On this page

Goulburn-Murray Water (G-MW)

G-MW made its first allocation announcement for the 2008/09 season on 1 July. Opening allocations were 0% across all water systems in northern Victoria. Allocations remain at 0% across all systems at the end of August.

At the end of August the shortfalls to an irrigation allocation in the Murray and Goulburn systems had reduced to 31 GL and 29 GL respectively.

The Minister for Water has 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 will resume on the Goulburn, Murray and Broken systems when allocations on these systems reach 20%. The qualification on the Loddon, Bullarook, and Campaspe systems will remain in place until allocations on these systems reach 50%.

The outlook for allocations on the Murray and Goulburn water systems for the 2008/09 season was updated by G-MW on 15 August 2008.

• The allocation outlooks (% of high-reliability water share) are presented below. Current inflow conditions and monthly inflow records from seasons with dry winter conditions have been used to prepare the outlooks.
• A repeat of 2007/08 inflow conditions is expected to produce a Murray seasonal allocation of 30% of high-reliability water shares and a 31% allocation in the Goulburn system.

Murray System

Goulburn System

Inflow Conditions	15 Oct 08	15 Dec 08	15 Feb 09
Dry	7%	12%	17%
Average	37%	59%	68%
Wet	70%	99%	100%

The next allocation announcement and seasonal outlook will be released by G-MW on 15 September 2008.

Back to Top

Coliban Rural System

Coliban Water has advised that the opening allocation for the 2008/09 season, to be announced on 15 September, will be 0%.

Back to Top

Wimmera Mallee Domestic and Stock Supply System

At 31 August 2008, storages in the Wimmera-Mallee domestic and stock supply system were at 6.4% of capacity, an increase of 1.3% since July.

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;
• 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 and is due to be completed in mid-September.

• At the end of August, a total of 9,600 ML has been used from this year’s 26,000 ML Waranga entitlement 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 being connected to Supply System 5 of the Wimmera Mallee Pipeline.

Back to Top

Southern Rural Water

Macalister Irrigation District (MID)

At 31 August, Lake Glenmaggie, the principal source of water for the MID, was at 88.1% of capacity.

The opening allocation of 55% was increased to 80% on 8 August, for all irrigators within the MID, and for diverters on the Thomson River, Macalister River and Rainbow Creek.

Latrobe System

Water availability increased slightly throughout July with storage levels in Blue Rock Lake rising 2.4% to 74.4% of capacity.  The irrigation share of Blue Rock was drawn down last season, and is now 6.7%.

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 4% of capacity at the end of August.

The opening seasonal allocation remains at just 2% of high reliability water share for the Werribee and Bacchus Marsh irrigation districts. This allocation is guaranteed only until 30 November 2008. No increases to the allocation were made during August,

SRW is currently developing its Western Irrigation Contingency Plan for the 2008/09 season.

Irrigators in the Werribee area continue to rely on the recycling scheme as their principal water source while the river flows are very low.  90% of Werribee growers are participating in the recycling scheme.

The ban on access to groundwater within the Deutgam Groundwater Management Area has been extended until 30 June 2009.

Maribyrnong Basin

The storage volume in Rosslynne Reservoir remains low, standing at 3.5% of capacity at the end of August.  With inflows well below average, SRW diverters face another season of low, possibly zero, allocations.

Back to Top