[music]

[visual description: someone exploring Melbourne’s rivers and creeks]

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[on-screen text: James Fraser Melbourne Water, Environmental Water Resources Delivery Lead]

Hi, my name's James. I'm the Environmental Water Delivery Lead at Melbourne Water. Water for the environment is a portion of water that's set aside in our storage reservoirs to maintain the long-term health of our rivers, wetlands and ecosystems and the flora and fauna dependent on them. Over time, a growing population have meant that rivers have seen a reduction in flows and a loss of water available to them. And this has impacted the long-term health of aquatic ecosystems, and the flora and fauna dependent on them.

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So water for the environment seeks to mimic natural processes. Melbourne Water conducts flow studies to determine how much water a river needs, and when a particular flow is required. Over the course of a year, a river will require different flows, and those flows that we deliver will mimic natural rainfall events. So, we may have a base flow, which is a low flow that occurs throughout a season.

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And that's essential for maintaining the overall health of the river, providing connectivity between habitats. And then we may have things called freshes and a fresh is a flow that mimics a natural, short duration rainfall event that will be an increase in flow that will just occur over a very short period of time and then down again. And that's important for triggering migration of fish, other aquatic fauna and providing a general reset to the river system.

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And then we might have a thing called a high. And a high is a longer duration flow event at a higher volume. If we don't receive rainfall that provides a natural high flow event, then we will choose to deliver a high with water for the environment. And that's really important for triggering migration of fish and overall connecting up the river system.

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Environmental flows benefit the Australian grayling by providing movement cues for their migration and breeding. When we deliver freshes and highs in Autumn, that can promote downstream movement of that species for spawning. And then when we deliver higher flows in Spring, that can encourage that species to move back upstream. The platypus benefits from delivery of water for the environment, particularly through sustaining low flows.

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They clean out the substrate, which allows platypus prey to thrive, which is macroinvertebrates. Environmental flows can also provide benefits for flushing out blue-green algae as well from river systems. The way we deliver water for the environment is safe and undergoes a full risk assessment process. And we never deliver overbank flows, only small and medium sized flows.

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We collaborate with Traditional Owners across the region on delivery of water for the environment. Collaborating with the Traditional Owners allows self-determination in how they connect to Country and how they set the goals for managing the billabongs. The future of our waterways will be the impacts of climate change, urbanisation and population growth. So it's more important than ever that we conserve water for today, tomorrow and generations to come.

[music] [Melbourne Water logo] 

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