The proposals in the Draft Strategy are designed to: share Gippsland’s available water resources to meet the needs of consumptive users and the environment strengthen our water management framework build reliability of supply  protect and improve the health of the region’s rivers, aquifers, wetlands and estuaries.

View image of draft strategy at a glance

Proposals to share Gippsland’s available water

• Adopting a precautionary approach to sharing available water having regard to the projected availability of water, likely future demands, availability of alternative supplies and the need to protect the environment 
• Recognising that the initial amounts of water made available for consumptive use can be reassessed as part of the Strategy review in 7 to 10 years, providing greater flexibility to respond to future climate change and climate variability
• Identifying and managing the impact on Gippsland’s water resources of mining activities and offshore oil and gas production.

Proposals to strengthen our water resource management framework

• Improving how we manage licensed water use, particularly groundwater, by ensuring management boundaries align with groundwater systems
• Using water trade, particularly on unregulated surface water and groundwater systems, to manage reduced water availability
• Identifying and managing the threats to current entitlement-holders and the environment from water use currently outside the entitlement system, including domestic and stock use and water interception from land use change.

Proposals to build reliability of supply

• Reviewing water corporations’ water supply demand strategies and drought response plans to reflect recent low inflows and future climate change scenarios
• Integrating local government land use planning with water supply planning
• Promoting water conservation and efficiency, such as exploring the MID2030 strategy to modernise the Macalister Irrigation District
• Interconnecting water supplies, including South Gippsland’s connection to the Melbourne supply grid, and exploring the benefits to Gippsland Water of increasing transfer capacity between Moondarra and Blue Rock reservoirs
• Encouraging the use of alternative supplies such as stormwater or recycled water
• Exploring the benefits of managed aquifer recharge (MAR), where water is stored in an aquifer for later use
• Minimising reliance on, and the environmental impact of, summer streamflow diversions by using off-stream storage and groundwater.

Proposals to protect and improve the region’s rivers, aquifers, wetlands and estuaries

• No new dams will be constructed on any of Gippsland’s rivers
• Protecting the Gippsland Lakes by capping extractions from rivers feeding the lakes, targeting priority sites, and continual monitoring and research on the health of the lakes
• Converting river flows in areas where there are no downstream consumptive water users into environmental entitlements to promote more active management and reporting on watering of floodplain wetlands
• Identifying groundwater dependent ecosystems and protecting them in water allocation and management decisions
• Protecting river health by placing conditions on extractions in local management rules
• Providing more flexibility for environmental flow releases from the Thomson River and exploring the establishment of pre-flood release rules for the operation of Blue Rock Reservoir
• Investing in best practice catchment management activities to manage non-flow related impacts on the region’s rivers, wetlands and estuaries
• Maximising the benefits of the environment’s share of water by:
• • recovering more water for the environment, using structural works to improve how we deliver environmental water, using consumptive water en route for environmental benefits, adopting a seasonally adaptive approach to manage the environment’s needs in a drier climate
  • supporting integrated management of environmental water and complementary works (such as in-stream and streamside works) to maximise river health benefits.

The Draft Strategy considers how these proposals should be applied in different parts of Gippsland and identifies specific proposals to meet the needs of consumptive users and the environment by striking the right balance between: 

Proposals to ensure adequate supplies for consumptive use 

• Using unallocated water from Blue Rock Reservoir to establish a drought reserve so that entitlement-holders on the Latrobe River system can purchase water during periods of water shortages
• Making 3 GL on the Latrobe system available for Gippsland Water and its customers
• Making an additional 6 GL available for winter extraction on the Mitchell River to meet the future needs of irrigators and East Gippsland Water’s residential and industrial customers
• Exploring the potential benefits of Managed Aquifer Recharge on the Lindenow Flats
• Supporting interconnection between South Gippsland Water and the Melbourne grid
• Exploring the potential benefits of water efficiency projects such as MID2030
• Freeing up and promoting water trading to allow water users to actively manage their own water needs
• Promoting the sustainable use of water on dryland farms.

Proposals to protect and improve the health of rivers, wetlands and estuaries

• Making a permanent share equivalent to 10 GL available as an environmental entitlement on the Latrobe River system
• Establishing explicit environmental entitlements for watering the lower Latrobe wetland
• Establishing precautionary caps on winter extractions from the Mitchell, Nicholson and Tambo rivers to protect the Gippsland Lakes
• Establishing precautionary caps on East Gippsland rivers to protect these pristine rivers for environmental and tourism purposes
• Establishing precautionary caps on South Gippsland’s rivers, recognising the availability of alternative supplies and potential opportunities associated with urban users relying less on these rivers
• Using available airspace in Lake Glenmaggie to store environmental entitlement to provide the option of larger environmental flushes
• Delivering on commitments to return environmental flows to the Thomson and Snowy rivers.

Your feedback is sought on these and any other proposals to help Gippsland respond to a changing future.