FOTB Newsletter – August 2023
Content: Chair’s Message Essential Services Commission Pricing Review Background to Recent Pollution Events on the Yarrowee River Water Releases Through the Lough Calvert Drainage Scheme Update on the Anglesea Borefield Concerning Findings about Suspected Unlicensed...
Water Releases Through the Lough Calvert Drainage Scheme
Readers of the Colac Herald will have seen a recent front-page article with calls from a local farmer to start the release of water from Lake Colac into the Lough Calvert Drainage Channel at the northern end of the lake, near Irrewarra. His concerns related to...
Update on the Anglesea Borefield
Friends of the Barwon Committee members were recently briefed, by both Barwon Water and the Friends of the Anglesea River, about issues affecting the Anglesea River and its estuary. In recent times the Anglesea River has experienced prolonged periods with low pH...
Essential Services Commission (ESC) Pricing Review
The Concerned Waterways Alliance attended two meetings in May with Lach Gordon representing Friends of the Barwon Barwon Water (BW) ESC draft decision Barwon Water received only very minor reductions of funding for some programs. There was a reduction of $2 million...
Concerning findings about suspected unlicensed dams in the Moorabool catchment
A recent study of private dams in the Moorabool Catchment, undertaken by People for A Living Moorabool (PALM), has been followed up by the ABC in their report ‘Suspected unlicensed dams multiplying across stressed river system reveal holes in Victoria's water...
Background to Recent Pollution Events on the Yarrowee River
Just over two decades the Yarrowee River that rises in Ballarat was little more than an urban drain, receiving stormwater from the town and treated effluent from the Southern Ballarat Water Treatment Plant. Thanks to funding from the State government and many hours of...
Workshop Summary NWGGA Strategic Assessment – CoGG
The City of Greater Geelong (the City) held two workshops with environment and community group members in February2023 to assist the City in preparing the Northern and Western Geelong Growth Areas (NWGGA) Strategic Assessment.The purpose of engagement with environment...
FOTB Newsletter – April 2023
The FOTB April 2023 Newsletter has recently been circulated to our members and can now be accessed here. The newsletter covers: Chair’s Message Summary and Minutes of our AGM – 22nd February New Friends of the Barwon Website Clean Ocean Foundation Webinar: Pollute or...
Minutes of the AGM 22nd February 2023
Location: Jeff Sykes Rowing Centre, South Geelong. Friends of the Barwon Chair, Trevor Hodson, welcomed everyone and expressed his Acknowledgement of Country – "I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land where we meet, the Wadawurrung here in...
Summary of our recent Annual General Meeting
Over 30 members and other friends of the Rivers of the Barwon came along to our AGM last week which was held at the Jeff Sykes Rowing Centre on the mighty Barwon River. Meet our new and old Committee members from L to R….Ewan McMillan, Trent Griffiths, Mary Dracup, Hugh Stewart, Trevor Hodson, Lach Gordon, Sarah Brien and Andrea Montgomery. If you’d like to get involved with FOTB please email: friendsofthebarwon@gmail.com
At Last! – Some Protection for our Local Rivers
By Lach Gordon Friends of the Barwon welcomes the Victorian Government announcement of new interim planning controls for our rivers. The Announcement In late December 2022 DELWP advised the gazetting of Planning Scheme Amendment VC201. The amendment delivers stronger...
FOTB Newsletter – January 2023
Our latest newsletter with updates on issues, activities and events relevant to the waterways of Victoria’s Barwon River for those who love our river system – ‘Friends of the Barwon’.
Joint statement regarding the Gippsland and Central Region Sustainable Water Strategy
Friends of the Barwon was formed by concerned citizens in response to cease to flow events in the Barwon river. in 2016, there was no flow for four months at Winchelsea and in 2018, for three months. These “cease to flow events “critically affect survival of aquatic...
Platypus eDNA study results
The recent Environmental DNA (eDNA) assessment of platypus distribution in the Middle Barwon River, incorporating grass-roots citizen science, contributed to the largest continuous survey for this iconic species in Victoria. The findings are summarised in the report:...
Friends of the Barwon Digital Brochure 2021
https://youtu.be/9zrzhy3x2K0 The Friends of the Barwon team has been busy during “lockdown” and we are excited to share this digital brochure with you as one example of how we have used our time expeditiously! Whilst we are all enjoying excellent flows across the...
Juliet Le Feuvre presentation for Friends Of The Barwon AGM on 22 Nov 2019
Notes from the Annual General Meeting Rivers are living entities, like plants and animals, that need water to stay healthy. Otherwise, they are just drains. If more than 30 per cent of flows are extracted for consumptive uses, river health will suffer. So said Juliet...