(‘WTOAC_Water Release Community Day_10Feb2024’): Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation Community Day. Pictured: Claire Mennen, Wadawurrung woman and Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation Water Project Officer and Jayden Wooley, Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation Water Project Officer at the Community Day on 10 February 2024.
Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation (WTOAC) has received a temporary transfer of water, enabling WTOAC to trial delivery of water to the Moorabool Yaluk (river) and the Durdidwarrah wetland, through the support of Barwon Water, Central Highlands Water, and the Victorian Government.
The Moorabool Yaluk is considered one of the most heavily extracted and flow-stressed rivers in Victoria. Although environmental water is delivered by the Victorian Environmental Water Holder and Corangamite Catchment Management Authority (Corangamite CMA), it is only a fraction of what the Moorabool Yaluk needs to maintain Cultural values and waterway health.
Wadawurrung people once used canoes, and in calmer waters, bark floats or punts pushed by long poles to gather from the abundance of food. On the natural rises along the waterways, Wadawurrung people camped and caught buniya (eels), other kuwiyn (fish) and waterbirds to eat.
Paleert Tjaara Dja – Let’s make country good together 2020-2030 – Wadawurrung Country Plan, has a goal that by 2030, there is enough water in the waterways of the Barree Warree Yulluk that it flows through the system, without barriers and is clean enough to drink.
The equivalent of 80 Olympic-sized swimming pools (200 megalitres) has been made available from Lal Lal Reservoir, half provided by both Barwon Water and Central Highlands Water. This water was released over seven days (between February 8 – 14, 2024) to simulate what would happen after rainfall on a river without the large reservoir stoppage.
The volume of 50 megalitres, equivalent to 20 Olympic swimming pools was also made available from Bostock Reservoir by Barwon Water to the Moorabool Yaluk east branch. Barwon Water have also been pumping the water from Bostock Reservoir to the part of the east Moorabool River bordering land owned by WTOAC. This part of the river currently misses out on flows due to the location of reservoir walls and existing outlet. This water is being released over February as a constant flow with 2 higher flow periods to simulate what would happen after small rainfall events.
Claire Mennen, Wadawurrung woman and Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation Water Project Officer said,
“I believe our Ancestors would be proud of what we’ve accomplished. We continue their legacy by nurturing our waterways, just as they did.”
Another 50 megalitres, a volume of water equivalent to 20 Olympic swimming pools, has been provided by Barwon Water from the Upper Stony Creek Reservoir to trial water delivery at Durdidwarrah Wetland. This volume will be pumped to the wetland from the Upper Stony Creek Reservoir over approximately 10 days in March 2024. Once ‘full’, the wetland will be allowed to naturally draw down subject to climatic conditions.
Angeline Poole, Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation Gobata Dja General Manager said,
“Important decisions were made on the banks of these waterways by Wadawurrung people. They were important living and meeting places, just as they are today. We are working with the Victorian Environmental Water Holder and Corangamite CMA to make sure water releases are complimentary to existing flows and environmental water releases. This is being done to manage potential floodplain inundation risks and maximise Cultural and environmental outcomes.”
WTOAC has been working with the Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research to make sure ecological risks of watering have been appropriately assessed and to develop and implement a monitoring program. WTOAC is also working with the Corangamite CMA WaterWatch program to gather data on macroinvertebrates and water quality in the east branch and how conditions change during and after watering.
WTOAC plan to use the findings of the trial watering actions to inform how more permanent water rights outlined in the State Government’s Sustainable Water Strategy will be transferred to WTOAC for self-determined use.
These water releases could not take place without the support of Barwon Water and Central Highlands Water, who actively contributed to making the releases happen.
WTOAC acknowledges the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, Corangamite CMA, Parks Victoria, Southern Rural Water, the Victorian Environmental Water Holder, Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, and Environmental Justice Australia, who supported WTOAC releasing water on Country.
