Upper Goulburn Implementation Committee (UGIC)
The Upper Goulburn Implementation Committee of eight community based members was formed to develop and implement an integrated natural resource management program in the 10,500 sq km upper Goulburn catchment.
It also has a strong commitment to engagement of communities, who will have major input into the environmental future of their region.
The upper Goulburn catchment generates around 8% of the water resources in the Murray Darling Basin from an area less than 2% of its catchment. Lake Eildon , with a 3.4GL capacity, is the major water storage that captures and distributes high quality water for agricultural, industrial and urban use through the highly productive irrigation areas of the Goulburn and Murray Valleys.
Approximately 60% of the catchment area remains in public ownership, managed as hardwood forests. Rainfall distribution, vegetation and topography vary greatly from the ski fields at Mount Buller in the Victorian Alps to the foothills and flood plains of the Goulburn River near Nagambie.
Its natural attractions and intrinsic beauty attract tourists and recreational users from many centres including heavily populated Melbourne , less than three hours drive away. Boutique industries, viticulture, orchards, recreation and environmental tourism increasingly support the more traditional land uses of beef and sheep grazing and dryland crops.
The defining features of the upper Goulburn catchment include the colours of the bush, infinite space, landscape diversity and indigenous heritage. The catchment is home to the Taungurung people, part of the aboriginal Kulin Nations, whose heritage is evident throughout the region.
The regions environmental diversity and geographic values offer a high level of satisfaction to visitors and are the prompt that encourage so many new arrivals to settle in the catchment. The ecosystem that exists in the region engenders a feeling of groundedness and spiritual fulfillment; a connectedness to the land.
The diversity of natural resources and the impact of European settlement on the delicate Australian landscape presents the Upper Goulburn Implementation Committee Members with considerable challenges.
Major natural resource management issues in the upper catchment include water quality, waterway health, dryland salinity, weed and pest animal management, protection of native vegetation and biodiversity.
The committee facilitates and provides community input to the development of regional strategies (eg water quality, dryland salinity, waterway, floodplain and native vegetation) to address priority issues outlined in the Goulburn Broken Regional Catchment Strategy. All Strategies form the basis for developing works programs to address these issues. In 1999 the Committee launched an Upper Goulburn Recreational Waterway Strategy for the protection of environmental values from damaging recreational pursuits. The Strategy draws on support from partner Agencies like Parks Victoria, Shires within the upper Goulburn catchment, VicRoads, the Department of Primary Industry and Department of Sustainability & Environment.
The Committee meets regularly with key natural resource managers within the Authority and Agency partners to develop and set the programs, then monitor and evaluate progress in achieving the desired outcomes.
Over time, these programs have been implemented in various ways. Local contractors overseen by the Authority's experienced staff generally implement the Waterways Program. Much of the riparian revegetation work is undertaken by adopting a 'partnership' approach with individual landholders and Landcare Groups. A new merit based multiple benefit grants scheme is operating to encourage landowners to implement stock management and enhance riparian vegetation in priority areas.
The salinity, soils and vegetation programs continue to be implemented by individual landholders with guidance from skilled and experienced DPI extension officers. Many of these programs are implemented under a 'partnership' approach with much of the labour provided by the landowner.
Staff from Goulburn-Murray Water and Goulburn Valley Water are responsible to the Committee to ensure natural resource programs closely related to their core business and are implemented in an efficient and effective manner. These include ground water and surface water quality monitoring as well as improved sewage treatment and disposal.
The 30 Landcare Groups and four Shires (Mitchell, Mansfield, Strathbogie and Murrindindi) operating in the upper Goulburn catchment play a very important role implementing various programs, controlling inappropriate development and raising community awareness of natural resource issues.
The UGIC acknowledges this very strong contribution and has appointed a community program manager to work closely with and support those bodies to ensure the various programs are integrated to maximise the outputs but more importantly, the outcomes from the available funds. A community liaison officer is also engaged to promote natural resource management issues and educate communities to recognise opportunities for improving economic, social and environmental values in the dryland.
As well as the Recreational Waterway Strategy the committee has also developed an Urban Waterway Strategy for the upper catchment area.
For more information contact:
Carl Walters
Acting Executive Officer
Upper Goulburn Implementation Committee
Ph. (03) 5736 0100
Fax (03) 5797 3199
Email carlw@gbcma.vic.gov.au
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 | The Art Collection A touring collection held in trust for the Upper Goulburn Community by the The Upper Goulburn Implementation Committee. |