Page 748 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 9 March 2005
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lower Cotter catchment, a mixture of forestry and conservation land uses which drains into the Cotter reservoir.
The upper Cotter catchment is the main water source of Canberra. In total, the Cotter catchment is an area of approximately 50,000 hectares, of which about 10 per cent is used for forestry and the remaining 90 per cent for conservation purposes. One hundred per cent of the upper Cotter catchment, our main water supply source, is in conservation lands. The 2003 bushfire destroyed vegetation across the entire catchment.
With the scale of the damage and its catastrophic nature, it was inevitable that there would be some degradation of the catchment following the fires, and I will provide some information on the restoration work that has been undertaken to arrest and redress that degradation. Even the restoration activity itself was liable to result in some impact on the fragile environment. But doing nothing was not an option then and it is not an option now.
Knowing that we were dealing with a natural event on a scale not encountered before, the government took a sophisticated management approach to catchment restoration. It took the best available expert advice, began restoration activity based on that advice then modified action as required, based on monitoring. That approach has proven successful and is continuing in the catchment today. Professor Gary Jones, CEO of the Cooperative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology, just last week endorsed the approach set out by the government in the Shaping our territory report. Professor Jones also chairs the ACT Water Catchment Management Group, an expert group I set up last year to advise me directly on catchment management issues.
In the wake of the 2003 fires, the government’s first priority was to stabilise the environment in the upper catchment, the area draining into Canberra’s primary water supplies, Bendora and Corin dams. Restoration works in these catchments included a wide range of activities from field studies into the effects of the fires to on-ground restoration of roads, and soil stabilisation measures. Overall, several million dollars have been invested in restoration works in the catchment.
As an example, one highly significant project is the restoration work on the upland bogs of the catchment. These are the sponges of the system, collecting and slowly releasing water to the streams. They have high conservation value, being home to the endangered corroboree frog. Restoration of bogs like these was an Australian first; no-one else had attempted such a project. We have put in place a whole series of approaches—some quite experimental—and we are succeeding.
Another major component of the catchment works has been the extensive investigation and monitoring of the biodiversity values in the fire-impacted catchment. The conservation values of the catchment also need to be assessed and, where required, restored, in the wake of the fires. In an extensive program, Environment ACT is assessing fish, vegetation and mammals. The restoration work and natural regeneration have largely stabilised the upper catchments, although the works are still continuing.
Restoration work has also taken place in the lower catchment, the area that drains to the Cotter dam. The restoration of the lower catchment has not been focused solely on tree planting. Aerial grass seeding of 7,000 hectares was conducted very early on to help
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