Rivers of Carbon – Yass River Linkages Stage 3

We are honoured to work in the Yass region and we recognise the continuing connection with, and knowledge about, land, waters and community of the region’s Traditional Owners. We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners and their cultures, and to Elders past, present and emerging.

Adapted from: Welcome to Country & Acknowledgement of Country – Creative Spirits
River Dreaming image (right). Artist: Richie Allen (Ngunnawal/Kamilaroi), Traditional Aboriginal Owners Corporation.

The banks of the Yass River at one of our Rivers of Carbon Yass River Linkages properties.

“Choosing to save a river is more often an act of passion than of careful calculation. You make the choice because the river has touched your life in an intimate and irreversible way, because you are unwilling to accept its loss.”

– David Bolling, How to Save a River: Handbook for Citizen Action

Why Yass?

The Yass River is valued by the many people who live by it, who sit on its banks fishing or enjoying the birds and watch the river flow past, and who use its water as part of their daily living. The Yass River is critical to the region as a water supply for urban areas, agriculture, wildlife and recreation. Over many years the Yass community has worked, and continues to work, to restore and rehabilitate parts of the river that have become degraded as a result of the negative impacts of vegetation loss and flow regulation. Rivers of Carbon: Yass River Linkages is an ongoing project that supports and extends the efforts of the Yass Area Network of Landcare Groups and others, who are committed to bringing the Yass River ‘back to life’.

Our Yass River Linkages projects offer incentives to landholders with properties with waterways for fencing, revegetation, invasive weed and willow control, erosion control and alternative water for stock access. Each site is assessed on a case-by-case basis through an on-site visit by project staff, and actions tailored to the restoration needs of the site, farm business and landholder vision.

We have been extremely fortunate to have received funding for Yass River Linkages Stage 3 from the Australian Government’s Murray-Darling Healthy Rivers Program to build on our previous restoration projects on the Yass River over the last 12 years. The successes of our previous projects restoring the Yass River are a testament to the hard work of the many champion landholders in the Yass River catchment and we are excited to support future restoration through our new Stage 3 of Rivers of Carbon Yass River Linkages.

Lucy (left) and Lori (right) visiting the Yass River with one of the project’s champion landholders, Rachael (middle)

Yass Project Area

Project Timeline:

Sep 2022 - Sep 2023

Outcomes we are aiming for:

4km of riparian fencing

2 alternative water sources

Revegetate 15ha of riparian land with 2000 tubestock

3 erosion control structures

2.5km of woody weed and willow control along the Yass River’s banks

Collaboration with Dreamtime Connections’ Indigenous Youth Green Army

1 community planting event

Want to get involved?

We would love to hear from you! Please check our map to see if you are within the Yass project area. If you are, get in touch!

Lori Gould, RoC Program Manager
✉️lori.gould@arrc.com.au
📞0439 030 058

This project is supported by the Australian River Restoration Centre, through funding from the Australian Government’s Murray-Darling Healthy Rivers Program.