ll

(c) proposals for financing the scheme (including provision for

maintenance); *
(d) a statement of the net annual value or capital value of
the property to be benefited.

This general plan and description should be sent to the Minister with an application for
submission to the Governor in Council for the constitution of a trust.
If so required by the Minister, the applicant shall furnish details of the proposed works and
also of all proposed interferences with any public or private property, and such other information
as the Minister requires. The applicant may for any of these purposes enter on lands and make
Surveys.
Any expenses occurred by a council for these purposes may be paid out of the municipal fund of a
municipality.
A notice stating that the application and general plan and description has been sent to the
Minister, and stating in what places copies of such general plan and description have been
deposited for inspection, must be published by the applicant once at least in each week for
three weeks, in some newspaper circulating generally in the area in respect of which the
application is made, in the Government Gazette, and in one at least of the Melbourne daily
newspapers, The applicant must forward to the Minister a true copy of all notices so published,
and a copy of every relevant newspaper, and a reference to the date and page of each
Government Gazette.
Within a month after the last publication of any such notice in the Government Gazette, any
person having any property or interest likely to be affected by the proposal may send to the
Minister a petition to the Governor in Council asking for the refusal of the application, for
alterations to the plan, or for such other action as the petitioner may ask.
A copy of the application, the general plan, and the description must be deposited at the
offices of every council which is a party to the application, and at the office of the Minister, for
inspection by any person who wants to see them.
At the expiration of two months after the last publication of any such notice in the Government
Gazette, the Minister is to submit to the Governor in Council the application, plan, and
description, with any recommendations he thinks desirable. If the Governor in Council approves,
he may constitute the trust by Order in Council.
12

Scope of a River Improvement District.

When the formation of a river improvement district is being considered, ofie of the
most important points to be decided is how far it is to extend.
The simplest case is where a district is formed out of the lands along one main river, and
under an authority whose sole respon
sibility is the care of that river.
Usually, however, a main river will have tributaries which are themselves in need of improvement.
Rather than have a series of small districts for each of these, it would probably be better for the district
along the main river to extend up the tributaries as far as these were in need of improvement.
Along the Latrobe, for example, there are a whole series of tributaries, some of which need snagging,
while others are eroding badly. From the main scour along the Gippsland Avon there have developed
branch scours up several creeks. The Ovens has a number of tributaries in urgent need of control. In
each of these cases, the district could be made to include the tributaries as well as the
main river.

An extension of this principle could be made where several main rivers, with similar problems,
are relatively close together. The Thomson and Macalister, for example, could well be in one
district and under the management of one authority; as could the Snowy and Brodribb,
Furthermore, as abovementioned, for the purposes of this Act river improvement
includes draining land. In the catchments of many of our main rivers there are areas
where drainage works are necessary; for instance on the Latrobe and the Snowy, as
well as smaller streams such as the Powlett. Any river improvement trust formed for
such a river could undertake the drainage work in addition to, and indeed in conjunction
with, its other river improvement work, if its district included the areas needing drainage.
There would be distinct advantages about this plan, as then the whole scheme could be
planned and controlled as one.
Drainage Areas.
There are in Victoria a number of drainage areas formed under the Drainage Areas Act, each
under the control of the local Shire Councii.
The Drainage Areas Act serves a useful purpose with regard to a certain type of case
—that is, when a relatively limited area of
13

land, entirely within one municipal district, is in need of a systematic scheme of drainage. The
River Improvement Act is not intended to supersede the Drainage Areas Act, which will continue
in operation.
Certain drainage areas, however (those along the Latrobe River), were formed for the purpose of the
maintenance of improvement works on the Latrobe itself. Others have been formed which have for one of
their main objects the improvement of one river or another.

In such cases, the work to be done by the drainage area could generally be done
better if the lands were included in a river improvement district, particularly where the
river runs through or between several municipal districts,
In general, moreover, the provisions of the River Improvement Act are in many ways more
elastic than those of the Drainage Areas Act. Even where the work proposed is mostly drainage,
it may sometimes be better for a drainage district to be formed under the River Improvement
Act, rather than a drainage area. This is particularly so where the area to be drained carries a
large amount of through drainage or extends into two or more municipalities. It may thus be
desirable to convert the control of a tract of land from a drainage area to a drainage trust, or to
bring several existing drainage areas into one drainage district under the River Improvement
Act.
The River Improvement Act therefore makes provision that a river improvement or drainage district may
be formed to include any drainage area under the Drainage Areas Act 1928, and that the drainage area
may, at the time of constitution of the district, be abolished and its property, income, assets, right, and
liabilities vested in the river improvement authority in charge of the district.
Alternatively, the Governor in Council may by Order convert one or more drainage areas into a river
improvement or drainage district, making any financial or other provisions necessary.
RIVERS AND STREAMS FUND,
The Act transfers from the Commissioner (or Minister) of Public Works to the Minister of Water Supply
the power to make grants from the Rivers and Streams Fund.
Under the Country Roads Board Fund Act 1930 (No. 3944), all fees and rentals received in
respect of water frontages are paid into an account kept at the Treasury and called the “Rivers
and Streams Fund.” The money to the credit of this Fund may be applied, on the
recommendation of the Minister of Water Supply, for or towards
| 4

river improvement. Under the River Improvement Act 1948, additional money may be paid into
this Fund as approved by the State Treasurer.
Grants from the Fund are made only to municipal councils or other public bodies, and
not to private individuals. Private landholders, however, may arrange with public bodies,
such as local shire councils, to obtain grants on their behalf and to carry out the works.
Such grants may be made for or towards works of river improvement; but are intended for
works of lasting benefit, and not for work. which is merely maintenance.
The following is the basis on which grants are now made:—
(i) Grants to be only towards the cost of local improvement works which are not of sufficient
magnitude to warrant the constitution of River Improvement Districts,
(ii) Grants to be only for removal of snags or other obstructions of streams, or for the protection
of their banks from erosion.
(iii) Grants not to be made towards remedying gullying or other forms of soil erosion, but to be
confined to improvements on recognized rivers and creeks, such as those along which there are
permanent reservations (see list published in the Government Gazette, No. 1881, page 1389,
Order in Council 23rd May, 1881), as the Fund has been built up from rentals from River
Frontage leases.
(iv) All Grants from Rivers and Streams Fund to be on basis.
of £4 from Fund to each £1 contributed locally.
The procedure to be followed is that the public body desiring a grant makes application to the
State Rivers and Water Supply Commission. With the application should be sent a brief
description. of the work proposed; a locality plan and sketch plans; and an estimate of cost, as
well as an intimation that the local contribution will be forthcoming.
If necessary, the site of the proposed work is then inspected by an officer of the Commission,
and a report prepared for the Divisional Engineer for Rivers and Streams. If satisfied that the
work is desirable and comes within the scope of the Fund, the Commission makes a
recommendation to the Minister, and the applicant is notified of his decision.
15

The Council or other authority receiving the grant then carries out the work and submits to the
Commission a claim for reimbursement from the Fund, forwarding with its claim vouchers to
prove the expenditure.
For approved expenditure the Council is repaid on the relevant basis up to the total of the
grant. For instance, if the job is estimated at £120 and the basis of contribution is £4 to £1 the
grant is made up to £96. If the job costs only £90, the Council sends in £90 worth of vouchers,
and gets £72 back; if the job costs £120 it gets £96 back; but if the job costs over £120, it
receives only £96—the limit of the grant.
A grant is available for twelve months from the date of its approval by the Minister, and at the end of
that period, if no extension is granted, the grant automatically lapses and any unexpended balance
reverts to the Fund. If, therefore, an authority is prevented by any cause (e.g., continuous flooding) from
carrying out the work within the twelve months, it should apply before the end of that period for an
extension of time.
In the case of a private landholder (or group of landholders) desiring to obtain assistance
from the Fund, he should ask the local Shire Council to apply on his behalf, making suitable
arrangements with the Council as to the manner of making his contribution. This may be in
cash, or labour, to the satisfaction of the Council and the Commission, but in the latter case it
must be borne in mind that the Council has to produce vouchers for the full amount of
expenditure. (It is suggested that it may be better for the Council to collect the landholder's
contribution in cash beforehand and then pay him for any labour, carting, etc., he does.)
Thenceforward the procedure
is the same, the Council carrying out the work and claiming the grant.
It should be noted that—

(i) The works, however undertaken, must be supervised by a

qualified engineer and be in accord with the plans and specifications submitted.
(ii) No grants are made for work already carried out.
(iii) The Council should not arrange for the landholder benefited to carry out the work on
a piecework or lump sum contract, without advertisement, unless prior approval is
obtained from the Commission.
(iv) Separate applications must be made for work on different
StreamS.
lü

From the time of its constitution in 1931 to the present date, nearly 900 grants,
totalling about £150,000, have been made from the Fund towards the cost of improving
streams and protecting land, or for allied work such as river surveys.
It may be expected that, in future, many of the rivers for the innprovment of which
grants have been made in the past will be maintained by River Improvement Trusts.
There will, however, still be many streams outside the control of these Trusts, and care
will be taken to see that a sufficient proportion of the Fund is reserved to deal with
applications regarding these streams.
With co-operation betwen the Municipal Councils, the landholders along the rivers,
and the Commission, this Fund will play a most important part in improving the condition
of the rivers and streams of Victoria.
GENERAL.

The passing of the River Improvement Act 1948 does not mean that all river and drainage
problems in Victoria are automatically solved, or even that they will be solved in the near future.
There is a vast amount to be done; more, probably, than is generally realized. Only steady,
planned, and purposeful work extending over many years, with full co-operation of all
concerned, will enable the best results to be obtained.
These results, however, are well worth striving for. Australia has far too little of the combination of good
land in good rainfall areas. Every job done to protect and improve some of these lands yields direct
benefit in increased or assured production, and helps thereby in the building up of the nation. This Act
provides a basis whereon can be built a system of river improvement and drainage which will in time pay
handsome dividends, not only to the individual landholders concerned, but also to the nation as a whole.
It provides a means whereby landholders who genuinely desire to improve or protect their properties can
help themselves and help others to help them; and it provides a way of ensuring that when money is
spent on river improvement the value of the work is not lost,
Legislative provision for river improvement and land drainage is now adequate; funds are now
available; and with full and wholehearted co-operation between landholders, local authorities
and public departments, rapid progress can now be made in the urgent task of restoring and
maintaining in efficient condition the rivers and streams
of this State.