Melbourne Water is owned by the Victorian Government. We manage Melbourne’s water

supply catchments, remove and treat most of Melbourne’s sewage, and manage rivers and creeks and major drainage systems throughout the Port Phillip and Westernport region.

Werribee Catchment Collaboration: Implementation Workshop 1

Co-delivering the Healthy Waterways Strategy

Date: 20 February 2019

Time: 9.30am-1.30pm

Venue: The Views Function Bar & Grill, Werribee

Werribee Catchment communities came together at The Views Function Bar & Grill in Werribee

on February 20 to confirm how we will work together and decide where we should start in the

co-delivery of the co-designed Werribee Catchment Program.

Why this workshop?

A key part of this workshop was to start on implementation planning, including a map of

possible governance and structural arrangements for collaboratively managing waterways in

Werribee. Waterway partners were invited to think about how the existing networks, projects

and programs that they’re involved in could contribute towards achieving the Healthy

Waterways Strategy outcomes. This workshop provided an excellent opportunity for

stakeholders to network with each other and build relationships that will help drive

implementation of the Strategy.

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Melbourne Water is owned by the Victorian Government. We manage Melbourne’s water

supply catchments, remove and treat most of Melbourne’s sewage, and manage rivers and creeks and major drainage systems throughout the Port Phillip and Westernport region.

Who attended?

A total of 51 participants attended the workshop:

38 participants were external partners who represented a diverse array of groups

including: councils, community groups, water retailers, PPWCMA, Parks Victoria, and

DELWP.

13 participants from Melbourne Water helped support the conversations and provide

catchment knowledge. These included representatives from Integrated Planning, Asset

Management, Regional Services, and Customer and Strategy.

Part 1: Setting the scene

Ben English (Team leader for the Werribee Region at Melbourne Water) welcomed waterway

partners to this new phase of Strategy co-delivery. He explained that we are all moving

together from the ‘what’ to the ‘how’, guided by our shared regional and catchment

performance objectives. He also acknowledged that co-delivery is new territory for many of us

and that it is therefore important to get started and remain prepared to adapt our approach.

Ben introduced Werribee Riverkeeper John Forrester who presented a fascinating historical

snapshot and journey of the main issues, key people and successful projects that have shaped

the Werribee Catchment and its communities since the 1970s. John also orientated the group’s

focus to the future and how we need to work together given the challenges that the Werribee

catchment is facing. A copy of John’s presentation is included in the document library on

YourSay.

Facilitator Geoff Brown then invited participants to reconnect with each other and confirmed

the day’s agenda. He asked ‘Where is the stretch in the way we need to work together?’ and

‘What commitments do we want to walk out the this room with?’

Responses to these questions from the floor included:

We need to experiment and take more positive risks.

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Melbourne Water is owned by the Victorian Government. We manage Melbourne’s water

supply catchments, remove and treat most of Melbourne’s sewage, and manage rivers and creeks and major drainage systems throughout the Port Phillip and Westernport region.

Collaboration across parties and agencies towards a common outcome is critical.

An open conversation and willingness to cross our usual boundaries of responsibility.

Part 2: Project Updates in the Werribee Catchment & Beyond

Four short presentations helped to build a clearer picture of strategic and on-ground projects

that are happening in the catchment.

1. Waterways of the West – Simone Wilkie (Senior Policy Officer), Department of

Environment, Land, Water and Planning

Simone provided an update on the work of the Waterways of the West Ministerial Advisory

Committee (MAC), including who the MAC members are and timeframes for the development

of a draft vision (June 2019), recommendations (October 2019) and action plan (June 2020).

MAC member Shelley Penn highlighted the opportunity to raise awareness of the exceptional

quality of the landscape in the West. Simone’s presentation is included in the document library

on YourSay.

2. Integrated Water Management (IWM) Forums – James Newton (Senior Project

Manager), Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning

James provided an update on the DELWP-led IWM Forums, highlighting the release of the

Werribee Strategic Direction Statement, the commitment to prepare a catchment-scale IWM

plan and timeframes moving forward. James clarified that community views are represented in

the IWM forums via local governments. James’ presentation is included in the document library

on YourSay.

3. Roger MacRaild – Moorabool Landcare Co-ordinator

Roger shared a series of compelling photographs of how landcare has changed the landscape

in the Moorabool area since the 1960s. He highlighted the critical role of community champions

in driving this work. Roger’s presentation is included in the document library on Yoursay.

4. Bruce Boddington – man of many hats, including Wyndham Community Volunteer

Award Winner, Nature West, Friends of Skeleton Creek

Bruce shared stories of his experience working with CALD (Culturally and Linguistically

Diverse) communities and highlighted the importance of strong legislation and support for the

waterways of the west.

These four presentations helped to build a clearer picture of strategic and on-ground actions

already happening, the challenges unique to the catchment, and opportunities to build upon.

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Melbourne Water is owned by the Victorian Government. We manage Melbourne’s water

supply catchments, remove and treat most of Melbourne’s sewage, and manage rivers and creeks and major drainage systems throughout the Port Phillip and Westernport region.

Part 3: Implementation Planning – toward a Waterways Stakeholder

Platform for the Werribee

Workshop participants were then invited to discuss and share ideas about how best to get

organised to work collaboratively. As the backbone organisation, Melbourne Water is

committed to continue to support a diverse group of catchment partners to oversee the co-

delivery of the Werribee Catchment Program. Like in other catchments, this group would work

together with the Region-wide Leadership Group who have oversight of the implementation of

the Healthy Waterways Strategy across the whole region.

Facilitator Geoff Brown proposed that co-delivery of the Strategy within the catchment be

supported by a Stakeholder Platform; in Geoff’s words, “a platform (or governance group)

provides a base for response, with the purpose to oversee co-delivery of the Werribee

Catchment Program.”

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Melbourne Water is owned by the Victorian Government. We manage Melbourne’s water

supply catchments, remove and treat most of Melbourne’s sewage, and manage rivers and creeks and major drainage systems throughout the Port Phillip and Westernport region.

Activity: Building on what is already happening

Workshop participants were invited to stand in their

like-groups – for example, council representatives,

friends-group members – and focus on a large

Werribee catchment map on the wall. They

located a range of existing projects and networks

on the catchment map. We heard from:

Tony Smith on the Chain of Ponds Moonee

Ponds Creek Collaboration Project (the

prospectus brochure for Chain of Ponds is

available in the Document Downloads

section of YourSay)

Rachel Lopes, Melbourne Water on the

outcomes of the last HWS Dandenong

Catchment forum, where participants

endorsed the concept of merging HWS

collaboration and Living Links committee.

Corinne Mays on the PPWCMA Grow West

project (Corinne’s presentation is available

in the Document Downloads section of

YourSay)

Darren Coughlan, City West Water on the Greening the West project. Darren

particularly highlighted the health outcomes associated with the project.

[Note: The Social Network Map of the Catchment above shows the location of existing social

networks and platforms across the region.]

Lessons from these projects the Werribee HWS forum could build on included:

Important to map not only actions, but also successes.

Public health is a key driver in this catchment

Know and build on current networks and connections, including local schools.

Consider the various ways people connect to their waterways, including angling.

Moonee Ponds Creek collaboration is a good example of how governance can be

structured to hold a shared vision and support on-ground actions.

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Melbourne Water is owned by the Victorian Government. We manage Melbourne’s water

supply catchments, remove and treat most of Melbourne’s sewage, and manage rivers and creeks and major drainage systems throughout the Port Phillip and Westernport region.

Both Greening the West and Moonee Ponds Creek collaboration structures have been

able to attract funding. Having an opportunities map has been helpful for this.

Support needs to include resources and promotion.

Getting together and talking regularly, being participatory and spending the time

getting to know each other is critical.

An active digital space that includes data sharing, reporting, and a conversation space

will be key to success.

Recognising the impacts of increasing urbanisation as the biggest challenge facing the

Catchment.

Developing a model of how we could work together

Facilitator Geoff Brown ask participants to share, in one word, what was important about the

model to be developed. Clout, collaboration, empowerment, flexibility to capitalise

opportunities, maps, connectedness, case studies, succinct communication,

aggregation and sense of belonging were identified as important elements for the model.

Participants were then invited to collectively ‘draw’ possible governance models for the

catchment. A range of pictures were offered and each were discussed in turn, highlighting

important roles, requirements and questions to be resolved.

Important roles for Melbourne Water as the backbone organisation

Linking the executive and operational

Continuing to deliver in its own right

Investigating access to different types of funding

Coordinating, hosting / convening workshops and labs, and checking-in on targets.

Continuing to invest in capacity building to grow leadership across all stakeholders.

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Melbourne Water is owned by the Victorian Government. We manage Melbourne’s water

supply catchments, remove and treat most of Melbourne’s sewage, and manage rivers and creeks and major drainage systems throughout the Port Phillip and Westernport region.

Requirements for the future governance group/platform

A permanent executive

A role in advocacy and delivery

Being innovative and responsive to emergent priorities

Collaboration with Aboriginal groups and communities

A triple bottom line focus – Environmental, Social/Cultural & Economic.

Technological support

A practical focus

Build on what is already working – and be willing to stretch into new areas.

Inspiring and motivating.

Important questions

How do we best enable the community groups (and others in on-ground delivery) to

deliver on their projects and locate funding?

How can this governance group/platform assist partners to keep each other’s work

visible across the catchment?

Should there be separate implementation groups for the upper and lower catchment?

Should there be a single entity that works on catchment management for both

waterways and land?

How do we build plans to go beyond funding cycles? i.e. Have continuity beyond the

stop start of funding cycles, while also recognising that actions beget funding, so having

a plan beyond funding cycles can help secure funding.

How do we decide on the outcomes and metrics needed and how often they are

needed?

Could expanding Grow West be a working model to progress from

today’s workshop?

The last part of this plenary invited participants to stand on a line between 1 (low) and 10

(high), as an expression of their level of comfort with expanding the Grow West model to

include HWS. Participants clustered around the 4 to 7 mark. Expressed reservations centred

around the need to have more details (e.g on the number of meetings, time it would take,

number of subgroups) and the risks associated with growing too big.

A small team of volunteers came forward to take the feedback from today’s workshop and

build a straw-operating model.

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Melbourne Water is owned by the Victorian Government. We manage Melbourne’s water

supply catchments, remove and treat most of Melbourne’s sewage, and manage rivers and creeks and major drainage systems throughout the Port Phillip and Westernport region.

Part 4: Where to Next?

This final session brought the focus back to the Strategy and Werribee Catchment Program,

including how Melbourne Water is using the objectives of the Strategy in planning, prioritising

actions, and collaborating with partners on-the-ground.

Geraldine Plas (Principal, Waterways Collaboration, Melbourne Water) shared how Melbourne

Water is taking up its role in the implementation of the Strategy, including:

All teams in MW with a role in waterway management are using the Strategy to guide

their work planning.

Some early achievements – work to better understand our wetlands and their condition

has commenced.

Melbourne Water is leading the development of the Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting

and Improvement framework, including a region-wide Lab scheduled for March 12.

An interim region-wide leadership group has been established to help keep sight of

delivery of the Strategy across the region.

Melbourne Water has started to prepare the 2021/26 Waterways and Drainage

Investment Plan. This is a critical tool in the alignment of Melbourne Water funding with

the priorities of the Strategy.

Kylie Swingler (Senior Asset Practitioner Waterways, Melbourne Water) presented on how

Melbourne Water is aligning next year’s priorities in asset investment plans with the objectives

of the Strategy. A copy of Kylie’s presentation is included in the document library.

Presenters also identified further actions that we can begin together now, including:

A new collaborative approach to achieving the litter reduction targets, recognising that the

current investment from Melbourne Water alone isn’t going to achieve the goals and targets of

the Strategy.

Developing a risk-based approach, where effort is directed to areas where there is

greatest risk of waterway conditions deteriorating / not meeting waterways values.

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Melbourne Water is owned by the Victorian Government. We manage Melbourne’s water

supply catchments, remove and treat most of Melbourne’s sewage, and manage rivers and creeks and major drainage systems throughout the Port Phillip and Westernport region.

Establishing new Friends groups to support waterways management in the Catchment.

Ben English closed the working thanking participants and speakers and outlining the next

steps including:

Working group to meeting to progress the governance model for the Werribee (meeting set for

18 March)

MERI Lab (add link) on 12 March – all welcome

Living Rivers grants for local governments opened 18 February -26 March

Part 5: Evaluation from the sensing sheets

The workshop was evaluated to provide opportunity for ongoing learning. As a final

action, participants completed a sensing sheet and provided comments on the design of the

workshop and their experience of collaboration.

The response rate was 53% (27 out of 51 participants):

More than 95% of respondents felt that they we explored different opinions and views and

they were able to express their ideas

82% of the respondents left the workshop with a clear idea on with whom they will collaborate

and 63% felt it is clear how they and their organisations can contribute to the HWS

implementation. During this workshop, they particularly enjoyed the networking and

collaboration opportunities.

(Full evaluation report of the sensing sheets is available in the Document Download section of

YourSay.)

Quotes from participants

“Very open and supportive forum”

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Melbourne Water is owned by the Victorian Government. We manage Melbourne’s water

supply catchments, remove and treat most of Melbourne’s sewage, and manage rivers and creeks and major drainage systems throughout the Port Phillip and Westernport region.

“Large range of stakeholders/diverse views”

“Lots of good information about distinctive activities”

“Everyone hearing about what others are doing - this provides the opportunity to collaborate -

rather than reinvent the wheel/duplicate.”

“Felt like we got somewhere”

Keep up to date with what’s happening

For more information about creating healthy

waterways together please visit

https://yoursay.melbournewater.com.au/healthy-

waterways

For an interpreter, please call the

Translating and Interpreting Service

(TIS National) on 13 14 50

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