<< BACK TO CONTENTS Despite the forecast of a dry year, rain storms and natural flooding across most of northern Victoria created super-wet conditions in rivers and wetlands. » Flows were coordinated across three major rivers in an effort to woo native fish hundreds of kilometres from the River Murray into Victorian waterways. » The banks of the Goulburn River stood up to erosion and slumping in a flood, in part due to earlier use of water for the environment. » Water for the environment was used to improve water quality in the Goulburn River, after natural flooding caused a blackwater event. » The central Murray wetlands became a haven for waterbirds in 2016–17 with the return of rare Australasian bitterns as well as magpie geese thought to be extinct in this region since 1913. » Monitoring found the Campaspe River had good numbers of silver perch for the first time in 10 years, and numbers of juvenile Murray cod were at their highest levels since monitoring began in 2007. » The threatened Murray–Darling rainbowfish bounced back, with significant numbers recorded in the wetlands of the Gunbower Forest. » Water for the environment in Hattah Lakes provided a refuge for aquatic animals, following a natural blackwater event that occurred in the River Murray after rain storms. » Floodplain vegetation, fish and frogs were thriving in the Barmah Forest, prompting a waterbird breeding boom. » Deliveries of water for irrigation in the Ovens River were coordinated to simulate a summer fresh flow to the downstream reaches. 59 | Victorian Environmental Water Holder
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