werribee catchment collaboration: implementation workshop 1 · 2019-03-05 · the iwm forums via...
TRANSCRIPT
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
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