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Goulburn-Murray Water (G-MW)

G-MW announced the final 2007/08 seasonal allocations on 1 April 2008. Water resource improvements received after this date until the end of June 2008 will be used for system operations and allocations during the 2008/09 season.

The final seasonal allocations were as follows:

There was not enough water in the Bullarook system for an irrigation allocation this season. Bullarook Creek customers continued to have access to water for domestic and stock purposes only.

In June 2007, the Minister for Water temporarily qualified rights to water in the Murray, Goulburn, Broken, Campaspe, Loddon and Bullarook systems to make sufficient water available for essential urban and farming needs.

Normal allocation rules resumed on the Goulburn, Murray and Broken systems when allocations on these systems reached 20%. The qualification on the Loddon, Bullarook, and Campaspe systems remained in place as allocations on these systems did not reach 50%.

Pumping of Waranga Basin (under the Government’s Drought Relief Package) commenced on 7 April and continued until 26 June 2008. 

Average inflow conditions will not provide enough water to allocate water for irrigation on 1 July 2008. All systems will begin the 2008/09 season with zero seasonal allocations.

• By 15 August 2008, average inflows would allow non-zero allocations in the Murray, Broken, Goulburn, Campaspe and Loddon systems.
• The outlook for the 15 August 2008 seasonal allocations (% of high-reliability water share) is summarised in the table below.

* Low-reliability water shares allocated

Significant winter and spring inflows are the key elements to overcoming a potential water shortage.  Next season's irrigation allocations will rely almost entirely on the inflows between July and November. The first seasonal allocations for 2008/09 will be announced on 1 July 2008.

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Coliban Rural System

Allocation remained at 35% during June.  Coliban Water will make an allocation announcement for the 2008/09 season in September.

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Wimmera Mallee Domestic and Stock Supply System

At 30 June 2008, storages in the Wimmera-Mallee domestic and stock supply system were at 3.8% of capacity, an increase of 0.4% since May.

Supplies to all customer groups are in accordance with the restriction schedule contained in the Wimmera-Glenelg bulk entitlements as follows:

• towns are on Stage 4 restrictions;
• domestic and stock supply to farms is limited to one dam per enterprise in most areas, with limited pipeline supply in areas where  the pipelining is completed, and carting of water around Berriwillock and Culgoa;
• irrigation supplies are zero;
• no supply is available for irrigation diversions on the Wimmera River;
• supply to recreation lakes has been nil since 2000.

The Waranga channel run commenced on 2 June 2008.

• This year’s 26,000 ML Waranga entitlement will be used to supply dams in the area traditionally serviced by the Waranga system on the basis of one dam per 400 hectare of farm enterprise.
• This includes rural customers in the northern most area of Supply System 2 of the Wimmera Mallee Pipeline who will not receive a piped supply until late 2008.
• Dams will not be filled on farms in the process of connecting to Supply System 5 of the Wimmera Mallee Pipeline.
• A total of 9,500 ML has been allocated. These deliveries will continue into July and August.

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Southern Rural Water

Macalister Irrigation District (MID)

At 30 June, Lake Glenmaggie, the principal source of water for the MID, was at 55.3% of capacity.

The irrigation season closed on 15 May at an allocation of 200% for all irrigators within the MID, and for diverters on the Thomson River, Macalister River and Rainbow Creek. 

Latrobe System

Water availability decreased slightly throughout June with storage levels in Blue Rock Lake falling 1.0% to 69.8% of capacity.  This is 12.3% above levels in store at the same time last year. The irrigation share of Blue Rock remained at 17.3%.

SRW licence holders downstream on the Latrobe and Tanjil Rivers could pump up to their licensed volume subject to the availability of unregulated river flows (which normally contribute some 70% of entitlements). 

Werribee Basin (Bacchus Marsh and Werribee Irrigation District)

SRW’s share of the Werribee basin was approximately 6.7% of capacity at the end of June.

The seasonal allocation remained at just 8% of water right and licensed volume for the Werribee and Bacchus Marsh irrigation districts in June.
   
SRW will continue to implement its Western Irrigation Contingency Plan during the 2008/09 season which includes:

• pumping dead storage from Pykes Creek reservoir;
• transferring water from SRW’s Macalister Irrigation District drought reserve in the Thomson Reservoir to Werribee and Bacchus Marsh (subject to the water being available); and
• extending Government approval to make available to irrigators water from the unallocated share of Lake Merrimu.

Irrigators in the Werribee area continue to participate in the recycling scheme.  This continues to be of major benefit to participating growers in the area (approaching 90% of the growers).

The ban on access to groundwater within the Deutgam Groundwater Management Area remains in place.  SRW continues to monitor levels in the aquifer. Access to the resource will resume when the risk of salt water intrusion has diminished.

Maribyrnong Basin

The storage volume in Rosslynne Reservoir remained at 3.4% of capacity at the end of June. 
   
There have been no irrigation releases this season and the allocation remained at 0% of licensed volume. With inflows well below average, SRW diverters face another season of low, possibly zero, allocations.

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