The Shire of Collie’s draft report on the Collie River Revitalisation Strategy 2018 – 2022 is now available online for community comment, following a public meeting held last Wednesday.
The draft strategy is a review of the 2008 Collie River Revitalisation Plan, which has seen the management of nardoo, riffles and biofiltration basins installed to control nutrient concentration and riverbanks progressively re-vegetated.
Shire of Collie president Sarah Stanley said the purpose of the new strategy was to assess the river’s history and current state to identify actions to improve the health and amenity of the Collie River as a community asset.
“It identifies challenges to the river system including declining rainfall, salinity, nutrient concentration and changes in mine dewatering and includes a number of treatment options for discussion,” she said.
“Once finalised, the preferred treatment options will be costed and realistic time frames for implementation developed.”
Weeds and Waterways committee member Ed Riley said getting action on the Collie River had been hard.
“The strategies such as the construction of the river gates at Venn street fully support what I’ve been saying for the last 10 years,” he said.
“We have neglected to ensure to have water in summer for some years now and the upgrading of the stop is the highest priority.
“The recommendation that action should be taken at Minninup Pool is certainly nothing new, it’s been brought up repeatedly.
“The report has told us little that we did not know, I would again urge the Shire of Collie to support and implement recommendations to upgrade the Venn Street river stop and prevent further damage to Minninup Pool and the river bed.
“The Soldiers Park rock riffle cost ratepayers around $110,000 and that has failed to deliver.”
Collie Rotary Club secretary and Friends of the Collie River coordinator Donna Davies previously made comments on the draft report and said she was happy with it.
“We fully support the initiative and will continue to work with the shire to improve the aesthetics of the Collie River,” she said.
“It will work towards some of the pressures that have been put on the river.
“We acknowledge that there is a reduced rainfall because of climate change and the shire has done some brilliant work over the past five years in improving some of the issues of the river.”
A Department of Water and Environmental Regulation spokesperson said they support the shire’s development of the Collie River Revitalisation Strategy through the Weeds and Waterways Advisory Committee.
“The department has provided technical advice on the draft strategy document during its development. This advice has focused on improving the quality of the report to support the aspirations of the Shire of Collie,” they said.
“The department did not receive an invitation to attend, or any request to have a role at, the event. The advice provided thus far, and the feedback that will be provided by the community, will provide a good platform to further guide the shire’s work.”
Members of the community have until Friday, September 14 to submit feedback on the proposed strategy to feed into council’s decision-making process.
To view the draft strategy go to https://www.collie.wa.gov.au/council/out-for-comment/ and any comments to the draft can be emailed to email colshire@collie.wa.gov.au