East Gippsland Catchment Management Authority

The East Gippsland Catchment Management Authority (CMA) covers 22,000 km² of land, lakes and coastal waters in the easternmost part of Victoria.

About 80% of the land of the region is in public ownership, mainly as State Forests and National Parks. With 40,000 residents, the current population is about 10 times that of the original Aboriginal population of the Kurnai-Gunai, Bidawal and Ngarigo peoples.

East Gippsland Region

Variability of climate is a notable feature of the region. Rainfall ranges from 2,200 mm on the Errinundra Plateau to 500 mm in rain shadow areas like the upper Snowy valley. Annual rainfall is highly variable which gives rise to frequent droughts and major flooding events that have significant land management impacts. Some of the important features of East Gippsland are:

• The Gippsland Lakes, which is the largest coastal lagoon system in Australia and are listed as on the Ramsar Wetlands of International Importance list;
• The array of streams, especially the wild rivers, including the iconic Snowy River and Victoria’s biggest unregulated stream, the Mitchell River;
• Long coastal reach with undeveloped estuaries, ocean beaches and spectacular headlands;

Mountains and forests, which provide great scenery, clean air, clean water, recreational opportunity and forestry products;

• Scenic and productive farming lands, especially in the river valleys; and
• The living wealth in the form of native plants and animals, some of which occur only in this region.

Program Highlights

The region’s natural resource management priorities have been dominated by two factors:

1. The regular incidence of drought, fires and major floods; and
2. The large expanse of largely intact natural landscapes.

East Gippsland has encountered major droughts in 1997/98 and 2002/07 which have given cause to the largest bushfires in European history in 2002/03 and 2006/07. Each major drought has also been broken by major floods in 1998 and 2007. Major recovery works have been undertaken in response to all these natural events.

East Gippsland CMA has the largest number of high value rivers including the Mitchell, Snowy, Bemm, Cann and Genoa. Work programs have been designed to manage invasive threats such as willows and blackberries to help maintain them in good condition. The Snowy has been the subject of a major rehabilitation effort including return of environmental flows and river rehabilitation works.

River health funding has been utilised to control willows in the Bemm, Snowy, Nicholson, upper Tambo, and upper Mitchell Rivers, as well as in all catchments east of the Cann River. The region’s native plants and animals are part of the Jewel in the Crown of Victoria’s biodiversity. Initiatives such as the Southern Ark program have led the State in large scale native animal conservation and pest animal control.

Future challenges

The population in the East Gippsland CMA area is concentrated along the coast in major towns like Bairnsdale, Victoria, Lakes Entrance, Victoria, Paynesville, Victoria and Metung, Victoria near the Gippsland Lakes. This is a major economic driver which has focused the attention of the community on maintaining the Lakes in good health.

In a recent survey of the area, over 70% of those surveyed considered the Lakes their most valuable natural asset. The Great Alpine and Divide Fires of 02/03 and 06/07 created extensive burnt areas in the Mitchell, Tambo, Nicholson and Snowy River catchments and together with recent floods will cause water quality and supply problems for many years.