Melbourne Water’s Healthy Waterways Strategy (HWS) 2018-28 sets a medium-term vision for managing the health of rivers, wetlands and estuaries in the Port Phillip and Westernport region, to protect and improve their value to the community. Critical to the effective delivery of the HWS is the development and implementation of a monitoring, evaluation, reporting and improvement (MERI) framework for ‘key values’ throughout the three ecosystem types (rivers, wetlands and estuaries) in Melbourne Water’s 69 sub-catchments.

Melbourne Water partnered with EnviroDNA to develop and perform an eDNA MERI program that monitors key biological values including native fish, birds, frogs and platypuses. Surveying targets the key values in all river sub-catchments, 29 estuaries and a sub-set of high priority wetlands. Performing such a broadscale monitoring program has previously required the use of multiple different survey techniques (e.g. electrofishing, netting, acoustic listening etc.) that are costly, time-consuming, invasive, often lack sensitivity and can be a high safety risk for operators.

We are applying eDNA metabarcoding and target species qPCR to monitor biodiversity at landscape scale and contribute to condition assessments between 5-year reporting periods. EnviroDNA has developed a robust sampling strategy, integral to the effective delivery of reporting requirements for the MERI, and the ability to detect a change in species presence at the sub-catchment scale. The framework is suitable for refining existing ecological modelling, mid and end-term HWS reporting and investment planning purposes. The baseline data already collected at ~1800 sites across Melbourne is actively being used to inform investment decisions, manage risk and respond to pollution incidents across the catchments.