Boort wetlands

In planning for environmental flows in the Boort wetlands, North Central CMA has worked with Barapa Barapa and Wemba Wamba Traditional Owners and Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation to identify opportunities to engage on environmental water planning and delivery, now and in future.

The wetlands and surrounding land in the Boort region are rich in cultural heritage, with sites and artefacts of cultural practices present throughout the landscape. The rivers and floodplains are valued as food and fibre sources and contain many sites of significance (such as camp sites and meeting places). Environmental watering supports values such as native fish, waterbirds and turtles, and promotes the growth of culturally important plants that provide food, medicine and weaving materials. The presence of water itself can be a cultural value, as well as the quality of the water, as healthy water promotes a healthy Country.

The Dja Dja Wurrung Country Plan 2014-2034 describes their aspirations around the management of rivers and waterways and articulates Dja Dja Wurrung peoples’ support for the reinstatement of environmental flows as an overall objective for the management of water on Country.

Increasing the involvement of Traditional Owners in environmental water planning and management, and ultimately providing opportunities to progress towards self-determination within and beyond the environmental watering program, is a core commitment of the VEWH and its agency partners. This is reinforced by a range of legislation and policy commitments (for example the Water Act 1989, the Victorian Aboriginal Affairs Framework, Water for Victoria (2016)) and, in some cases, agreements under the Traditional Owner Settlement Act 2010. Where Traditional Owners are more deeply involved in the planning and/or delivery of environmental flows for a particular site, their contribution is acknowledged in Table 5.7.3 with an icon. The use of this icon is not intended to indicate that these activities are meeting all the needs of Traditional Owners but is incorporated in the spirit of valuing that contribution, and indicating progress towards this objective.

Watering planned and/or delivered in partnership with Traditional Owners to support cultural values and uses

The Dja Dja Wurrung clan (family group) the Yung Balug are preparing a water management plan for Lake Boort, the connected wetland Lake Lyndger and the Kinypanial Creek (a branch of the Loddon River), as part of the larger Djandak, Gatjin and Wi (Land, Water and Fire) Healthy Country Planning project which they are conducting with the support of Djandak, the commercial arm of Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation. North Central CMA has committed to asking the Yung Balug family group for informed consent for the watering actions proposed for Boort in 2021-22 while moving towards self-determined management in the long term.

A key priority for Barapa Barapa and Wemba Wamba Traditional Owners in the Boort and central Murray region wetlands is maintaining or improving the condition of wetland vegetation health. North Central CMA and Barapa Barapa Traditional Owners are collaborating to deliver the DELWP-funded Decision Support Tool (DST) project which focuses on McDonalds Swamp (central Murray wetlands, see section 5.2.3), Lake Leaghur and Lake Yando. The project has tested the revegetation DST and also aims to incorporate cultural aspirations into revegetation outcomes. Barapa Barapa and Wemba Wamba Traditional Owners were involved in physical planting, plant selection and site selection for the project, and decisions around water for the environment at these wetlands have been able to support the DST project by delivering the watering requirements of the revegetation, resulting in a positive vegetation response and enabling monitoring to be completed by Barapa Barapa.

Rainfall in the Boort wetlands catchment was variable throughout 2020-21, but average rainfall and temperatures were experienced through most of the year. There were no natural flows into wetlands, with managed released required to achieve all environmental watering priorities. Inflows to major storages in autumn 2020 resulted in opening season allocations of 35 percent for high-reliability water shares in the Loddon and Goulburn systems (both systems influence available Water Holdings for the Boort wetlands), which was higher than in the previous year. Allocations increased regularly through spring and hit 100 percent in mid-November. No low-reliability water share allocation was issued in 2020-21.

Water for the environment at the Boort wetlands was managed in line with the average climate scenario in 2020-21. A partial fill was provided to Lake Yando in spring, followed by a top-up in summer/autumn to support observations of waterbird breeding. Top-ups were provided to Lake Meran in December, February and April to maintain the water level within a critical range that provides habitat for aquatic animals while enabling the growth of herbland vegetation on the wetland fringe. A planned spring fill of Lake Leaghur was deferred, due to channel upgrade works. A priming fill was delivered in autumn 2021 ahead of a planned fill in winter/spring 2021, which is a high priority to ensure the condition and composition of wetland plant communities at Lake Leaghur do not decline.