A catchment is an area of land that is naturally bounded by hills and mountains, collects rainfall and run-off and delivers it to low-lying points in the landscape such as rivers and streams. 

Coliban Water manages three major supply reservoirs on the Coliban River, the Upper Coliban, Lauriston and Malmsbury Reservoirs.  Each reservoir is contained within its own defined catchment. 

Catchments are often referred to as being open or closed. 

Closed catchments are those catchments where a single land manager is responsible for the bulk of the land management within it, such as the Melbourne Water Yan Yean Reservoir Catchment (11,000 square kilometres).  

An open catchment is where the land within the catchment is privately managed over many land titles by the rural community.  All of Coliban Water’s water supply catchments are considered to be ‘open’ and require Coliban Water to partner with the community, agencies and government in order to manage and protect the security of regional water supplies.

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Aerial shot of the Eppalock Proclaimed Catchment.

The Coliban System reservoir catchments, together form part of the greater Eppalock Proclaimed Catchment.  Proclaimed water supply catchments provide water resources to a reservoir or water storages used primarily for domestic water supply purposes and are established under the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994. 

The Eppalock Proclaimed Water Supply Catchment covers 2,000 square kilometres and is located in the upper reaches of the Campaspe River between Trentham and Heathcote and down to Lake Eppalock.  The catchment includes all or parts of five Local Government Areas;

• City of Greater Bendigo;
• Hepburn Shire;
• Macedon Ranges Shire;
• Mount Alexander Shire; and
• Mitchell Shire

To read about Coliban Water's catchment protection initiatives >click here