A waterway can be a creek, brook, river, or stream, and include a lake, estuary or inlet at its base. Waterways also include floodplains and wetland systems that overflow into rivers, as well as any lakes or swamps that are filled (mainly) by streams rather than shallow groundwater.

Any waterway in Western Australia is likely to be owned and managed by a number of different landowners and organisations.

Cooperative relationships in the community are essential for good decision-making that sustains the health of the waterway. This is because:

• the variety of land uses in a catchment means there will be differing perspectives on the management of a waterway
• the potential to manage all waterways directly through legislation is relatively small
• upstream land use impacts have downstream effects.

A key aspect of sound waterway management is to ensure that the range of views, interests and aspirations we hold for our waterways are identified and managed.

Our Role

The Department of Environment and Conservation supports the delivery of waterways management:

• at the State scale - through policies, legislation, cross-regional issues
• at the regional scale - through supporting groups such as regional Natural Resource Management (NRM) groups, groups of local councils and regional development commissions
• at the catchment scale - through supporting groups working to integrate all aspects of catchment management
• at the local scale - by providing technical advice and support for river restoration activities through Rivercare Officers (employed by the Department or regional NRM groups).