Appendix One : Research

from Research Project A : Melbourne Complexities

Reflective Statement

REFLECTIVE STATEMENT

Throughout the development of Mapping Two: Realigning the Discord, what I discovered and uncovered was that the alteration of a system resource and its management could reestablish lost beliefs, educate users and improve river health, accessibility and the symbolism that it holds. Rather than using the applied legislative boundaries of a contemporary context, the establishment of borders based on the landscape and its entities or resources that the traditional landowners once held. This would be to pay respect to the previous histories of the land, the owners, and the beliefs held prior to colonisation. The classification of the Yarra as an entity shows that this knowledge is needed and should be extended to the tributaries and further upstream to encompass the resource and give its power back. This raises the question of personification of a resource and entity, and where does it start and finish? Does this make the tributaries relatives of this entity? Do we need to reestablish custodians of such resources? The landscape in a future where resource management, especially water and its availability, will be steeped in power holding and quantification of such resources.

APPENDIX ONE : RESEARCH

Explore the discord between human occupation and the regulation of nature and its relation to the existing outlining city matrix and how it could inform planning in the urban environment for future climatic statuses.

Pre-1830s Aboriginal people lived close to waterways throughout Victoria. Rivers and creeks often formed boundaries between clans and provided meeting points and places for ceremonies. The Yarra River was called Birrurung by the Wurundjeri people. There were many wetlands where Melbourne and its suburbs now stand, which were great food and water sources. The wetlands included the Carrum Carrum Swamp (which stretched from Mordialloc in the north to Frankston in the south) and the area south of the Yarra River (Albert Park Lake is all that remains of this once extensive wetlands area).

Map showing pre European wetland

1840s onwards

(The History of the City of Melbourne, 1997)

Each block was subdivided into twenty allotments of approx half an acre. Each purchaser was to undertake the construction of a substantial building on the land within two years. In 1845, the Council appointed a Public Works Committee, which reported three months later that 400 tree stumps had been removed from the town's main streets but that 1 000 remained to be cleared. By 1849, however, most of the principal streets were paved, the footpaths gravelled, 250,0001: and the centres of the roads metalled. Some roads had kerbed and pitched water channels, while one thoroughfare even had a few oil lamps placed on wooden posts

1840s Melbourne's rivers and creeks were often used as a dumping ground for waste from homes and businesses. Waste in rivers and creeks caused disease outbreaks and damage to the environment. As the water was not safe for drinking, people had to buy clean water from commercial water carters.

FUTURE HUMAN OCCUPATION

'Forecasts show by 2040, the number of people living in the City of Melbourne is expected to increase by almost 80 per cent and reach over 328,000. To accommodate this, the city will see over 56,000 new dwellings ' (City forecasts - City of

Melbourne, 2022).

Today, urban development is more sustainable in its approach, and water sensitive urban design is being introduced into suburbs to protect water quality and river and creek health. Waterways are now also valued in the urban landscape.

'However, continuing urban growth has led to a decline in river health. As in the past, it will be a challenge to protect rivers and creeks as their lands change.' (History of our rivers and creeks | Melbourne Water, 2017)

1891 Melbourne Water’s predecessor, the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW) was formed to take responsibility for both water supply and the treatment of sewage. Around the same time, approximately 157,000 hectares of forest in the Yarra Ranges was closed to the public to catch, store and filter rainwater. Melbourne is one of only five cities in the world with protected water catchments.

1934 Extreme storms caused widespread flooding. Port Phillip Bay experienced record high tides and the Yarra River reached 12 meters above normal height. It became clear that the city needed a better drainage system. 1924 Despite periodic floods in many parts of the city, very little had been done to develop a drainage system for Melbourne. The Metropolitan Drainage and Rivers Act was established to define the city's drainage requirements. Many wetlands were drained or filled in for development, and some creeks and rivers were altered for flood control.

1950 Rapid population growth after World War II in Melbourne meant that new supplies of water were urgently required.

1970 The introduction of the Environment Protection Act in 1970 ensured a major improvement in river health. Industrial waste had to be treated rather than being emptied directly into rivers and creeks. Many of Melbourne's outer suburbs and rural areas were connected to the sewerage system.

1977 The Drainage of Lands Act strengthened the MMBW's ability to prevent development of flood-prone land. This heralded a new approach to drainage in which engineers tried to mimic nature, by slowing down flood waters through retarding basins and flood plains, rather than trying to get rid of flood waters as fast as possible 1974 Flash flooding in the Maribyrnong River, Moonee Ponds Creek and Merri Creek caused havoc. In response to this disaster, the MMBW installed monitoring devices to measure flow levels and linked these to the Board's telemetry system to provide early

1993 In September Melbourne Water's telemetry (flood warning) system was put to the test and proved a great success – providing early warning of the heaviest flooding in the Maribyrnong River since 1974. 1992 The MMBW merged with a number of smaller urban water authorities to form Melbourne Water. Melbourne Water and the CSIRO announced an $11 million study into the health of Port Phillip Bay. The study was the first of its kind and took five years. It recommended reduction in nitrogen to the bay.

1999 Melbourne Water announced the $130 million Healthy Bay Initiative, consisting of major works and environmental improvements at the Western Treatment Plant and the construction of 10 wetlands in Melbourne's south-east growth corridor, designed to improve the health of Port Phillip Bay by reducing nitrogen flows from the Western Treatment Plant and stormwater run-off.

2006 Melbourne's water storages received the lowest annual inflows on record.

2010 The major catchments received the highest annual rainfall since 1996 2009 Devastating bushfires in February damaged about 30% of Melbourne's water supply catchments to some degree

Water Act

The Water Act 1989 (Vic) provides the legal framework for managing Victoria’s water resources

The main purpose of the Water Act is to:

• promote the equitable and efficient use of our water resources • make sure our water resources are conserved and properly managed for the benefit of all Victorians • increase community involvement in conserving and managing our water resources

While water is a natural resource, heavy control is exercised over the CBD and surrounding area, as demonstrated by the map on the right.

PLANNING & ENVIRONMENT ACT

The Planning and Environment Act (1987) (VIC establishes a framework for planning the use, development and protection of land in Victoria in the present and long-term interests of all Victorians.

• To provide for the protection of natural and man-made resources and the maintenance of ecological processes and genetic diversity; • To secure a pleasant, efficient and safe living, working and recreational environment for all Victorians and visitors to Victoria; • To conserve and enhance those buildings, areas or other places which are of scientific, aesthetic, architectural or historical interest, or otherwise of special cultural value. • Land use and development controls contained in each Planning Scheme support the objectives from the Act

1,270 2,540 © The State of Victoria, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning 2022

Meters Others Acts that have a bearing on future water management are • YARRA RIVER PROTECTION ACT • SUBDIVISION ACT Disclaimer: This information is sourced from Victoria Unearthed under licences. Victoria Unearthed is provided for information • HERITAGE RIVERS ACT purposes only to help Victorians to make their own further enquiries about land and groundwater. The State of Victoria does • CATCHMENT & LAND PROTECTION ACT not conduct checks on the accuracy of this information. The State of Victoria has no responsibility or liability for the information provided in or omitted from Victoria Unearthed and users agree to protect themselves from associated risks.

Existing research documents like the Healthy waterways strategery 2018 determine ecosystems and human occupation as quantitative components creating a list of priorities and suitable sites. Identifying that some waterways cannot be maintained for one or all values without an unreasonable and inequitable investment, due predominantly to urban growth and climate change pressures.

Local priorities have been determined based on each waterway's social and environmental values, including the presence of rare or endangered species, current condition, formal recognition of its biodiversity or cultural importance, naturalness or rarity, cost-effectiveness rankings, feasibility and scale of effort.

0 While the Environmental Infreasutre Inquiry submission from November 2020 first states, "We are the second largest public landowner in Victoria - 9% of open space within the urban boundary is on Melbourne Water land, used for delivering core water supply, sewerage and drainage services". It then identifies the current discord between the implementation of Planning '' While there are opportunities to align and connect water (including blue, green infrastructure) and land use planning at various scales.. continues to be a challenge. Strategic planning for blue-green infrastructure needs to be better integrated early into the land use planning process, enabling a better understanding of the benefit and investment distribution.''

It goes further to identify the current discord between legislation, planning and physical achievement of goals 'we have set ambitious stormwater targets in the Healthy Waterways Strategy.... To deliver on this target will require extensive stormwater solutions that can manage flows as well as water quality.'

NResidentail Zoning Industrial Zoning

0 1 2 Kilometres

Disclaimer The State of Victoria does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of information in this publication and any person using or relying upon such information does so on the basis that the State of Victoria shall bear no responsibility or liability whatsoever for any errors, faults, defects or omissions in the information.

Map Projection: GDA 1994 VICGRID94 Print Date: 3/5/2022 © The State of Victoria Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning 2022

N1 2 Kilometres Map Projection: GDA 1994 VICGRID94 Print Date: 3/5/2022

OUTLINING CITY MATRIX

Through the Draft City River Strategy 2019, the complex city matrix is broken down into themes. • Culture • Ecology • Movement • Place With this identification, the tangle of influences is used to help strategise context. Building on this knowledge, the Yarra Strategic Plan 2022 starts to identify the city matrix into the larger landscape and current context at a suburban level. REACH AND MUNICIPAL BOUNDARIES