Overview

The Swan and Canning rivers flow through the heart of Perth. The rivers provide an important environmental and community resource. In 2004 the Western Australian Government declared the Swan River as the State’s ‘first heritage icon’.

The impacts of current and past land uses, shallow, slow-moving rivers and streams, combined with sandy soils and a drying climate have made the river system vulnerable to a range of environmental issues.

River health has been of concern from as early as 1880 when the Swan River was used as a ‘depository for filth of every kind’. In the 1940s waste from a sewerage treatment plant and urban drains caused algal blooms and noxious odours. In response the State Government set up the Swan River Reference Committee to report to the Minister for Works on ‘any matter which it considers detrimental or dangerous to the River or to the use of the River’.

Concern for the fate of the rivers saw the creation of the Swan River Conservation Act 1958. Thirty years later the Swan River Trust Act 1988 established the Swan River Trust (the Trust) in 1989. The Trust was formed to simplify river management, which had become the responsibility of around 30 agencies and Local Government Authorities (LGAs).

The Trust is a state government agency responsible to the Minister for Environment. The Trust has an annual budget of $18 million and employs around 60 professional and technical staff. The Department of Parks and Wildlife provides administrative support. The Trust works with over 40 state agencies and LGAs that have management responsibilities for the 72 km2 of waterways, public land and adjoining river reserves that make up the Swan Canning Riverpark. Universities and community-based groups also contribute significant resources to Riverpark management.

The Swan and Canning Rivers Management Act 2006 (the Act) provides for a more coordinated and collaborative approach to managing the river system. Under the Act the Trust is responsible to ‘protect and enhance the ecological and community benefits and amenity’ of the Swan and Canning Development Control Area (DCA) and Riverpark.

To achieve this the Trust must ‘coordinate and promote the activities of other bodies that have functions in relation to the catchment area’ where these may affect the Riverpark. The Act requires that the Trust prepare an overarching River Protection Strategy (RPS) to outline agency responsibilities for river management and report whether targets are met. All agencies must then work together towards achieving the agreed RPS objectives.

This performance audit examined whether the environmental health of the Swan Canning river system is adequately protected. We assessed whether the Trust has a good knowledge of the health status of the river system, and whether this knowledge is used to prioritise key threats and manage those key threats to protect and enhance the river system.