Evidence-based decision making and adaptive management are key principles underpinning Victoria's strategy for waterway management. Investment and management programs for Victoria’s waterways must be able to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of on-ground activities in achieving management outcomes. Currently evidence needed to build confidence in the effectiveness of management interventions is insufficient. In response, a long-term, state-wide riparian intervention monitoring and research program has been developed. This program seeks to: (i) provide rigorous evidence of riparian responses to management, (ii) understand sources of variability due to local and landscape contexts and (iii) improve conceptual models of expected outcomes of riparian management. The program has established 32 paired intervention and control sites across Victoria between 2014 and 2016. At these sites riparian vegetation condition and bank stability attributes are monitored before management and up to 10 years following management. Management interventions examined include weed control, livestock exclusion and revegetation. Early responses of vegetation to management interventions at 12 paired sites re-surveyed in 2017, three years following management, were tested using a hierarchical Bayesian model. Across all sites, patterns of change over time differed significantly between intervention and control sites for many vegetation attributes including: bare ground cover, native vegetation cover, woody weed cover, stem density of woody weeds, stem density of native trees and shrubs and species richness. Vegetation condition attributes at intervention sites either improved over time compared with control sites or were maintained compared with a decline at control sites. While the analysis across all sites provides evidence of the early benefits of riparian management, site level analyses indicate variability in responses among sites suggesting that the type of intervention, initial site condition or landscape variables may influence responses to management.