Love your Catchment Management Authority...

I'm loving ours. The CMA in our area works very closely with Landcare in our area. Actually, they share the same building. That's how close they are!
I just got off the phone to the same guy I spoke to earlier this week and we are both very happy with the win-win situation presenting itself to us. I heard correctly last time when he said our creek falls under a priority area for the CMA and that there was the possibility of assistance with fencing and planting. He elaborated today, after calling me from where he was standing at the bridge over our creek, that our property will be high up on the list of priority properties for assistance in their program. In fact, he is compiling a list of sites to take investors to, and ours will be one of them.
He is impressed with the remnant vegetation at both ends of the creekline on our grazing licence area, there aren't that many willows and the creek isn't in a bad condition. They require an average of 10 metres on either side of the creek, which is half of what DSE required for EcoTender (about which we still haven't heard and now no longer require) for protection of the creek and the best bit is to come: the CMA will pay for fencing, erection of fencing and plants. Landholders pay for the first 10 metres of plants and the CMA pays the rest - sweet!
That leaves us with more money to fund conservation on the hills and fencing that Landcare won't cover on those projects. I am really having fun with this. What we 'lose' in grazing land (and it's debatable just how much was productive grazing land) we will gain in quality of life and boosted health of the remaining grazing paddocks. Instead of having 160 acres of varying quality land, we will end up with at least 30 per cent vegetation coverage, a very healthy waterway attracting aquatic, marsupial and monotreme life, a koala biolink, dreamy bird life, an exploratory wonderland for the kids and friends and family, and our grazing paddocks will thank us for it. In other words, there is no 'lose', only adjustment and gain.
We will meet with this key contact in the early New Year and then with these investors soon after that to make it all happen. The sooner we start the protection and reveg plans, the sooner we get to enjoy a wonderland that makes us money and gives us life.
As we approach our last Christmas in the Dandenongs, and begin to wind up our time here, I've got a skip in my step and a vision in my head to keep me from looking back. Forward motion.