The community is keen to stay involved in the ongoing management of Hollands Creek, a social survey conducted by Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority (CMA) found.
The community is keen to stay involved in the ongoing management of Hollands Creek, a social survey conducted by Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority (CMA) found.
The survey gauged changes in community attitudes over the four-year life of the Hollands Creek Demonstration Reach Project. The project, funded by the Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA), focused on protecting and expanding suitable habitat for Macquarie Perch populations along a reach upstream from Tatong to Spring Creek Rd. As well as detailed fish monitoring and rehabilitation and protection works along the reach, a number of field days to increase community awareness and participation in the project were held and a Community Reference Group was established.
Goulburn Broken CMA Strategic River Health Manager Wayne Tennant said now the MDBA funding for the project had ended it was important to make some recommendations for the community as a “way forward”.
“About 30 community members completed the survey and 13 key stakeholders were also interviewed, including agency staff, landowners who received incentives for fencing or revegetation work, other landowners and recreational users of the creek,” Mr Tennant said.
The survey found the creek was used for a range of purposes: survey respondents regarded it as important or very important as a visually appealing part of the landscape (100%), for relaxing (93%), as habitat for native plants and animals (90%), for trout fishing (70%), camping (67%), a stock or domestic water supply (65%), for swimming (60%), as a place of family history and memories (50%), and for fishing native species (45%).
Views about the creek’s condition and actions to address threats were extremely varied, largely reflecting the different ways in which people related to the creek.
“For example, landowners running a farm adjacent to the creek and members of the public who use the creek solely for recreation usually had different expectations of its management,” Mr Tennant said.
Forty-three per cent of survey respondents rated the creek as being in better condition now than in 2007 and 30 per cent rated it as worse.
“What came through very strongly, however, was the creek is important, if not central, to many people’s lives and many ideas were put forward for improving the overall management of the creek, resulting in a number of recommendations.”
Key recommendations from the survey were:
- Providing a greater variety of opportunities for people living in the Tatong community, downstream and beyond to contribute. This might include working bees, field days and fishing-cum-picnic days.
- Exploring how the community can have a greater role in managing the creek, with government agencies providing support.
- Developing strong and unifying themes that help communicate what the community wants the creek to look like and progress towards achieving it.
- Strengthening understanding of what individuals and government agencies are responsible for.
- Continuation of creek condition monitoring.
“It’s clear from the survey that there is recognition that a self-driven community of interest would have the greatest chance for sustainable success in managing the creek, rather than one driven by outside agencies, although agencies would still play a critical support role,” Mr Tennant said.
“While funding from the MDBA has finished other State Government incentives are available to support the community in delivery of river and wetland projects along the creek.
“Attracting additional government funding for Hollands Creek is also more likely if the community can show that it is cohesive and has a common sense of purpose and the signs are that this is very much the case. “
Mr Tennant thanked the Tatong community for their input.
“The Goulburn Broken CMA and out project partners greatly appreciate their time and insights over the past four years,” he said.
The full survey report and an executive summary will be available on the Goulburn Broken CMA’s website www.gbcma.vic.gov.au shortly.