Darwin Harbour Catchment Waterways Project Update

Landcare NT is excited to share the progress of the Darwin Harbour Catchment Waterways Project, which aims to protect and preserve the Darwin Harbour catchment.

Our project team has been working closely with highly engaged stakeholders and community members to develop a comprehensive plan that covers monitoring, action, operations and implementation.

What We've Achieved So Far:

• Currently developing a Monitoring and Evaluation Plan, which will help us track progress and make adjustments as needed.
• Finalised our Project Workplan, which outlines specific actions, timelines, and budgets for the project.
• Ran a conservation management and monitoring & evaluation working group meeting at the Airport Resort on the 29th November. Landcare NT presented the Project Workplan which was well received by the 24 attendees who enthusiastically came up with detailed actions for the project plan implementation. A big thankyou to the Airport Development Corporation for kindly providing the venue at the Airport Resort for no cost.

What's Next:

• A number of meetings with Larrakia community meetings to get their thoughts and ideas and to set up a Larrakia Advisory Committee.
• Continue to design a qualitative monitoring and evaluation framework for the project to capture learnings from the community about the project. Completed a series of planning workshops, which have helped us identify key strategies for the project.
• Conducting a baseline weed survey and weed control in priority areas.
• Working with NTFRS and Parks to provide wet season prescribed burning training (informal) in January 2024.
• Hosting a fire management workshop in March/April 2025.
• Starting a Grey Literature Research project and planning for a baseline survey and assessment, as well as a community water monitoring project.
• Design and roll out our first accredited youth rangers' program.
• Work with community partners to deliver out our first program of community activities and events.

Our Goal:

Our goal is to work together with the community to protect and preserve the Darwin Harbour catchment, using monitoring data to analyse progress and tracking. We'll be regularly reviewing and evaluating our progress and adapting our approaches to ensure we're on track to achieving our goals.

Leslie Gordon and Michaela Spencer share with the group insights into qualitative place-based evaluation working alongside local Traditional owners – the Larrakia people.

DHWCP Project Manager, Mike Clark, discussing weed management strategies with Landcare group representatives.

Jonathon Burcher (Water Resources), Andrew Edwards (CDU) and Louise Kean (Parks and Wildlife) sharing visions on environment monitoring at the DHWCP meeting on 29 November.

Emma Smith (City of Darwin) and Jelise Camilleri (City of Palmerston) comparing environmental approaches at the DHWCP meeting.

Alix Campbell (Vacant Crown Land) and Ian J Hutton (Palmerston Conservation Group) discussing management strategies for the Mitchell Creek Catchment.

This project is funded under the Australian Government’s Urban Rivers and Catchment Program.