Date: 17 July 2018
Time: 9.30am-2.00pm
Venue: Manningham Function Centre, Doncaster

Why this workshop?

It is well recognised that each of us has responsibility for ensuring healthy waterways, and if we work collaboratively, we will have greater impact.

This workshop provided opportunities for waterway stakeholders to:

• Celebrate our work together since the start of the collaboration in October 2017
• Provide early feedback on the draft Strategy
• Explore how we can continue to work together to achieve the targets and performance objectives we have set ourselves.

Who attended?

A total of 54 participants attended the workshop:

• 34 participants were external stakeholders who represented a diverse array of groups including: councils, community groups, water authorities, VicRoads, Parks Victoria, and DELWP.
• 20 participants from Melbourne Water helped support the conversations and provide catchment knowledge. These included teams such as Integrated Planning, Service Delivery - Waterways and Land, and Customer and Strategy.

Part 1: Setting the scene

Daniel Besley (Project Manager, Regional Waterway Strategy at Melbourne Water) opened the workshop with a call for urgent collective action. He highlighted the pressure climate change and population growth will put on our waterways and Melbourne Water’s commitment to work tirelessly with others to avoid a decline in waterway health. Dan also heartily thanked the workshop participants for their commitment and work since October 2017, in developing a Healthy Waterways Strategy that can be co-owned and co-delivered.

Facilitator, Geoff Brown, invited participants to reconnect with each other and share a ‘stretch’ in the way we have worked together to co-design a strategy. Geoff explained that a ‘stretch’ is anything that participants have noticed that is different from the norm, or something new - an extension compared with past strategies.

Collaborators identified the following ‘stretches’ in collaboration:

• Engagement with communities, particularly on cultural issues
• The focus on amenity and stormwater
• Meeting new stakeholders and learning through the collaborative approach
• Sharing information, including the science behind the targets.

Participants also shared significant achievements since the group last met in March, including:

• As part of the consultation process on the Yarra Strategic Plan, the campaign ‘Imagine the Yarra’ launched an interactive map that the public has been adding markers and stories to
• The launch of the vision for the Yarra River
• The refilling of the Annulus Billabong
• Consultation on an issues paper to support the work of the Improving Stormwater Management Advisory Committee.

Part 2: Draft Strategy

Dan gave an overview of the draft Strategy and explained:

• How the 1807 comments received on the preliminary targets and performance objectives have informed the draft, with the largest number of comments – about 700 - from this catchment
• That 73% of a representative sample of residents from the Yarra catchment support the vision developed for the catchment by the collaborators.

(Download the presentation Overview of draft Healthy Waterways Strategy – Yarra (PDF).)

Participants were then invited to form small table groups, and identify parts of the draft Strategy that are:

• On target
• Missing
• Required clarification or outstanding

Participants were then invited to form a human sliding scale representing how aligned they felt with the draft Strategy and share their thoughts on the draft. Key highlights included:

• The overall presentation of the document is much improved
• The information presented for each sub-catchment enables suitable prioritisation and alignment of activities
• Several targets should be more ambitious to drive investment
• There must be stronger emphasis on the need for everybody to be on-board to succeed.

(Download the outcomes, Workshop participants’ feedback on the draft Strategy (PDF).)

Part 3: Senior Level Commitment

Phil Ross (District Manager, North East Melbourne, Parks Victoria) explained his involvement as part of the Project Leadership Team (PLT) for the refresh of the Healthy Waterways Strategy over the past two years. He shared the ongoing commitment of Parks Victoria to the collaborative implementation of the Strategy, including as an ongoing member of the PLT and through collaborative planning with stakeholders and the community.

Part 4: Looking to the future – How do we implement the strategy together?

In May 2018, a regional Collaboration Lab developed initial proposals for:

• An on-going platform of collaboration
• Governing the implementation of the Strategy
• Tracking the effectiveness of the Strategy

Luisa Macmillan (Merri Creek Management Committee), who was among the 32 Lab attendees, shared her experience of the lab and its outcomes.

(Download the presentation Collaborative Implementation Lab Outcomes (PDF).)

Building on the lab outcomes, Daniel Besley presented a proposal for collaborative implementation of the Strategy that built on the lab outcomes. The five key elements of the proposal are:

• A regional HWS committee
• Five catchment implementation forums
• ‘Pop-up’ regional co-design labs
• ‘Pop-up’ catchment project groups
• Activities to assist multi-scale connectivity

(Download the presentation, Collaborative Implementation Proposal (PDF).)

Participants were then invited to form ‘like’ stakeholder groups, and provide feedback on the proposal. The groups present represented: community organisations, state government, local government, and others.

When reporting on their discussions, the participants expressed general support for the proposal. They also identified areas for further exploration including:

• Annual gatherings to engage a larger number of State government agencies
• The importance of a communication strategy
• Robust data management and tracking
• How to find the right balance between detailed planning and strategic issues at the catchment forums (splitting the agenda may be an option)
• Aligning with other forums (such as IWM) to make best use of everyone’s time
• How best to engage those who are not at the table yet
• How best to share lessons learnt across the catchments

(Download all Feedback on the collaborative implementation proposal (PDF).)

Using the Poll Everywhere voting system, participants were asked how committed they were to working together on implementing the Strategy. The results showed a very high level of commitment, with 93% of respondents stating that they were committed or very committed.

Part 4: Next steps

To close the workshop, Dan Besley thanked the participants and described the next steps in the process, including:

• Consultation period for draft Strategy would close on Sunday 22 July
• Opportunity to ask a question on the draft Strategy via Your Say
• The hope to submit a final draft strategy to Ministers in September
• The plan to get together again in the Spring to continue to collaborate on the implementation of the Strategy

Part 5: Evaluation from the sensing sheets

The project and each workshop are being evaluated to provide opportunity for ongoing learning. As a final action, participants completed a sensing sheet and provided comments on the design of the workshop and their experience of collaboration.

The response rate was 74% (40 out of 54 participants):

• 60% of respondents say that new collaborations are emerging from the Strategy renewal process.
• 80% of respondents felt they were now making a stronger contribution to waterways health at this stage of the renewal process.

During this workshop, they particularly enjoyed working collaboratively on implementation and drawing on the strong relationships developed over the series of workshops.

(Download the outcomes, Evaluation of the sensing sheets.)

Question: What did you enjoy most about today?

Question: What is one specific difference the HWS workshop have made to what you do on waterway health?