Tuesday, 28 November 2023

Herne Swamp

Samantha RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (18:15): (621) My adjournment matter tonight is for the Minister for Planning, and my ask is that she provides an update on whether the Herne Swamp in Melbourne’s northern corridor in my electorate will be restored and protected. I am speaking today on behalf of the community groups and environmental experts who are advocating for Herne Swamp to be made a central feature of the proposed Wallan Wallan regional park. They have identified that this swamp has significant ecological value as a home to many important and endangered native species of Australian flora and fauna. It also plays an important role as a headwater region providing outflows to the beloved Merri Creek.

Proper restoration and integrated management of this area would deliver a multitude of environmental benefits, including a reduction of flood risk, erosion prevention, groundwater protection and local heat control. There would also be social benefits to the community, including a space for recreation and education and improved visual amenity, and importantly it could provide an opportunity for meaningful reconciliation with traditional owners of the land, for whom healthy waterways are a key concern. We have recently seen the connected marram baba parkland returned to Wurundjeri and Woiwurrung people for management. Any development upstream from this area in the Herne Swamp region is likely to impact on the waterways and natural environment of the marram baba area.

The Herne Swamp sits within Melbourne’s northern growth corridor, and the development plans estimate the catchment area will be home to 300,000 people. Despite the scale, developments in the area have commenced without adequate planning and consideration of the flood-prone nature of the wetlands, let alone other ecological and community value available through the swamp’s restoration. There is already urban residential development occurring in the north-western portions of the former wetland. This development will likely increase flooding risk by reducing the storage volume of remaining wetlands and by increasing stormwater run-offs during storms. This fate has already befallen many former wetlands and flood plains within Melbourne’s urban environment, with acute consequences that continue to be felt by many residents who find themselves living in areas now at risk of flooding. Development in the Herne Swamp is not yet extensive, so we have an opportunity now to plan strategically for the future.

Minister, we do not have to see another region of Victoria inundated by floods due to poorly informed planning and a failure to work with communities, so I ask you to listen to the experts and to passionate community members, including those at the Friends of Merri Creek and the Nature Glenelg Trust. They are calling for restoration and preservation of the wetlands through the implementation of the Wallan Wallan regional park model before it is too late.