A pivotal turn in the recent history of the Yarrowee River took place more than 26 years ago, away from its banks, in the council chamber of Ballarat Town Hall.
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It was 1994 and the city's administration was still adjusting to the recent amalgamation of councils. There were no elected councillors. Instead, three commissioners were steering the city through a time of change before elected representatives returned to oversee the new municipality's direction.
Hedley Thomson was a strategic planner who had been working for the Ballarat Regional Board for Planning and Development when it was absorbed into the new council organisation.
He remembers that defining moment well. Along with his colleague Tim D'Ombrain, he had worked on a report outlining why the newly formed council should seek to manage the Yarrowee River.
The city's main waterway was in a bad way. Its once clear waters were little more than a drain after decades of misuse. The river had never fully recovered from the degradation of the 19th century Gold Rush, and was clotted with sediment, rubble and wash material. Rather than being celebrated, the river was hidden under concrete in its course through the CBD. Even the more rural stretches were not much better with the landscape dominated by invasive blackberry and gorse bushes.
For Mr Thomson and Mr D'Ombrain, the situation could not go on. The waterway was under the control of the then Department of Environment and Natural Resources (one of several precursors to the Department of Land Water and Planning - DELWP). They saw the waterway festering, unkempt and unloved. The report presented the arguments as compellingly as possible for the council to be allowed to look after the river under a committee for management - and allow more attention to be trained on a neglected natural asset.
And, at that pivotal council meeting, council commissioners agreed. Mr Thomson describes walking out of the town hall onto the steps with his colleague, then looking to the heavens and shouting 'Yes!'
"We could see this was going to be big," he recalled. "To get that backing - it was definitely one of those top moments in life."
He is unsure if councillors would have taken the risk had they been in place. He feels the stars just aligned. One of the three commissioners had worked for a precursor to DELWP and was aware of the issues involved. Another had an unusually advanced understanding of water catchment areas.
From that moment, big things grew. A masterplan evolved including a project to add 60,000 plants to the river corridor, and the Linear Network of Communal Spaces (LINCS) group began work revitalising the river. Harnessing a community enthusiasm that had lain dormant for many years, the momentum to improve the river ushered in profound changes.
The scale was impressive. It was an era where the importance of managing stormwater, and its pollution and flooding potential, was becoming much better understood - and, importantly, authorities were prepared to spend money to address the issue.
I would like it to be like a bushland corridor, supporting lots of wildlife, lots of birds, with people enjoying it responsibly
- Roger Thomas, Nature Notes columnist
Millions of dollars worth of funding were secured, enough to allow a huge, co-ordinated planting operation. The council assessed land and access rights, negotiating where necessary. There was an indigenous plant nursery set up to help populate the banks with tree species more appropriate than the willows and weeds that had dominated much of the waterside. (That nursery, incidentally, is still running today, behind the botanical gardens - not open to the general public, it is little known about.)
Revegetation workers were employed by the City of Ballarat to facilitate the process, and support the many community groups that wanted to help. Extensive storm water mitigation projects were undertaken under the leadership of expert urban water engineers, including a major project to develop the Redan wetlands we see today.
A quarter of a century on from that masterplan, and the banks of the Yarrowee River are a different place. In this pandemic year, more runners, walkers and cyclists have been using the trails than ever. There is now a parkrun along the banks of the Brown Hill section. Trees that were planted as a result of the plan are established; many passers-by would be unaware of how recent they are.
And it is not just people using the river corridor in greater numbers. The Courier's Nature Notes columnist Roger Thomas recently described how much more birdlife can be seen in the areas that were re-wilded 25 years ago.
"Less than 30 years can make a big difference for birds, bats, lizards, and numerous insects and other small creatures," he wrote.
THE NEXT 25 YEARS
The river may have transformed - a fact Mr Thomson, whose enthusiasm for the Yarrowee remains as infectious as it was 25 years ago, says the community should feel very proud of. However he, along with many of the river's supporters, feel the vision is only half complete.
WATCH: A 2004 promotional video on the changes made to the Yarrowee
For Mr Thomson, it is the potential to build on community appreciation for river that appeals most - and he believes it could reach many more, such as connecting it more to First Nations history. He also sees many more environmental improvements that could be made, even with the vast advances in the past 25 years.
They hope a new masterplan, which was signed off by councillors in August and provides a blueprint for the river for the quarter of a century, will create a new momentum.
It outlines 34 plans, including four priority projects - Sunnyside Milk Parklands - trail head signs, the revitalisation of Redan Wetlands, and an extension of the trail. None are funded yet, and would rely on the advocacy of council officers, and councillors, to attract the funding.
Mr Thomas agrees the river still has "huge potential". He sees scope for the river to become an even bigger draw, with more walking trails and more trees planted - not just along the river edge but the width of the riparian reserve.
"I would like it to be like a bushland corridor, supporting lots of wildlife, lots of birds, with people enjoying it responsibly," he said. "It would be a very attractive place, it would be very well used."
The role of the City of Ballarat was integral in the first instance 25 years ago, in setting a course for a Yarrowee River strategy and then being involved in its regeneration.
Many, however, feel impetus has been lost since the original masterplan was put in place - and that the Yarrowee and its trails, despite being more used than ever, do not have the dedicated funds or attention other popular community facilities receive: sports clubs fields, changing rooms, parks and gardens for example.
Together we could do amazing things
- Gareth Jones, member Friends of Yarrowee River group
There was a state government investment of $1m back in 2013, but resources devoted to the river have remained comparatively small in recent years.
THE SCIENCE BEHIND ACTION
Professor Tony Wong, a civil engineer by training, was leading a research program at Monash University during the time of the Yarrowee project in the 2000s, specialising in urban water management. He worked with the City of Ballarat on the scheme for the Redan wetlands. He went on to become the Chief Executive of the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities in Melbourne, and now chairs the Water Sensitive Cities Think Tank. He has won numerous awards for his work.
He says the idea of using wetlands as a stormwater buffer was viewed as innovative at the time of his involvement with the City of Ballarat project and is now a more standard practice. Weeding and rewilding projects needed to be part of a "holistic" approach for maintaining the health of the catchment, he said.
"Improving the ecological health of a big river like the Yarrowee takes many years," he said. "What you see along the river, in terms of the erosion, the sediment, the weeds - they are merely symptoms of what is wrong with the catchment.
"How do you then implement initiatives within that catchment to arrest the type of flash-flooding and pollution and sediment?"
"Take what we did in the Redan creek, that is really trying to buffer all the development from impacting the Yarrowee. If you look at the number of tributaries running into the Yarrowee, it gives you an understanding of the scale of what needs to be done. Any revitalisation of the Yarrowee needs to be taken in that context."
He says the process is a long-term one, with the timelines depending - of course - on funding.
"It's all about the annual budget, and how much of the annual budget could you really devote to this? That [budget] sets the timeline on what could be the period of repair."
That process is happening in places where significant re-engineering has been needed, he said. He gave the example of Singapore, where authorities are making significant investment to re-green the city, including switching big concrete canals back to natural waterways.
"It would be great if they hadn't converted them into concrete channels in the past," he said. "But it doesn't mean it's lost - what it does mean is that it requires cities to have the vision to re-naturalise the city."
Melbourne, he says, is going through a vibrant renewal process, which helps the cause. "This is why policy becomes important," he said. "Every time there is a new project, you introduce water sensitive urban design, you introduce green systems to buffer that piece of land, and over time you will find that every piece of land and every development would be buffered."
Professor Wong is also an advocate for bringing the community along with the process. He talks about the positive impact "green systems" and green corridors can have on mental health, social cohesion and community - and also the educational benefits of projects such as the Yarrowee.
"We do need to look at it at a local level - because that is what impacts us. You can talk about sustainability in broad, generic terms, and it does not mean a whole lot to people," he said. "The minute you relate it to the environment they live in then they begin to understand those big global concepts do have relevance to the local setting."
POTENTIAL IN THE CBD
Just as the stars aligned with Mr Thomson's pitch to city administrators back in the 1990s, he hopes serendipity may play its part in the years ahead. In the past, the river has been treated as something to use or manage, rather than something to celebrate: its course was moved to build a sporting oval and its waters channelled underground to get it out of the way of a busy CBD.
Now, as Professor Wong suggested above, there are growing moves to bring natural assets back to the fore. As the City of Ballarat invests millions of dollars into the regeneration of Bakery Hill, one of the ideas put forward is to bring the Yarrowee back into the open in the centre of the city. It would be no easy task, but grand plans for the area are a work in progress - and there is clearly scope for the invisible river that shaped Ballarat to be part of that vision.
There is hope too that recent changes in the city's executive team may allow a sharper focus on the natural environment to co-exist more easily with the much admired work the council does with its parks and gardens.
THE POWER OF COMMUNITY
Kath Chapman, who chairs the Friends of Yarrowee River group, told The Courier she hoped priorities will shift - in particular to allow the power of community involvement and enthusiasm to be harnessed as effectively as it can.
"The amount of resources that gets put into Lake Wendouree, and the amount that gets put into the Yarrowee River trail is an incredible imbalance," she said. "Lake Wendouree is a gorgeous place, but it's very much a man-made environment, whereas the Yarrowee and its tributaries still have that wild feeling. They're such an asset."
One way of taking action is through the power of volunteer labour. There is already a lot of activity on that front: there is regular work being done at Sparrow Ground; Ms Chapman organises regular working bees on the Specimen Vale tributary, while there are frequently other groups, from Rotary clubs to girl guide groups, prepared to get their hands dirty and help keep the waterways healthy.
A relatively recent convert to the joys of the Yarrowee, and working to maintain it, is teacher Gareth Jones. He now lives near the Nerrina wetlands and wholeheartedly agrees the Yarrowee, the surrounding area and wider community, would benefit from greater focus and coordination of efforts.
When Victoria was slowing down due to the pandemic restrictions, Mr Jones said he set out to do some work to help maintain the area: weeding, clearing, planting.
"With the COVID lockdown, I really wanted something meaningful to do," he said. "It's been wonderful. I was surprised - what can seem like an enormous amount of work to begin with, if you just keep going regularly, you can make permanent changes."
"The other aspect is the sense of satisfaction and wellbeing. I walked the other day, along a bit I'd worked on, and I felt very proud of it.
"I think the key thing is that it's linked in with all the groups involved - and we really need council fully on board."
"Together we could do amazing things."
- Anybody interested in being part of a working bee can contact Friends of Yarrowee River chair, Kath Chapman on 0431 599 250. See also the Friends of Yarrowee River Facebook page.
ABOUT THE YARROWEE
- The river rises in Gong Gong, and flows for 43 kilometres to the south, merging with the Leigh River, which then flows into the Barwon.
- The river is known as the Yaramlok in the Wauthaurung language.
- It lies within the Corangamite catchment.
- The flow of the river fluctuates widely, and can stop altogether during dry conditions.
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