Upper Ovens Waterway Incentives 2025-26

Upper Ovens Waterway Incentives 

 

What are the Waterway Incentives? 

Funding has been made available as part of the Victorian Government’s EC6 Waterway Health Program ‘Continuing to Uncover 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, Happy Valley and Buffalo 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 2026. 

 

Expressions of Interest 

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

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. 

THE EOI PERIOD WILL RUN FROM 21 MAY TO 30 JUNE 2025 

 

Eligibility and Project Conditions 

Project locations: 

• Barwidgee and Happy Valley Creeks: 

 

• Buffalo Creek: 

 

To be eligible for funding under the Waterway Incentives program: 

• The applicant must be willing to: 

• Sign up to a management agreement and commit to on-going maintenance of the site. 

• Provide a fencing set back of a minimum of 20 m from the top of the bank. A small tolerance of <10% of fence length within 10 m may be accepted where a fence cannot practically be set back to the required distance. Note, sites with larger setbacks are preferred and will score higher. 

• Convert any Crown frontage licences within the project area to a Riparian Licence (or a new licence will be required where the Crown frontage is unlicensed). 

• Comply with any Works on Waterways permit conditions. 

• Complete all project works by 30 May 2026 (if not before). 

• The EOI form must be filled out in its entirety and received by the CMA by 5pm 30 June 2025. Failure to answer the mandatory questions may lead the North East CMA to deem the application ineligible. 

• The proposed works must meet the objective of the program and be within the North East CMA’s area of operation. 

• Applicants must have management rights over the proposed project site. A community group must provide evidence that they are a Committee of Management for the proposed project site or they have the written support from the land manager to undertake the proposed works. 

• The site must not be subject to an existing agreement for the same activities. This includes an existing Incentive Management Agreement, tender agreements, offset sites for permitted native vegetation removal (either on-site or third party) or is receiving management payments for biodiversity conservation and restoration works under a current agreement with the CMA. 

• Sites must be sufficiently protected from stock access. Sites that are deemed by the North East CMA as having a high risk of unrestricted stock access (including from a neighbour’s property) may be ineligible. 

• Applicants must have complied with the conditions of any previous grants from the North East CMA. 

Activities deemed by the North East CMA to be largely for private asset protection or maintenance will not be funded including: creation of dams, protection of water pump sites, boundary fencing (unless along a waterway), revegetation not connected to a waterway or wetland or catchment health. 

Funding and Scoring 

Funding will be provided for actions that meet the objectives of the program; eligible on-ground activities include: 

• Stock-management fencing of waterways and wetland areas. 

• Planting of native vegetation to restore riparian habitat and increase connectivity. 

• Control of invasive weeds to assist in the restoration of riparian habitat. 

Applicants that are successful in receiving funding are expected to contribute labour for the activities. 

There is no minimum or maximum funding amount set for individual projects at this stage, however, the North East CMA reserve the right to review this during project evaluation. In addition, applicants need to be realistic about the amount of work they can undertake and contribute to. 

Table 1 – Rates for Works Associated with the Upper Ovens project 

 Incentives program 

Eligible Activity	Rate
Standard conventional fencing	$12/m
Standard electric fencing	$7/m
Modification of an existing fence	$2.82m
Re-vegetation tube stock only	$3.00 (seedling only)
Re-vegetation seedling and guard	Up to $7.00 (dependent on type/size of guard)
Standard weed control (based on site assessment) †	Up to $1,400/ha

† Weed control costs will only be available to treat current weed infestations. Areas of the project site not currently infested are not eligible for incentive funding. 
* The CMA may manage the delivery of large, more complex mechanical woody weed removal sites and/or high priority targeted sites. For these sites, the total cost of weed control would be covered by the CMA. 

Sites will be scored utilising the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action Riparian management works benefit: cost scoring calculator incorporating: 

• Site benefit  

• Downstream benefit  

• Connectivity benefit   

• Likely success of the project over the long term  

• Initial cost of the project  

• Ongoing site costs 

PAYMENT OF FUNDS 

There are two payment options available to program participants, depending on whether they are private landholders/land managers or a community group: 

• Landholders: 50% of the total payment will be made upon signing of the contract; and 50% of the total payment will be made upon completion of works and sign-off from the Project Officer. 

• Community Groups: a payment schedule may be negotiated between the applicant and the North East CMA. 

Please note that failure to complete the works within the agreed timeframe or to the standard specified in the management agreement may require repayment of incentive funds.  

NEXT STEPS… 

1. Get in touch with the CMA if you need any assistance with your project idea or EOI submission. 

2. Download the EOI form (Word doc) here and Submit your EOI by 5pm 30 June 2025 via: 

3. E-mail: incentives@necma.vic.gov.au with ‘Upper Ovens Incentives EOI’ – your surname’ as the subject (preferred method). 

2. Post: Incentives Expression of Interest, North East CMA, PO Box 616 Wodonga, VIC 3689. 

3. We will contact you to arrange a site inspection where required and discuss your proposal in more detail or provide an explanation if your EOI does not progress to assessment. 

For all enquiries relating to the program contact Scott McDonald scott.mcdonald@necma.vic or call 1300 216 513. 
 

North East CMA is committed to protecting your privacy and to the responsible handling of your personal information. The CMA will only use the personal information provided by you for the purposes for which it was collected and any other authorised use. Information the CMA collects may also be used for our own planning and research purposes to improve the services to the community. Information collected may be disclosed to third parties including funding bodies for the purpose of funding announcements, where functions are being outsourced or if disclosure is required or authorised by law.