Barwon Estuary Monitoring Project 2

 

Jetty at At The Heads, Barwon Heads

 

 

The Barwon Heads community have expressed an interest in establishing a public health driven, water quality monitoring program for the Barwon River estuary. The Barwon Estuary Monitoring Project Stage 2 follows on from a pilot program delivered in 2018/19 (BEMPP) whereby volunteers were engaged as citizen scientists to trial the monitoring of recreational water quality indicators, whilst keeping the community informed about public health impacts. The Barwon Estuary Monitoring Project Stage 2 aims to expand on this program, with the support of EPA (Victoria), The City of Greater Geelong, Barwon Water, Barwon Coast COM, Barwon Heads Association, and others. The community will collect data on the quality of water in the estuary, in the proximity of water outfalls and areas of high recreational use. A variety of parameters will be regularly measured including enterococci levels, ammonia and general observations of the appearance and odour of the water. The second phase of this project will increase overall understanding by targeting peak rainfall events as well as typical conditions.

The Barwon Estuary Monitoring Pilot Project is delivered in partnership with the community by Corangamite Catchment Management Authority. 

You can learn more about our upcoming BEMP2 Beach Study 2021 at Barwon Estuary on June 26 2021, by clicking here. 

 

 

Screen capture of virtual community meeting March 5

Community Meeting

During a community meeting held on Friday 5 March, general community and stakeholders were provided information on estuary monitoring, an introduction and overview of the Barwon Estuary Monitoring Project 2, participants were able to provide input into the monitoring program, through discussion of sampling sites from BEMPP which are being carried through to BEMP2. At the end of the meeting there was a call for volunteers, and so the project truly begun…

Water Quality Monitoring Sites Selected

Site assessments have been undertaken by Corangamite Catchment Management Authority to determine sites which will provide suitable information, as well as being safe for our community volunteers.

The monitoring program will stretch from mouth of the Barwon estuary, upstream as far as Sheepwash Rd and River Parade, and then across the river from the bridge to the Ocean Grove beach used for recreational usage, particularly across public holiday periods.  

Volunteer Training

Two volunteer training sessions were held during March for those interested in becoming citizen scientists. This was the first face-to-face training session in over a year for many of the attendees and we celebrated with hot drinks and Kookas biscuits. Volunteers ended the day as citizen scientists, having learnt about and put into practice, sampling techniques at the monitoring sites within Barwon Heads and Ocean Grove.

Three persons in high-vis participating in training

Meet The Volunteers

We now have 18 trained and ready volunteers ready to collect and contribute data to a community-driven, public health monitoring project. The volunteers will split into smaller teams, and Deirdre and Shaya, as Project Officers, are looking forward to hearing what team names emerge this year.

Reflecting back on the pilot project we had: The EstuaryWatchers, The Swamp Hens and The Spoonbills.

Monitoring Commenced

Weekly sampling is well underway as volunteers settle into the routine and get to know their team members. Monitoring has been undertaken by Barwon Estuary Monitoring Project volunteers and agency staff. High rainfall events have been reported to yield high results. As we are monitoring over the Autumn/Winter period, we expect the first high rainfall event which occurred on April 30, will be the first of many.  They will be collecting a variety of parameters which will be regularly measured including enterococci levels, ammonia and general observations of the appearance and odour of the water.

Snap of BEMP2 April newsletter

Subscribe to Project Update Newsletter

Here you will be kept up to date with the Barwon Estuary Monitoring Project 2. This is a place to find out about actions being undertaken to discover more about the health of the Barwon estuary as well as community engagement events and opportunities to get involved.

Keep up to date, sign up to the monthly newsletter.

April Project Update

June Project Update

 
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Stay Informed

Keep up to date at Barwon Estuary Monitoring Instagram.  We will be sharing how the project is progressing. We are also inviting the community to contribute to the Barwon Estuary Monitoring Project 2 by sharing their Barwon Estuary Images with us on Instagram using the hashtag #BEMP2 or tagging us in their images or observations. These images will assist in understanding what is happening in the waterway, as well as highlighting the community’s connection to the iconic estuary. The community are the eyes of the Estuary.