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The Goulburn Broken region consists of two river basins, the Goulburn and the Broken, both of which drain northwards from the Great Dividing Range into the Murray River.
The region is 2.4 million hectares in size, or about 10.5 per cent of Victoria, and contributes 11 per cent of the water entering the Murray-Darling system.
The region broadly comprises mostly vegetated, public land in the upper sections, a mosaic of cleared and vegetated land in the mid-Goulburn Broken and a highly cleared and modified landscape in the lower part of the region. The lower part of the region contains part of the Shepparton Irrigation Region.
Overall, 71 per cent of the catchment is private land and 70 per cent of the region has been cleared of its native vegetation.
Of the remaining native vegetation in the region, 82 per cent occurs on public land and 18 per cent occurs on private land.
The Goulburn Broken region represents more than a quarter of all bioregions in Victoria. As a result the region contains a high diversity of vegetation communities, flora and fauna species.
Because of the extensive clearing of much of the region, many of these Ecological Vegetation Communities and species are threatened. 70 per cent of the 166 EVCs. These include the Grassy Woodland Community and Buloke Woodland Community.
Threatened fauna includes the Grey-crowned Babbler, the Brush-tailed Phascogale and the Barking Owl, while threatened flora includes the Crimson Spider-orchid, Yellow-tongue Daisy and the Lima Stringybark.
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Photo by: Chris Tzaros
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