We have a unique opportunity to change the future for Australian rivers but we need your help.
Your input is very important to us. The more people complete this survey, the stronger our plan for the future will be, so we want to hear from everyone!
BOORYUL-BAH-BILYA
Our rivers and waterways are in trouble
Many rivers and waterways are degraded and less than 1% are in pristine condition. Common threats include urban expansion, climate change, pollution, salinisation, acidification, vegetation decline, altered flow, erosion and sedimentation.
Management of rivers and waterways is fragmented and shared across many different agencies and landowners. Despite the good work of many, the health of our rivers and waterways continues to decline.
To have a realistic chance of restoring triver health for the future, new thinking and approaches are urgently needed.
A new initiative for healthy rivers
We believe that we have a unique opportunity to change the future for our rivers.
BoorYul-Bah-Bilya is a new initiative developed by Bibbul Ngarma Aboriginal Association that aims to address this by creating a new type of community plan for rivers.
Our plan focuses on the Mandoon Bilya (Helena River) catchment, but we hope that it will have far-reaching impacts by creating a process that can be applied to any river.
Our plan is timed to coincide with the 2029 Perth Bicentenary. This is an important opportunity to consider the devastating impact of colonisation on our rivers and future challenges of a drying climate and growing population.
Through BoorYul-Bah-Bilya, we hope to create transformative change for all rivers and leave a lasting legacy for all Australians.
How is BoorYul-Bah-Bilya different?
We believe that our plan is different to anything that has been created before. It is the first plan of its kind to:
1. Consider environmental, social, cultural and economic values in one integrated plan. This will enable us to create a better balance between the many values of rivers.
2. Consider an entire river catchment from the headwaters to the mouth. This will enable us to design and deliver coordinated actions at a landscape scale that transcend land ownership, boundaries and legislation and help us understand how small incremental changes impact the whole system over time and space.
3. Be created by the community for the community. This will enable us to apply traditional knowledge from Noongar people to design a strong plan that is most representative of the whole community and allow government, businesses, schools, residents and community groups to contribute equally towards the future vision.
4. Be created from a grass-roots level with local knowledge and experience. This will enable us to benefit from the extraordinary local knowledge and experience that exists within our community and include everyone in a shared journey of interactive activities that anyone can be part of.
5. Establish a transferable and scalable blueprint that can be applied to any river.</span This will help us to create the widespread transformative change that is urgently needed for all rivers and leave a lasting legacy for all Australians.
Community-led integrated plan
By developing an integrated community catchment plan, we can create a shared vision and journey to:
- Restore the river’s health
- Protect the river’s cultural significance
- Enhance the river’s social value
- Improve community health and wellbeing
- Support sustainable economic growth and local jobs
Leading to:
- Healthy ecosystems and increased biodiversity
- Protected and connected cultural experiences
- Active, inclusive and thriving communities
- Resilience to climate change and urbanisation
- A transferable process for community-led healthy rivers
A 3-staged program of activities will be delivered leading up to the 2029 Perth Bicentenary. Each stage builds on the previous through data gathering, community engagement and information sharing.
Information collected will be shared with the community to provide continuous learning opportunities for everyone.
BoorYul-Bah-Bilya is centered on inclusion and engagement which are essential to enable the community to embrace a new vision for the river and feel empowered to contribute to its future.
Shared community vision and journey
- The plan will use a values-based sustainability framework to consider the river’s environmental, cultural, social and economic significance from a community perspective.
- The plan is being developed through a series of collaborative initiatives that focus on sustainability of the river’s values and shared community knowledge.
- Information collected will be shared with the whole community, including an interactive education platform that provides a shared learning journey for everyone.
- The plan will identify actions that can be implemented by community and government working together to create a shared journey that everyone can be part of.
- This shared journey will embrace the scientific, social, aesthetic, historic and spiritual values of the river's catchment in a holistic and integrated way, and connect our community under one shared vision for the future.
Get involved
Transformative change requires everyone to work together.
Restoring river health is not achievable by one organisation alone and it will take collective action to halt the decline. The combined knowledge of the whole community is needed to develop a robust plan that is supported by many people.
BoorYul-Bah-Bilya is centered on inclusion and engagement which are essential to enable the community to embrace a new vision for the river and feel empowered to contribute to its future.
BoorYul-Bah-Bilya is led by Noongar Traditional Owners but designed for the inclusion of everyone. We are working with a wide range of community groups, businesses, schools, researchers, residents and government agencies to collate data and develop our plan.
This includes Whadjuk Aboriginal Corporation, DBCA, DPLH, DWER, Water Corporation, Local Governments (Mundaring, Kalamunda, Swan), Curtin University, Edith Cowan University, LHAAC, eDNA Frontiers, Helena River Catchment Group and many others.
If you would like to get invovled or share information with us, we would love to hear from you!
BoorYul-bah-bilya sTAGE 1 ACTIVITIES
RANGER PROGRAM
Developing senior and junior ranger programs to support the implementation of the integrated catchment plan on the ground.
CULTURAL MAPPING
Documenting the river's significant places, events and people from an Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal perspective.
CONSERVATION AUDIT
Landscape-scale conservation audit to document the current ecological health of the river and establish a baseline to measure future changes.
access audit
Mapping access to the river's places to inform development of trails, recreation and eco-tourism opportunities.
community education
Establishing a community education platform to share knowledge about the river and increase our community's understanding of its values.
information sharing
Sharing information with our community to inform development of the plan. We would love to hear from you if you have knowledge to share!
Thanks to our supporters
Establishment of the BoorYul-Bah-Bilya program was supported by seed funding from the University of Western Australia through the Waterways Western Australia program. The inaugral project of Waterways Western Australia was the Mandoon-Helena River Confluence project, led by Professor Anas Ghadouani, which documents the community’s vision for the Mandoon-Helena River: “The river’s health is protected and restored for all to enjoy through connection of people with place and culture, and enhancement of environmental and social values that support sustainable economic development.”