Managing the Cooks River today

The Cooks River Alliance

The Cooks River Alliance was launched in September 2011 as a partnership between eight councils in the Cooks River catchment – Ashfield, Bankstown, Canterbury, City of Sydney, Hurstville, Marrickville, Rockdale and Strathfield. Using the combined resources, experience, knowledge and skills within these councils and local communities, the Alliance seeks to address the complex challenges of managing the Cooks River today.

In order to face these challenges, the Alliance engages with people living and working in the Cooks River catchment, building the capacity of councils, monitoring water quality, managing and communicating Cooks River information, facilitating construction works and clean-up programs and promoting climate change resilience.

The Alliance includes the board, executive management, steering committee and officers. The board provides strategic direction and decision-making and is made up of one councillor from each member council, as well as three community representatives. The executive supports Alliance staff and is made up of representatives from the board and the steering committee. The steering committee contributes ideas, resources and expertise to Alliance projects and issues and is made up of officers from each member council.

The Cooks River Alliance employs a small staff to manage the day-to-day activities of the Alliance and to drive the creation and implementation of management and action plans.

References

Cooks River Alliance website, http://cooksriver.org.au/

Notes