Water Sensitive Bendigo taking pause to improve the partnership
The CRCWSC undertook an extensive collaborative process to develop a vision and transition strategy. The local Bendigo players have since acted upon the strategy by establishing a governance structure known as the Water Sensitive Bendigo partnership, and developing a three year implementation plan.
Driving Bendigo’s WSC transition are population growth and a drying climate—the population is projected to almost double to 200,000 people by 2051, yet rainfall is projected to reduce by a third over the period. This challenge adds to Bendigo’s history of being a water-stressed city. Luckily, the community’s resourceful and collaborative culture sees them continually innovating within their water cycle.
The Water Sensitive Bendigo partnership recently released its first annual report. The partnership took this opportunity to reflect on its successes for the year, identify key learnings from the collaborative process, and improve the partnership. The annual report demonstrates Bendigo’s strong commitment to the WSC vision and the need to continually reflect upon how cross-agency partnerships are going.
Liam Sibly, Senior Water Strategy Officer at the City of Greater Bendigo and the coordinator of the partnership, said, ‘The annual report was the perfect reason to bring together the CEOs of the partner organisations to discuss our progress and decide how to improve our working arrangements’.
This resulted in some significant improvements including a commitment by the involved CEOs to meet more often to strengthen the authorising environment. They also appointed Rodney Carter from the Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation as Chair of the Water Sensitive Bendigo partnership.
Key achievements for Water Sensitive Bendigo partnership for 2019–20 include:
- The co-design process to develop Reimagining Bendigo Creek Plan – This process involved six stages of collaboration with the community, relevant agencies and the Dja Dja Wurrung. The resulting plan has strong stakeholder and community support because of the co-design process. The community also recognises its potential to heal people and Country, improve the liveability of Bendigo, and revitalise urban ecosystems.
- The Dja Dja Wurrung delivering stage 2 of the Wanyarram Dhelk – Funding from the Integrated Water Management Forum (DELWP) allowed them to investigate and install an instream pond on the Bendigo Creek (first of its kind), and design and install a series of frog ponds along Koomba St White Hills.
- The City facilitating partner organisations to prioritise crown land sites for creating demonstration projects of water sensitive urban design – The most viable site, Long Gully, is now being progressed into detailed design as a demonstration for the partnership.
- A community of practice forming as the Water Sensitive Bendigo Network – This group shares information and builds greater relationships. Membership includes consultants, developers, agency representatives, community members and councillors.
- Eight members of the Water Sensitive Bendigo Network participating in a leadership program dedicated to driving forward sustainability initiatives – One team is exploring options for urban cooling in a water scarce city; and the other is exploring renaturalisation of a channelised drain along Back Creek.
Mr Sibly said, ‘Collectively, these are some really exciting developments that will create the necessary momentum to build a water sensitive city’.
IRP1 team member, Katie Hammer, is excited to see the strong progress being made in Bendigo.
‘From the beginning of the IRP1 workshops in Bendigo, it was clear we were working with a close-knit group of stakeholders who were committed to achieving greater outcomes for Bendigo. The development of the vision, governance structure and implementation plan has provided the means for ongoing collaboration and action’ she said.
In celebrating this great achievement, we proudly note that Bendigo joins Perth in spinning off from its origins in our IRP1 program. Both cities are exemplars of whole cities making the transition to becoming more water sensitive by shifting from strategy to action.
You can get a copy of the annual report and the implementation plan by contacting Liam Sibly at l.sibly@bendigo.vic.gov.au.. The Water Sensitive Bendigo Working Group welcomes your feedback and questions.
More on Water Sensitive Bendigo
Water Sensitive Bendigo is a collaborative partnership aiming to transition Bendigo to a water sensitive city. It was developed in response to the research project led by the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities in 2018.
The vision for Water Sensitive Bendigo includes Bendigo is a thriving inland city, where water innovation supports healthy people, green environments and resilient systems.
On 1 March 2019, five partner organisations signed a memorandum of understanding: Coliban Water, City of Greater Bendigo, the Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, and the North Central Catchment Management Authority. Three supporting organisations also signed: the CRCWSC, Department of Health and Human Services, and Goulburn–Murray Water. Regional Roads Victoria signed onto the MoU in July 2019.