It is the start of a new decade (2020), and so far for Streamology, it’s proven to be monumentally huge, with our team experiencing significant milestones, successes, challenges, and learnings. We’re excited to share all of this with you in our first Streamology newsletter!

Our year so far - Bush fires in the North East
Streamology started the year off being affected by the bushfires in North East Victoria. Several evacuations throughout January meant that our team were often scattered throughout different locations across the state. Whilst this was challenging, it uncovered our team’s resourcefulness and helpfulness. The coming together of the team, despite geographic isolation was truly affirming.

Bush Fire Recovery and Debris Flow Management

Coming out of these bush fires, Streamology’s attention has been on providing assistance to authorities with respect to managing landslides, debris flows and sedimentation in waterways.

With approximately 30% of the North East Catchment burned during these fires, there is significant potential for geotechnical activity, and sedimentation of waterways. Streamology has been looking at undertaking strategic and targeted works to reduce the undesirable impacts of debris flows and sedimentation. Stay tuned for more information about this in the future.

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…What is USIA, and why is it winning so many awards?

USIA stands for ‘Urban Streamflow Impact Assessment’, and describes a project undertaken by Sydney Water in collaboration with Streamology and CT Environmental.

USIA considers the growing pressure urban development places on the environmental condition of creeks, streams and rivers, and draws upon a values-based approach for managing waterways both now, and into the future. USIA links flows to specific values, and allows waterway managers to make decisions revolving around the preservation and conservation of environmental, social, hydrologic and geomorphic values.

“We need to manage stormwater runoff for the future.
We are committed to facilitating thriving, living rivers and catchments.”

Stormwater New South Wales Awards
We are delighted to announce that USIA has been recognised by Stormwater New South Wales as the winner of the “Excellence in Research and Innovation” category.

USIA has also been awarded with the following accolades:

Winner of the Stormwater Victoria ‘Excellence in Research and Innovation’ Award (2019)
Current finalist in Stormwater Australia’s ‘Excellence in Research and Innovation Award’ (To be announced in June 2020).
Finalist at the River Basin Management Society Awards Night (2019).

We believe this approach to stormwater management has a BIG future. Stay tuned for more educational blogs about sustainable, innovative stormwater management approaches.

A big heart-filled thank you to Mick Donges!
We’re very sorry to announce that our hill-running friend Mick Donges has left Streamology after a wonderful two years of service.

Mick has been instrumental in starting up our drone monitoring campaign, our big GIS projects, and has brought so much to the team over the years.

We are all very sorry to see him go, but wish him all the very best on his future ventures. We hope to run into Mick on the trails around Bright and stay in contact.

Thank you Mick for all of your hard work, dedication, efforts and inputs.

You'll be missed!

Welcoming two brilliant new team members:

Streamology is thrilled to officially welcome our two newest staff members Thom Gower and Neil Sutton!
Thom and Neil will be based in our new Melbourne office in Carlton North, and bring a wealth of knowledge, expertise, and skill to the team. We have loved having Thom and Neil on board so far, and look forward to all that is to come.

Neil is an environmental scientist, digital analyst and drone pilot with a passion for looking at things differently. After 10+ years of project managing and analysing digital marketing campaigns Neil realised he needed to reconnect with the environment around him.
Whilst studying a Masters of Environmental Management Neil has focused on gaining practical experience in the field to restore threatened waterways. Neil’s passion lies in finding root causes to problems and using data to guide decision making which focuses on sustainable results.He also loves to get his feet wet and to keep his drone dry. When Neil isn’t swimming in a cold waterway of some description he likes to climb up or ski down interesting terrain. He also likes to play the guitar and hang out with his new baby girl.

Thom is an environmental scientist and waterway specialist with consulting experience in a range of surface water field investigations. He enjoys combining a passion for the environment with expertise in geomorphology, water quality, hydrology, and drone operations to deliver high quality solutions to clients.He has broad software and technical skills, including in spatial and numerical data analysis, and enjoys teasing apart complex and complicated datasets to solve problems. Thom also has extensive experience using UAVs for scientific data collection, including for assessing geomorphic change in coastal, hillslope and waterway settings. He is a skilled communicator, with a passion for distilling complex concepts and engaging with diverse audiences.Thom has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Geography from the University of Auckland and is a winner of both academic and industry awards, including for his master’s thesis and for his innovative work using UAVs for surface water investigations. In his spare time Thom enjoys all sorts of outdoor pursuits, including hiking, camping, cycling and canoeing.

Another special welcome announcement for the Streamology Team:

Welcoming our smallest, and cutest addition to the Streamology Team.
We are very happy to announce that Steve and Michaela have had a bouncing baby boy!

Welcome to the world, River James Clarke.

Wishing Steve, Mic and River all the best for this exciting new chapter of life. We can’t wait to meet little River and watch him grow up enjoying the beautiful Ovens River at his doorstep.

After work team hike on beautiful Mount Buffalo

While we officially welcomed Thom and Neil to the team with a few days spent together in the Bright office, we enjoyed a lovely after work hike and picnic dinner up on Mount Buffalo.

The weather was perfect, the Cathedral hike was spectacular, and the views in the Gorge made the perfect spot for a picnic dinner.

The New Melbourne Office!
With our team expanding and two Melbourne based staff now busily working, Streamology has opened a second office located in Nicholson Street, Carlton.

We are encouraging our team members to spend some time in both offices to increase collaboration, team work and friendship. So far, the Melbourne boys have come up to Bright, Geoff has worked out of Melbourne, and next week Jess LJ will be down in Melbourne working with Neil and Thom. This is an exciting new chapter for Streamology, and one that the whole team is very excited for.

With all this excitement, it would be easy to imagine that not a lot of project work has been undertaken this year…

Let me just say…that is NOT true!

We’ve been very busy on the project front, with a few new and exciting projects coming into fruition.
We’re looking forward to sharing more here on the website, and providing some educational material around our project work. Please stay tuned for more serious river nerd material.

What’s coming up?

Thom, Neil and Jess (H) have been out on the Goulburn River undertaking some drone surveying. We’ll be looking at the influence of IVT flow delivery on bank condition and vegetation. Stay tuned for a field update!
Pip and Geoff have some leave scheduled in for March, and will undoubtedly spend that having some great adventures with the girls in Tassie!

Thanks for reading our first ever newsletter - till next time!
- The Stream Team

February NewsStream