Announcing Healthy Estuaries WA

On Thursday 4 June 2020, Minister Kelly announced the State Government’s $25 million Healthy Estuaries WA program.

The Healthy Estuaries WA program builds on the work of the Regional Estuaries Initiative and will drive action in catchments to improve water quality and restore the environmental balance of estuaries.

Healthy Estuaries WA will also deliver core actions of the Revitalising Geographe Waterways program.

The program will continue work to reduce nutrient inputs from priority catchments, use the latest science to monitor and effectively manage waterways, and continue to build collaboration between community, scientists, government and industry. 

The estuaries to be funded as a part of the program are the Peel-Harvey estuary, Leschenault Estuary, Vasse-Geographe waterways, Hardy Inlet, Wilson Inlet and Oyster Harbour, and expands to include Torbay Inlet.

Malcolm Robb, Aquatic Science Branch Manager at the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation, said the announcement was great news for water quality and for the communities that live around our estuaries.

“The Regional Estuaries Initiative has been so successful because of the commitment local communities, catchment groups and industry have shown in protecting our waterways,” Malcolm said.

“The new Healthy Estuaries WA will allow us to carry forward this momentum and continue to work with our partners to protect the estuaries that we all enjoy.

“We are very excited to also be able to add Torbay Catchment Group to our list of partners. Torbay Inlet has shown signs of deteriorating health for many years and we will be working hard to reduce nutrient runoff from agricultural land.”

Find out more about Healthy Estuaries WA and Torbay Inlet, or read Minister Kelly’s media statement here

Torbay Inlet