Higher and Distinctive Standards for Urban River Protection? Special Purpose "River Laws" and Land-use Planning.

The Yarra River Protection (wilip-gin Birrarung murron) Act 2017 (Vic) established a new scheme and model for governance of this waterway and, potentially, for other waterways or natural features. The principal but not exclusive vehicle for this new scheme of waterway governance is strategic land-use planning along the river corridor. This article considers the legislative scheme and its interaction with the conventional land-use planning regime, with a view to assessing whatthese new arrangements contribute to planning, as well as limitations and ambiguities in this new legislative approach to river management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]