Environment Minister approves River Protection Strategy for Swan Canning river system

Matthew Swinbourn, Minister for the Environment, has approved the River Protection Strategy for the Derbal Yirragan Djarlgarro (Swan Canning river system), according to a notice published in the Western Australian Government Gazette No. 140 of 3 November 2026. The approval was made under section 62 of the Swan and Canning Rivers Management Act 2006 and carries the official reference EV401. It appears on page 2535, opening the Environment section of the edition.

The notice, signed and dated 27 October 2026, places the approval on the public record in the Minister’s own name. It states that the strategy was prepared in accordance with Part 4 of the Act, and that no modifications to the strategy were made under section 61. The document is published under the heading Swan Canning Riverpark and Catchment Area, tying the instrument to the statutory riverpark and catchment area established by the 2006 Act.

What the notice records

The gazette entry is a formal instrument of approval rather than a summary of the strategy’s contents. Its operative elements are set out in three sentences:

• The approving authority is the Hon. Matthew Swinbourn MLC, Minister for the Environment.
• The statutory basis is section 62 of the Swan and Canning Rivers Management Act 2006.
• The approved instrument is the River Protection Strategy for the Derbal Yirragan Djarlgarro (Swan Canning river system).
• The strategy was prepared under Part 4 of the Act.
• No modifications were made under section 61 of the Act.
• The notice is dated 27 October 2026 and published in Government Gazette No. 140 of 3 November 2026, page 2535, reference EV401.

The absence of modifications is significant on the face of the notice: the strategy approved is the version prepared through the Part 4 process, without ministerial amendment before gazettal.

Where the strategy can be read

The notice directs readers to the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, which publishes a copy of the strategy on its website. The online location is given under the department’s Swan Canning riverpark and Swan River Trust pages, at the river protection strategy address for the Derbal Yirragan Djarlgarro (Swan Canning river).

The gazette itself does not reproduce the text of the strategy, so the department’s website is the only route to the operative document flagged in the notice. Landholders, developers and other parties with interests in the riverpark and catchment area are pointed to that address for the detail behind the approval.

Placed at the head of the edition

The approval is the first item in the 3 November 2026 edition, which is published by the Government Printer under the State of Western Australia and issued on Tuesdays and Fridays. The Environment notice occupies page 2535, ahead of the Justice, Local Government, Parliament and Public Notices sections.

The remainder of the edition deals with unrelated matters, including interest rates for estates and trusts held in the Public Trustee’s Common Account as at 1 November 2026, two appointments as Justice of the Peace, changes to the basis of rates for the City of Rockingham and the City of Swan, royal assent to the Public and Bank Holidays Amendment Act 2026 (Act No. 19 of 2026) and the Road Traffic Amendment (Disqualification Notices) Act 2026 (Act No. 20 of 2026), and a series of deceased estate notices.

For readers across the Swan Canning system, the notice is the formal marker that the strategy has passed ministerial approval under section 62 and is now published in final, unmodified form. The gazettal gives the approval a fixed public date and reference — EV401, 3 November 2026 — and makes the department’s website the authoritative source for the strategy’s content, which the notice leaves to the published document itself.

Source: Western Australian Government Gazette, No. 140 of 3 November 2026, Environment, p. 2535 (official reference: EV401).