General News
24 June, 2023
Monitoring legacy spans 28 years
Submitted by Melissa Pouliot When two retired farmers founded the Jeparit Waterwatch Group in 1995 they wanted to track the Wimmera River’s water quality and health for the benefit of the whole community. The impact of the Millennium Drought, the...
Submitted by Melissa Pouliot
When two retired farmers founded the Jeparit Waterwatch Group in 1995 they wanted to track the Wimmera River’s water quality and health for the benefit of the whole community.
The impact of the Millennium Drought, the 2010 floods, water for the environment releases and everything inbetween is part of a 28-year data set which builds a fascinating picture of Victoria’s only inland waterway that doesn’t flow into the sea.
The monthly monitoring of up to 12 sites from Antwerp to Lake Hindmarsh is now a unique teaching resource for the schools-based Wimmera River Detectives program.
It is also on open access on Waterwatch Victoria’s website.
Wimmera Catchment Management Authority’s Joel Boyd presented an award to group members and supporters, aged from 12 to 96 years, at a special ceremony held at Jeparit's West Wimmera Health Service campus.
When presenting the Waterwatch Victoria "Outstanding Service" award, Mr Boyd said it was an honour to help recognise the group’s long-term commitment to the community and the local natural environment.
“Retired farmers Alan McKenzie and David Livingston enlisted the support of Jeparit Primary School and coordinator Jeanie Clark to help track salinity levels in the Wimmera River in 1995," he said.
“What started as their interest in what was happening to the quality of their river water has developed into an incredible legacy of over 28 years of monitoring and counting.”
In the volunteer group’s history, they haven’t missed a month of monitoring.
During Covid, group member Martin Stone navigated restrictions and performed solo tasks to keep up their continuous monitoring record.
“These inspiring volunteers have raised awareness of the importance and value of the lower reaches of the river, while creating a picture of how various climatic events have impacted on river health,” Mr Boyd said.
At the peak of the Millenium Drought in June 2016, the group recorded that the small amount of remaining water in the river peaked at salinity levels of above 200,000 EC.
Sea water is around 50,000 EC.
The group has also recorded riparian (river bank) and ecological changes, such as increasing growth of phragmites and mistletoe.