[music]

[on-screen text: Sarah Gaskill Melbourne Water, Service Lead Water Resources & Compliance]

Sarah: We are on the banks of the Birrarung right next to the lovely Bolin Bolin Billabong. It's home to many plants and animals, got deep cultural significance. People like to come here, so it's a very significant billabong. The challenge about this billabong and many others in the lower Birrarung is they don't get the water they need to be healthy.

The way that water flows across the landscape has changed. Many, many moons ago, the Yarra would have engaged over bank flows and it would have got water perhaps once or twice a year. As Melbourne's developed, we've needed water for supply, so the flows in the river has changed so we don't get those over bank flows it needs to be healthy.

The Yarra has an environmental entitlement which is held by the Victorian Environmental Water Holder. Melbourne Water's a delivery partner. We have to plan and work with our water supply colleagues to release that water from Upper Yarra, from O'Shannassy, all upstream of Warburton, from Maroondah at Healesville, so it all comes down the river and that the whole river then benefits from that water.

When water's added to a billabong like this, we see all the weeds go and we see the native vegetation just go gangbusters.

[Melbourne Water logo]

[End of transcript]