Issue 20 September 2024

Land transfers to the Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority improving management of coastal reserves

Eastern Maar Country (Image: Tourism Australia).

Significant progress has been made in the Victorian Government’s landmark reforms to establish the Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority (the Authority) as the dedicated parks manager for the Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks.

Their sole purpose is to protect, conserve, enhance and manage the Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks as one living and integrated natural entity, now, and for future generations.

Fragmented management of coastal reserves along the 355 km of coastline from the Thompson River to the Hopkins River has been reduced with the transfer of management responsibilities for coast and parks to the Authority from 11 different entities.

The Authority brings a holistic approach and landscape governance to the management of this special part of the State, and to making sure that visitation is environmentally sustainable.

The previous complex and fragmented management arrangements were inhibiting a coordinated response along the coastline to the impacts of increasing visitation, environmental forces, severe weather events and climate change.

To date, management responsibility for almost 60,000 hectares of land – including Coastal Reserves, Protected Forests, Recreational Parkland, and National Parks – in the Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks has transferred to the Authority.

The Authority also manages high visitation reserves and parks including the surf coast beaches, coastal town foreshores, caravan parks and tourism precincts such as the Cape Otway Lightstation Tourism Precinct.

They maintain 77 km of paths, trails and boardwalks, 27 kms of roads, 13 boat ramps, 25 seawalls, 81 coastal access stairs, 22 outdoor showers, and 41 amenity blocks and carparks.

All revenue raised on land managed by the Authority (from caravan parks, the Cape Otway Lightstation Tourism Precinct and commercial leases of public land) is required by the Great Ocean Road and Environs Protection Act 2020 to be invested back into the Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks.

The Authority will continue to scale up its reserves and park management operations over the next two years with the next phase of the reforms involving the transfer of management responsibilities for a further 110,000 hectares of reserves and parks, and to ensure environmental conservation obligations are met and cultural values protected.

The Authority recognises and works closely with the Eastern Maar and Wadawurrung Peoples as the traditional custodians of the lands and waters encompassed by the Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks.

Find out more at the Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority website.

Coastcare Victoria Community Grants 2024

Congratulations to the 22 projects that received funding through this year’s $204,000 Coastcare Victoria Community Grants Program.

These grants support projects that build the capacity of volunteers, improve environmental and cultural values, support community adaptation, and improve ecosystem resilience to climate change.

A snapshot of projects include:

• On the Bellarine Peninsula and Surf Coast, funding will deliver revegetation works to Fisherman’s Beach in Torquay and improve volunteer support, monitoring and public awareness of Hooded Plovers.
• Further west, funding will support revegetation and conservation at the Leywhollot-Fawthrop Lagoon Estuary in Portland and help remove Sweet Pittosporum at Point Hawdon on the Kennett River.
• Around Port Phillip Bay and Western Port, grants will support coastal revegetation works at Shoreham and Flinders, protect the St Kilda Little Penguin colony, boost citizen science in coastal protection on the Mornington Peninsula and support the Great Victorian Fish Count.
• In Gippsland, funding will aid in revegetation and protection works at Sandy Point and Harmers Haven, protect the endangered swamp skink habitat near Inverloch, help tackle the invasive Long-Spined Sea Urchin at the Beware Reef Marine Sanctuary, and restore seagrass in internationally significant Ramsar wetlands.

For more information, including a full list of recipients, visit Coastcare Victoria Community Grants.

Stay tuned and start brainstorming ideas for our 2025 grant round, which opens December 2024. For more information and to follow our socials, visit Coastcare Victoria.

Coastcare Victoria’s stewards protecting and caring for Victoria's 2,500 km of coastline.

Coastal Stewardship spotlight on Warrnambool Coastcare Landcare Network

The Warrnambool Coastcare Landcare Network in Victoria was established in 1995. Their focus includes:

• urban and rural revegetation on public and private land
• monitoring and conserving coastal and hinterland biodiversity
• community education on local fauna and flora
• supporting the startup and development of new natural environment groups
• building a broad network and
• advocating for better natural environment policy and actions.

The group have delivered the ‘Collaborating on Coastal Revegetation in a Cultural Landscape’ project through a 2023 Coastcare Victoria community grant. This project helped educate the community about the coastal vegetation and fauna near Mepunga Coastal Reserve, east of Warrnambool.

Through surveys and workshops like the Microbats and Moths evening, participants learned from experts about habitat, food sources, and foraging behaviour, including those of the critically endangered Southern Bent-Wing Bat.

The project also offered insights into the cultural and environmental significance of the coastline from a First Nations perspective, highlighted during a Walk on Country event in late 2023.

The Network also monitors little penguins and other seabirds as part of the Middle Island Project.

Read more about the Warrnambool Coastcare Landcare Network at Landcare Australia.

Find out how to get involved with the Network at the Victorian Landcare Gateway.

Warrnambool Coastcare Landcare Network community education event (Image: Landcare Australia).