About the Guide
This online guide has been created with the aim of helping generate a greater understanding about what is currently considered to be best practice in the field of rural creek rehabilitation in Australia.
The guide is edited by James Maund, see profile below, to help fulfil a perceived need for a comprehensive, easily accessible guide to best practice for rural creek rehabilitation projects. The guide is a synthesis of information drawn from a wide range of sources including:
Books, magazines and journals on waterway rehabilitation (see the bibliography link above).
Course material provided to waterway rehabilitation students.
Practitioners and teachers in the field of waterway rehabilitation.
Site visits to rehabilitation sites around Australia. and
Observations and data collected over a 10 year period, ongoing, from a 1km long best practice creek rehabilitation demonstration site. This project was initiated in 2009 and is located in Deans Marsh Victoria Australia.
The editor has done his best to ensure that this guide is as accurate and as comprehensive as possible. However due to a limited budget and the fact that what is considered best practice is constantly changing, readers should view this document as a guide only and undertake their own research where deemed appropriate.
One of the main aims of this guide is to facilitate communication between professionals and interested members of the public. For this reason the guide has been deliberately written in a style and using a vocabulary designed to be accessible to the widest range of readers possible. To be relevant to wide audience in some cases terms and concepts have been used in ways that readers may not be familiar with. To get the maximum benefit from using this guide, the editor strongly recommends that the viewer reads the Introduction to this guide. The introduction is contained in Chapter one; Important Definitions and Chapter two; Key Concepts prior to accessing the rest of the Guide.
Finally it is intended that the guide will be regularly updated as new information comes to hand. To this end if you have information that you believe would help improve the accuracy of the information displayed, then please contact the editor via the email at the link accessible at the head of the page.
“Best practice does not mean employing the most expensive solution, it means employing the most cost effective solution.”
About the Editor
James Maund is an Architect with over 25 years experience in his field.
In 2007 James has wound back his Architectural practice enabling him to focus more fully on his passion for helping rehabilitate Australia's creeks. James has been able to use his architectural and project management experience to bring a new set of skills to the practice of creek rehabilitation.
In addition to his Architectural degree James has:
Studied River Restoration and Protection at Charles Sturt University.
Completed the Wise Waterways program, a short course in waterway rehabilitation for waterway professionals.
Been extensively involved in process of creek rehabilitation for over 10 years.
Initiated an ongoing field trial of current theories relating to cost effective rehabilitation techniques on a 1km stretch of damaged waterway
Designed and implemented a number of different creek rehabilitation projects.
Presented papers at the National Australian Stream management conference, 2014 and the Landcare National Conference also in 2014.
James is a member of the River Basin Management Society (RBMS). The RBMS is a representative body for “professionals working with land, water and natural resource management in Australia.”
In addition to his other interests James is currently creating an Arboretum of great tree species of the world on 100 acres of land in the Otway ranges in the South West of Victoria. www.frogwood.com.au.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank a broad range of people from around Australia who have been willing to share their knowledge, experiences and time to help me gain a greater level of understanding about rural creek rehabilitation.
In particular I would like to thank the people listed below for having generously made there time available to help answer what must have seemed at time like an endless stream of questions. Not only have these people been willing to help me free of charge but without their previous and ongoing work researching rehabilitating Australia’s waterways, this Guide would not have been possible.
(Please note that none of the individuals listed below have at any time indicated any form of endorsement for the contents of this guide.)