We will progress our reforestation plan to plant 71 hectares of land at Blue Rock Lake to help offset our carbon emissions.
The decision has been informed by extensive community consultation and technical reviews and assessments, which covered bushfire risk, cultural heritage, land suitability and visual amenity.
Initially, approximately 200 hectares of Southern Rural Water land was considered for the reforestation plan at Blue Rock Lake, which was pared back to 75 hectares to accommodate community concerns about bushfire risk.
A small number of people expressed that they’d like additional bushfire buffers around the Hunts Road area.
We committed to listening to all feedback provided by the community. In response, we agreed to remove a further four hectares of plantings in the north-west corner of Blue Rock Lake around Hunts Road to provide additional bushfire buffers in this area.
This means after careful consideration, and consulting with our technical team, we will progress with planting 71 hectares of land, and this will help to achieve our emissions reduction plan.
Southern Rural Water has a legislative requirement to reduce its environment impact and achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2025.
Net-zero carbon emissions mean balancing the amount of greenhouse gases produced with those removed from the atmosphere.
The reforestation plan, that also includes plantings on other Southern Rural Water land, will remove up to 34,300 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over 25 years.
Our plantings at Blue Rock Lake will generate Australian Carbon Credit Units that we can use to offset our Scope 1 vehicle emissions while we transition our fleet to zero emissions by 2030.
Reforesting sites will also help improve water quality that will have flow on benefits for recreational water users, urban water authorities and their customers.
Southern Rural Water will actively manage weeds and pests for lifetime of the plantings and will be the subject of regular audits to ensure this is being undertaken effectively.
Site preparations will begin mid-2026, and planting at Blue Rock Lake will commence during winter 2026. It’s expected plantings at the site will take approximately three months.
For more information visit our project page.