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

Coliban Water currently has several initiatives in place to proactively protect the catchments;

• Macedon Ranges Shire - Catchment Protection Policy

Coliban Water has been working with Western Water, Goulburn-Murray Water, Southern Rural Water and the Macedon Ranges Shire to develop a catchment protection policy for the Macedon Ranges Shire.  The policy will look at strategic development within the catchments and will address land capability, water quality risk management and development density issues.  The key objective is to provide policy directions for council planning that have consistent support and responses from all referral Water Authorities within the Shire. The policy is in its final stage of development and is anticipated to be complete by June 2008.

• Coliban River Catchment Action Plan



A Catchment Action Plan for the Coliban Catchment - Part A: Background, Assets and Threats
A Catchment Action Plan for the Coliban Catchment - Part B: Action Plan

In partnership with Greening Australia Victoria and the North Central Catchment Management Authority, Coliban Water invested in the development of a strategic action plan to underpin the Regional River Health Strategy, to provide direction and funding justification for the specific activities and works that need to occur in the Coliban Catchment to protect water supply values.  Stakeholder engagement was a critical part of the development process, with several community, agency and indigenous meetings and workshops held during 2005 to enable their input.  The draft Action Plan was completed in May 2006 and released for broader community comment and input and these comments are currently being reviewed and considered for incorporation.

• Drinking Water Risk Management Plans

Under the Safe Drinking Water Act 2003, Water Authorities are obliged to develop Risk Management Plans for Drinking Water and cover the supply systems from ‘catchment to tap’.  Coliban Water has completed risk management plans for each of the seven water supply systems within the service region.  Within the plans, we have documented catchment risks for our water supplies and where the opportunities lie in addressing these risk.  The next step for Coliban Water will be in working with land managers and responsible agencies to manage these risks and over the coming year, it is likely that an internal business strategy will be developed  to address the more ‘diffuse’ or harder to manage risks that are commonly found in open catchments like ours.

• Special Area Plan for Lake Eppalock and its immediate surrounds

• Proactive Catchment community liaison and partnership

Coliban Water is committed to working with Landcare and Catchment Groups to undertake on-ground works and planning to protect the linkages between land use and catchment water quality.

Sandhurst Reservoir showing the immediate catchment

• Development of a Northern Sustainable Water Strategy

• Sewering of small towns to protect surface water quality

Status of any investigations, funding proposals or works programs (GS or JS to provide the paragraph – similar to Envirosafe implications for the environment)

• Involvement in development of Municipal Domestic Wastewater Management Strategies

• Fulfilling Statutory Planning Obligations
  

Planning Application referral consideration and advice to Councils for strategic development within the potable water supply catchments

• Septic Tanks and Groundwater Protection in the Hepburn Shire

Coliban Water is working in partnership with the Hepburn Shire, Central Highlands Water, Goulburn-Murray Water and the CRC for water treatment and Quality to determine if shallow groundwater beneath unsewered towns is subject to pollution from on-site wastewater disposal/treatment systems.  Three towns have been chosen to focus the study and include; Lyonville, Glenlyon and Coomoora.  The water quality parameter nitrate has been chosen as the indicator for groundwater pollution.