Victorian Environmental Water Holder: Reflections 2019-20

Reflections is the Victorian Environmental Water Holder’s (VEWH) annual publication which reflects on the past watering year and celebrates the efforts and achievements of program partners, Traditional Owners and local communities who work tirelessly to protect our waterways.

It includes short stories from across Victoria that showcase how water for the environment has protected the health of rivers and wetlands, provided vital habitat for plants and animals and benefited our communities by improving waterways for recreation and wellbeing.

Highlights in 2019-20 include Taungurung women dancing to welcome the first delivery of water for the environment to the sacred Horseshoe Lagoon outside Seymour, the use of new technology to tag and track native fish in the Tarago River, a new user-friendly interactive data catchment map for the Corangamite river catchments, motion cameras installed at Wimmera wetlands sites to capture images of the native animals and birds spending time there, and celebrations to mark the first delivery of water for the environment to Heyfield Wetlands in late 2019, which was a great step towards their goal of restoring it to a functioning wetland.

The impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) created new challenges and saw waterway managers and communities implement creative solutions to maintain connections while working remotely.

Reflections 2019-20 recognises these solutions, such as in western Victoria where Traditional Owners utilised technology in innovative ways to come together and share knowledge. Instead of physically travelling out on-Country they undertook ‘virtual visits’, visiting important places on the Glenelg River to take photos and footage, then uploading them to an online Virtual Tour platform.

This year, VEWH have produced Reflections as a digital flipbook that they hope everyone will enjoy and find easy to use.

VEWH is a VicWater Associate Member