Department of Sustainability and Environment
Victoria state government department

The Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) was a state government department that managed water resources, climate change, bushfires, public land, forests and eco systems in the state of Victoria, Australia. It was created in 2002 when the Department of Natural Resources and Environment was divided into the Department of Primary Industries and the Department of Sustainability and Environment.
The department supported and advised two Victorian ministers, the Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Ryan Smith, and the Minister for Water, Peter Walsh, and helped with the management and administration of their portfolios. The department secretary was Greg Wilson. It had 2700 staff working at 90 locations across the state.
DSE was sometimes known colloquially as the "Department of Smoke and Embers" for its role in planned burns and bushfire management.
The Department of Sustainability and Environment was merged with the Department of Primary Industries to form the Department of Environment and Primary Industries (Victoria) in April 2013.
The public source identifies “Department of Sustainability and Environment” as victoria state government department. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Department, Sustainability and Environment.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5260498. VIAF identifies the subject as 141254092. The Library of Congress control number is no2005041070. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2002 and 2013.
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This entry incorporates text from “Department of Sustainability and Environment” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.