Stages one and two are being delivered in partnership
with the Greater Shepparton City Council.