A network of community-based organisations involved in the protection and restoration of Port Phillip Bay
The Port Phillip EcoCentre, in collaboration with the Werribee River Association and Yarra Riverkeeper, has researched the potential to establish a network made up of community-based organisations involved in the protection and restoration of the Port Phillip Bay and its associated water catchment areas – potentially called the Nairm Catchments Network. Nairm is the Boon Wurrung word for Port Phillip Bay.
The Nairm Catchments Network could help protect Port Phillip Bay and its catchments by:
- Establishing connections through which groups learn from each other, pool their expertise, share knowledge and provide strategic support
- Building capacity within volunteer-led organisations to engage local communities and attract resources to care for their catchment
- Supporting a body of informed organisations that can more efficiently and clearly communicate with, and advocate to, Government and its agencies for the benefit of Port Phillip Bay and each of the catchment areas
- Acknowledging the need to effectively address ‘local’ issues strategically so that the whole area thrives
- Acknowledging the interconnectedness of catchments and how each depends on the other, while each is unique.
Themes and Local Areas
| Primary Theme: | Communities |
| Other Themes: | Waterways, Wetlands, Native vegetation, Native animals, Coasts, Traditional Owners and Aboriginal Victorians, Marine Environments |
| Primary Local Area: | Port Phillip Bay |
| Other Local Areas: | Urban Melbourne, Moorabool, Melton, Wyndham & Greater Geelong, Mornington Peninsula |
| Project location: | Port Phillip Bay, its coasts and catchments areas |
| Scale of the project: | Landscape |
| New or continuing work: | New project/work |
Project partners
| Lead organisation: | Port Phillip EcoCentre |
| Key partners: | Werribee River Association, Yarra Riverkeeper |
| Registered Aboriginal Party/s relevant to the project or its area: | Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation, Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation, Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation |
Investment opportunities
| Opportunities for investors within this project start from: | $$ (Tens of thousands of dollars) |
| Estimated scale of investment for full project implementation: | $$$ (Hundreds of thousands of dollars) |
| Estimated timeframe for full project implementation: | 2-10 years |
Contribution toward targets
| Primary Regional Catchment Strategy target: | Community volunteering for natural resource management surpasses 1 million hours per year |
| Relevant Biodiversity 2037 goal: | Support people to take action for nature |
| Relevant National Landcare Program priority: | Soil, biodiversity and vegetation – Projects that bring together local groups to collate and update information to produce spatially explicit data for natural resource management at regional level and provides a foundation for investment planning |
