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Glenelg Hopkins - Natural Resource Management region

Regional summary

The Glenelg Hopkins region covers approximately 26,000 square kilometres, extending from close to Ballarat in the Central Highlands of Victoria west to the South Australian border and south to the coast. Home to 96,800 people, the region contains a range of natural assets. It has an abundance of arable land, secure surface water storages, large reserves of underground water and a broad agricultural production base.

Agriculture in the region is characterised by grazing and cropping, with significant diversification into other land use options, including forestry, grapes, herbs, cut flowers and eel fishing. The deep water port in Portland is a major import and export facility and services a range of industries, including agriculture and forestry.

Priority issues

Key natural resource management issues in the region include:

• regional and agricultural sustainability
• biodiversity
• waterway health and water quality soils and salinity
• pest plants and animals
• coastal areas

Regional plan

The Glenelg Hopkins Catchment Management Authority was responsible for developing the Glenelg Hopkins Regional Catchment Strategy, in consultation with the local community. This Strategy was based on a whole-of-region approach and addresses significant natural resource management (NRM) issues incorporating social, environmental and economic aspects.

Once the Regional Catchment Strategy was accredited, the Glenelg Hopkins Catchment Management Authority was responsible for developing the Regional Catchment Investment Plan. This is essentially the business plan that has been developed to attract investment from the Australian and state governments and details the specific actions, costs and timeframes required to implement the Regional Catchment Strategy.

More than 115 Landcare groups operate in the region, representing more than 75 percent of local farms. Other organisations include field naturalists, societies for growing Australian plants, Coastcare, Waterwatch, Fishcare and other environmental groups.

• Glenelg Hopkins plan  - accredited April 2003

Current activities

NRM priority	Activities addressing the priority
Soil decline and salinity	maintain salinity levels agreed at targets for 90 percent of the time Hopkins River at Wickliffe <15,000EC Hopkins River at Hopkins Falls <7,500 EC Glenelg River at Sandford <3,300 EC Glenelg River at Sandford <3,300 EC Wannon River at Henty <5,840 EC
Waterways	total stream length in good to excellent condition to increase by 50 percent in the Glenelg Basin; from zero percent to 10 percent in the Hopkins Basin, and by 20 percent in the Portland Coast Basin
Native Vegetation	increase native vegetation to 30 percent of the catchment increase the cover of depleted ecological vegetation classes to at least 15 percent of their pre-European cover double the cover of endangered plant species and communities
Regional sustainability	develop industry-specific best practice environmental management system guidelines for whole-farm planning increase management options for producers by supporting research into more sustainable agricultural practices

Contacts

Further information can be obtained by contacting the Regional Facilitators for Victoria.