Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority

The CMA was established in 1997 as the peak natural resource management body in the region to develop and oversee the implementation of the Regional Catchment Strategy (RCS). The RCS guides efforts to ensure land and water resources are protected and enhanced as well as improving the region’s social wellbeing, environmental quality and productive capacity in a sustainable manner. The catchment covers 2,431,655 hectares or 10.5% of Victoria. Although it occupies just 2% of the Murray Darling Basin, the Goulburn Broken Catchment region provides 11% of the Basin’s stream flow. The region stretches from close to the outskirts of Melbourne in the south to the Murray River in the north. The catchment includes Victoria’s main water storage, Eildon and the popular Mt Buller Alpine Resort. It includes the municipalities of Moira, Campaspe, Mitchell, Murrindindi, Mansfield and Strathbogie Shires, Benalla Rural City and the City of Greater Shepparton. Approximately 1.4 million hectares is dryland agriculture, 270,600 hectares is intensive irrigated agriculture and 800,000 hectares is public land. The region supports major agricultural (dryland and irrigated), food processing, forestry and tourism industries. The major commodity is food, but wool, timber, tourism and recreation are also vitally important to the region’s economy. The annual economic output of the SIR is $4.5 billion. Over 200,000 people live in the catchment. The region has a large Indigenous population (approximately 6000) as well as a large number of people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds including people from many parts of Europe and the Middle East. Population numbers swell considerably during the fruit harvest season from December to March, when approximately 10,000 workers from throughout Australia and overseas converge on the SIR. Major natural resource issues are water quality, dryland salinity, native vegetation decline, biodiversity and pest plants and animals.