Deb Brown

River Health Policy Officer
River Health Program, Department of Sustainability and Environment

Bachelor of Environmental Science with Honours

"I am happily using the knowledge and skills I learnt at university in a job that is rewarding, and being part of a national program leading in its approach to managing rivers and streams.".

The Bachelor Of Environmental Science allowed me to study a range of subjects in geography and environmental Science including hydrology, soils and resource management as well as freshwater and conservation biology, physics, maths and chemistry. In the first few years I learnt a lot of the basics for a range of disciplines. In my final two years I focused in on majors in hydrology, environmental policy and conservation biology. I did my honours in the Geography department looking at River Health Management in Victoria. A very good sounding board for my current career. I am also currently undertaking a Graduate Certificate in River Heath from Melbourne University.

While studying at University, I was lucky to be awarded a Cadetship with Dept of Natural Resources and Environment (now Department of Sustainability and Environment). The cadetship meant that I undertook a range of office placements and was guaranteed a job at the end of my studies. A very useful thing! The range of placements across the state during the university holidays included working with Waterwatch Victoria, macro invertebrate monitoring, and habitat analysis in the Wombat State Forest and for the last two years of my degree a range of placements with the River Health Program.

At the end of my degree I was offered a full time position within the River Health Program working as a River Health Policy Officer.

The cadetship enabled me to apply the knowledge in a range of disciplines I had gained as part of my studies. The degree ensured that I had an understanding of a range of issues relating to environmental and water conservation.

I am happily using the knowledge and skills I learnt at university in a job that is rewarding, and being part of a national program leading in its approach to managing rivers and streams.

The River Health Program works with a range of regional Catchment Management Authorities to delivery a range of programs and works to manage and improve the health of rivers across the state. As a program, we manage in excess of $30 million annually that goes to improving the health of Victoria’s rivers and steams. The program invests in riparian management and fencing, environmental flow recovery, the removal of fish barriers, community education and engagement and a range of other activities.

In addition, as a group we provide advice and assistance on a range of river health issues to stakeholders including state Ministers, regional staff and other members of DSE.

Within the group I have two specific roles. The first is to manage the development of ten regional river health strategies across the state. A regional river health strategy identifies the social, economic and environmental values of every river in the state, and associated threats or risk to those values. The strategy develops specific actions to protect the high value assets (i.e., good environmental flows and water quality) and actions to restore other values such as riparian zones and instream habitat. These strategies are the first in Australia to take an asset based approach and outlined clear priorities for investment into river health. So it is quite exciting to be involved in. My everyday role is to ensure that these strategies are in-line with Government requirements to clearly outline priorities for state and federal investment in river health.

In addition to that development of Regional River Health strategies, I also manage the Victorian Water Trust - Healthy Rivers Initiative. This is a $16 million initiative over 4 years and focuses on improving the condition of Victoria’s high value rivers such as the Broken River, Tarra River and Ovens River. The initiative also has a focus on improving the communities understanding of river health issues and undertaking a range of research projects to better understand the complex nature of river systems.

While the majority of my job is based in Melbourne, I am lucky enough to get out and see a lot of Victoria and be involved in a range of regional based projects.