Speakers

Speaker 1 - S1 (Sarah Watkins)
Speaker 2 - S2 (Anthony Bigelow)
Speaker 3 - S3 (Rhys Coleman)
Speaker 4 - S4 (Caroline Carvalho)
Speaker 5 - S5 (Heath Baker)
Speaker 6 - S6 (Claudette Kellar)

[On-screen text: Melbourne Water is committed to enhancing life and liveability in the Dandenong Creek area.]

[On-screen text: Sarah Watkins, Melbourne Water]

S1: The name doesn’t really give much away, but Enhancing our Dandenong Creek is actually a sewerage management project.

We’ve got a really unique situation in Dandenong Creek where the sewer spills more frequently than it should, and the conventional approach to addressing this problem would be to build a really big pipe, but instead we actually challenged the status quo, stepped back and took a holistic approach and looked at what could we do in this catchment to actually improve the waterway for the community and for the biota that lives there. 

It’s about changing the way we think about managing an urban waterway and that’s really our approach to managing it, who we work with and how we go about working with them. 

[On-screen text: Anthony Bigelow, First Friends of Dandenong Creek]

S2: The amazing work that Melbourne Water have actually done to change what was here is phenomenal work. It’s certainly given a lot back to the community, it’s given a lot back to us. 

[On-screen text: we have transformed Dandenong Creek corridor through: world-leading waterway naturalisation works; re-engaging 7 billabong sites for amenity and biodiversity; increased community amenities; improved water quality by addressing the primary threats to waterway health; construction of 20 new habitats for native fish and reintroduction of a nationally-threatened species]

[On-screen text: Rhys Coleman, Melbourne Water]

S3: We’ve been working at 20 habitats along the Dandenong Creek corridor and those habitats are being improved for threatened native fish, such as the dwarf galaxias and Yarra pygmy perch. It’s pretty rare to be sort of working across such a large area when it comes to threatened native fish management. 

S1: One of the things that sets Enhancing our Dandenong Creek apart is that it sets a new benchmark for the water industry, particularly in engagement and participation and empowerment of community and stakeholders. 

[On-screen text: Caroline Carvalho, Knox City Council]

S4: In 30 years of working in the industry, it’s probably the best partnership project I’ve ever been involved in in terms of the true collaboration and engagement with stakeholders like the relative councils – Maroondah and ourselves, Knox – as well as the friends and community members that were included in the discussion. 

S2: With the community panel being involved in that process, I guess it’s actually helped us to relay our concerns for the area, being locals to the location. 

Engaging with the community is actually upskilling the community, so I really value that. 

[On-screen text: Heath Baker, Melbourne Water]

S5: Some of the more innovative approaches that we’ve been taking is utilising new technology, looking at live monitoring of the stormwater network. We undertook some investigation work into the types of pollution that we were commonly finding within the waterway, and we’re using the assistance of our research partners as well.

[On-screen text: Claudette Kellar, RMIT University]

S6: Our initial research was on the problem that was part of Dandenong Creek. We did some new technologies that we trialled and we were able to sample up the drains to really isolate where these sources of pollution was coming from. 

S1: The best outcomes for waterways and communities can be achieved more efficiently through innovation and collaboration and this project, Enhancing our Dandenong Creek, really is a testament to that.

[On-screen text:
We look forward to continuing this work for another five years with our project partners:
Aquatic Environmental Stress Research Group
Bunurong Land Council
Environment Protection Authority Victoria
First Friends of Dandenong Creek
Heathmont Bushcare
Knox City Council
Knox Environment Society
Maroondah City Council
Monash City Council
Parks Victoria
Port Phillip and Westernport CMA
South East Water
Wurundjeri Land Council
Yarra Valley Water]

[Melbourne Water logo: Enhancing life and liveability]