General News
3 July, 2026
Partnership to benefit all
Community members are encouraged to be part of a longterm management strategy for the Upper Avoca catchment, benefitting First Peoples and the wider community.
The community is invited to be part of a decade-long management strategy for the Upper Avoca catchment, benefitting First People’s and the wider community.
The Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation and North Central Catchment Management Authority (CMA) have partnered to improve the health of the Upper Avoca waterways.
Dhelkunyangu Upper Avoca, meaning ‘everyone working together to heal the Upper Avoca’ in Dja Dja Wurrung language, is a catchment plan which highlights the benefit of collaboration to the whole community.
The plan centres Djaara values and knowledge, recognising their multi-millenia connection to Country, in the management of Upper Avoca from 2024 to 2034.
The end goal is to improve the health of the Upper Avoca for the whole community.
Dja Dja Wurrung Group interim CEO Cassandra Lewis said she was proud the plan, for the first time, was built around Dja Dja Wurrung values.
“For too long, Djaara People have been excluded from water management, despite our deep cultural responsibility to care for water and Country,” she said.
“This partnership enables us to bring Djaara knowledge and values back into the care of the Upper Avoca, and we look forward to working with the community through a shared approach to stewardship.”
The plan’s goals include empowering Djaara-led cultural management of the region, improving the landscapes health, collaborating with stakeholders, and fostering care for the region in the wider community.
“We know the river and the Upper Avoca catchment is important to — and loved by — many. Through this plan, we hope to engage with and foster a sense of shared stewardship among those connected to the Upper Avoca,” Ms Lewis said.
The Avoca basin is Victoria’s fifth largest catchment with the Avoca River being one of the most significant waterways in western Victoria.
Nearby towns included in the catchment include Avoca, Natte Yallock, Bealiba, and Ampitheatre although in total the basin occupies an area of 1.2 million hectares.
In the past two centuries, the region has changed significantly due to land clearing for agriculture, mining and logging post colonisation.
According to the catchment plan, the result has been increased erosion, reduced water quality, blocked deep water holes, covered springs, and modified water channels encouraging weed infes-tations.
Going forward, the plan predicts the existing impacts of climate change will worsen in the warm and dry climate of north-central Victoria.
It predicts with “high or very high confidence” a year-round increase in temperatures, meaning more hot days and fewer frosts, less cool season rainfall, worse bushfires more often, and less average rainfall but more intense heavy rainfall.
Together this means the region’s ecosystem, including existing rare and threatened plants and animals, are vulnerable to decline.
The plan’s conservation strategy includes promoting connectivity within the landscape, allowing species to move around, promoting better biodiversity and resilience.
North Central CMA CEO Brad Drust said collaboration was the best way to protect the Upper Avoca catchment.
“This project represents a true partnership, a shared commitment to caring for Country, and mutual respect,” he said.
While he recognised there had been conservation efforts in the last quarter-century he said more needed to be done.
“By protecting riverbanks and high-priority drought refuges, the project will help a raft of threatened species that depend on the health of the Avoca River and its catchment for survival,” he said.
“Creating biolinks will also help protect other fauna and flora the community loves.”
The plan was developed with an independent consultant who incorporated existing Djaara Country policies, North Central CMA plans and strategies, and data from the Upper Avoca catchment.
Djaara-led workshops were also held with stakeholders.
Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation and North Central CMA invite landholders and the community to be part of their shared approach to the Upper Avoca catchment.
Copies of Dhelkunyangu Upper Avoca are available at the Avoca Visitor Centre or can be downloaded from both organisation’s websites.
In-person community gatherings with project representatives from Djaara and North Central CMA are also planned.
Both organisations have already done preliminary survey work, including Aboriginal Waterway Assessments and fish surveys, which will guide how they improve landscape connectivity.