00.00 – 01.19 Julie Francis  - Melbourne Water

Urban waterways contribute to a thriving greener Melbourne. However urban catchments like this one can be difficult to manage because of the range of interests and the variety of organizations involved.

So Melbourne Water has been testing a different way of working on catchment management. For the last year, 18 different organizations have been exploring a collaborative approach to urban waterway management.

This process is quite different to usual because often in government organisations we would come out to community with an idea in mind - like here is the solution -  but what we've done in this process is we've said who wants to work together,  who wants to collaborate on the Moonee Ponds Creek catchment and then once we've identified those people we've been able to work together to figure out what the solutions might be.

And it's not about just going out and harvesting ideas from the loudest groups that are out there

it's actually about collaborating so that we get to know each other,  that we get to understand different people's perspectives,  that we get to understand the Catchment so that we can come as a group to some sophisticated solutions

01:19 - 01:57 Venta Slizys  - City of Mooney Valley Council

To me the benefit of being a part collaboration group has been being able to be the advocate for our community and the community has had a really strong vision for the creek it's also been able to test and explore the catchment approach. So it's been really interesting to work with all the stakeholders and it's also confirming the role of waterways and people's connection to them.

I think this process is worth repeating for other catchments mainly because the process connects people to place and people to each other and from that that's where we can get solutions for the creek.

01:57 - 02:31 Damien Harrison – Hume City Council

This process in essence is trying to capture -  it's about a group of stakeholders coming together in a way that in a way that probably has never happened and on a scale that's never happened in a catchment area before. And I think that's been power of this process for me it's about getting  everyone around the table, hearing the diverse views and working through a process together. Probably the greatest power in collaboration is building relationships.

02:31 - 02:57 Julie Law – Friends of Upper Moonee Ponds Creek

I think learning about all the processes facing each catchment section has been very interesting and participating in a collaborative style process which I've never been involved in before and I’ve found that to be a really positive process.

02:57 Julie Francis - Melbourne Water

Melbourne Water in this process is taking responsibility for  the problem-solving process. We're not going to determine the outcomes. We're not going to control the outcomes,  what we're going to do is work with community to build the relationships and the understanding of the catchment so that together we've got the commitment, energy and action from all of us -  because we've got ownership of the solutions and a joint determination to put them in place.