The Community Vision for the Birrarung/Yarra that came out of the Yarra/Birrarung Act said, ‘What is good for the Yarra is good for all.’ I interpret that to mean from one viewing that if we can’t do better with the Yarra then we are unlikely to do any better for any other ecosystem anywhere else in Melbourne or the state.

The hashtag#Yarra is a flagship for environmental work and the think is and should be expanded elsewhere. The hashtag#Birrarung has the Birrarung Council reporting annually; there is Birrarung Burndap Birrarung Umako (Yarra Strategic Plan); there is hashtag#MelbourneWater’s annual report on the implementation of this plan; and there is the State of the Birrarung and its Parklands report by the Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability of Environmental Sustainability. The work heralded in the Birrarung Act now seems to be coalescing. The start was slow with the North-East Link long delaying the release of Birrarung Burndap Birrarung Umako but now it is released.

We have two reports from the Birrarrung Council and two from the Commisioner. Now is time for the fingers to get planting, metaphorically and literally. The Commissioner rightly highlights in her recently released report the importance of community. It is a principle of the act, in the Water Act and in the Land and Catchment Acts, and if not actually ignored has not been given the prominence it deserves. That is a failure. Community offers so much. On the Yarra, and elsewhere so many of the net gains have come from community, from community work and from community pressure: look at Westgate Park, at Merri Creek, at Darebin Creek, at Yarra Flats, at Warrandyte Pak, and the list goes on and on.

So thanks to the Commissioner for the report and for highlighting the importance of community and for recommending community to the attention of government.