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What are the Waterway Incentives?

Funding has been made available as part of the Victorian Government's EC5 Waterway Health Program "Uncovering the Ovens" program from the North East Catchment Management Authority (CMA) to assist landholders and community groups to improve the health of waterways and catchments on the Barwidgee and Happy Valley Creeks. These locations fall within the Upper Ovens Flagship project area and will complement existing investment in Upper Ovens by the CMA.

The incentives program supports eligible landholders and community groups to improve the condition and extent of riparian land along waterways and wetlands through:

  • Improving stock management along waterways.
  • Increasing the condition, structure and diversity of native riparian vegetation.
  • Increasing the extent and connectivity of native riparian vegetation.
  • Reducing the impact of invasive pest plants.

All applications for funding will be assessed on a competitive basis. All works must be completed by 30 May 2024.

Expressions of Interest

The North East CMA is calling for expressions of interest (EOI) from landholders and community groups within the Barwidgee and Happy Valley Creeks, Upper Ovens.

PLEASE COMPLETE ALL DETAILS ON THE EOI (DOWNLOAD BELOW)

THE EOI PERIOD WILL RUN FROM 6 MARCH TO 11 APRIL 2023

Once your EOI has been received, a North East CMA staff member will undertake a preliminary assessment of your application against eligibility criteria. For eligible sites a site inspection will be arranged to discuss your proposal in more detail or provide an explanation if your EOI does not progress to the next stage.

Applications will be assessed against a scoring system that not only looks at the ecological value of the site and the proposed activities but also at the value for money. The highest-scoring eligible applications will be successful in obtaining funding, however, the CMA reserves the right to select projects that achieve the outputs we are contracted to deliver across the catchment.

Who Can Apply?

Individual landholders and community groups can apply to manage specified sites that are either privately owned or for which they have management rights (such as a Crown land license holder or a Committee of Management on public land) within the Upper Ovens project area. Priority will be given to landholders with riparian lands/ land adjacent to priority waterways and wetlands.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL 2022-23 UPPER OVENS WATERWAY INCENTIVES EOI INFORMATION DOCUMENT

DOWNLOAD THE 2022-23 UPPER OVENS WATERWAY INCENTIVES EXPRESSION OF INTEREST FORM