The upper Hopkins River catchment in southwest Victoria, Australia, is characterised by agricultural production. Since the 1980s, landholders have been gradually changing their land management practices, adopting new agricultural techniques and protecting creeks and rivers by revegetating or excluding livestock. These activities are aimed at improving productivity by reducing soil salinity and are also expected to improve in-stream water quality. The Upper Hopkins Land Management Group is a local community group that promotes sustainable agricultural production and environmental protection. The group has monitored about 70 waterway sites since 2000, focusing on tracking electrical conductivity (EC) across the catchment through quarterly surveys. Data is shared with residents and stakeholders through newsletters, and farmers can use this information to manage livestock access to waterways. This long-term data set shows no significant decline in EC levels since the beginning of the monitoring period. Similarly, gauge data from one site on the Hopkins River shows no long-term decline since data collection began in 1995 (BOM Station Number 236202). These results indicate that changes in land management had no impact on EC in this region. Rather, seasonal variation in rainfall, underlying soil type and groundwater connections may be driving changes in EC over time. The positive outcome of this ongoing project is that community-collected data can be used to track long-term trends, despite the challenges of consistently conducting monitoring and collecting quality data while working with community volunteers and limited funding. The community group is determined to improve the way that data is stored and shared so that it will be accessible to all stakeholders.