The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action is developing a new Victorian Waterway Management Strategy. The Strategy will guide how we manage Victorian waterways into the future. The existing Victorian Waterway Management Strategy was released in 2013, providing a detailed policy framework for managing the health of Victoria's rivers, wetlands, estuaries and floodplains over but it has reached the end of its lifespan. Living waterways underpin environmental, economic, cultural and social values, but our growing industries and population have altered their natural state and natural flows are greatly altered by dams and weirs and development on the floodplains. Victoria's waterway management program enables waterway managers to proactively manage for environmental outcomes that provide multiple benefits. They use a range of targeted management tools including environmental water, riparian works, and pest programs alongside partnership and knowledge building and sharing.
A new strategy is needed to ensure we have strong policies in place for managing Victoria’s waterways, particularly in the face of our changing population and climate conditions. A key focus of the new strategy will be identifying pathways to increase Traditional Owner self-determination and decision-making in waterway management. Public consultation on a Discussion Starter occurred in 2023, and a draft strategy is expected to be released for public consultation late in 2024. This presentation will discuss challenges, opportunities and proposed directions in waterway policy to achieve environmental outcomes at a range of scales - from the local and regional, statewide and jointly across the Murray Darling Basin.