The Dealing with Dirty Rivers report (Alluvium 2017) identified priority reaches within the Lake Wellington catchment that posed greatest risk of instream sources of sediments and nutrients impacting on water quality targets for the Gippsland Lakes. Work sites will be prioritised using the Dirty Rivers priority reaches (Alluvium 2017).
This project targeted some of the ‘dirtiest’ river reaches within Lake Wellington catchment that contribute the most sediment to the Gippsland Lakes and transformed them by securing landholder agreements then fencing, removing weeds and replanting the river reaches to reduce riverbank erosion and the risk of sediment/nutrient transportation downstream to the Gippsland Lakes.
Along Rainbow Creek, the team protected over 50 metre wide buffers on either side of the river, with four kilometres of fencing and 7.1 hectares of weed control and revegetation of the site. With cattle and willows removed, plants can recover, bank erosion is reduced, natural filtration is increased and significantly less sediment is transported into the beautiful Lakes.