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West Gippsland CMA, landholders, community and other partners working together to protect the Rainbow Creek

Rainbow Creek, a vital West Gippsland waterway, has been strengthened through a multi-year project involving willow removal, native planting, and community partnerships to improve flood resilience and ecological health.

By news@gippsland - 12th August 2024 - Back to News

Flowing through farmland in the floodplains between Cowwarr and Heyfield, Rainbow Creek is a short but significant waterway in the West Gippsland catchment. For the past four years, we have been delivering the Thomson and Rainbow Management Plan to keep the Thomson flowing and to nurture the young, fast flowing Rainbow Creek.

Over four years, West Gippsland CMA worked with partners to implement the Thomson and Rainbow Management Plan, strengthening Rainbow Creek for wildlife and flood resilience

Restoring waterway health

Together with landholders, community and other partners we've been weeding, fencing, removing willows and planting native vegetation to strengthen the Rainbow, keep it healthy for local wildlife and communities and protect it from future flood events.

Watch Waterways Project Officer David Stork and Project Delivery Officer Elsa Burnell talk about the exciting work that's been happening and what they hope to achieve next. The plan will implement actions within the Thomson River and Rainbow Creek Waterway Management Plan, which was developed in collaboration with community and agency representatives during  2019 and 2020.

The project will seek to address the risk of avulsion (where a waterway creates a new path in times of flood) across the agricultural land between the Carran Carran (Thomson River) and Rainbow Creek. This will require partnerships with landholders and on ground works to remove willows, treat avulsion 'hotspots', plant native vegetation and fence off waterways. The program of works will see improved waterway health, with benefits for agriculture, the community and the Gippsland Lakes.

Pictures from West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority Facebook page.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com