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Goulburn-Murray Water (G-MW)

On 15 September G-MW announced increased allocations on the Murray and Goulburn systems, but allocations remained at 0% on all other systems.

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 September 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 would produce a Murray seasonal allocation of 30% of high-reliability water shares and 31% in the Goulburn system.

Murray System

Goulburn System

Inflow Conditions	15 Oct 08	15 Dec 08	15 Feb 09
Dry	8%	17%	23%
Average	20%	45%	53%
Wet	36%	88%	100%

The next allocation announcement will be made by G-MW on 1 October, and the next outlook will be released on 15 October.

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Coliban Rural System

On 15 September, Coliban Water announced a 0% allocation on the Coliban Rural System.

Recycled water is available to customers on the Ascot, Axe Creek and Cockatoo Hill channel systems up to 60% of licenced volume. Elsewhere in the rural system, a qualification of rights is in place to provide significant commercial operators with emergency supplies up to 30% of licenced volume.

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Wimmera Mallee Domestic and Stock Supply System

At 30 September 2008, storages in the Wimmera-Mallee domestic and stock supply system were at 6.4% of capacity, the same as at the end of last month.

Irrigation allocations remain at zero.

The Waranga channel run commenced on 2 June 2008 and is due to be completed in early October. At total of 10,000 ML will be used to supply town dams and some farm dams 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.

The Grampians channel run to supply systems 3 and 4 is continuing. This run is supplying town dams only. Water is being carted to farms for domestic water supply. Rural customers have access to water in town dams for carting to meet livestock and other farm related needs.

Farm and towns on supply systems 1, 2 and 5 are receiving a restricted supply from the new pipeline.

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Southern Rural Water

Macalister Irrigation District (MID)

At 30 September, Lake Glenmaggie, the principal source of water for the MID, was at 97.4% of capacity. 

The allocation was increased to 90% during September, for all irrigators within the MID, and for diverters on the Thomson River, Macalister River and Rainbow Creek. 

Latrobe System

At the end of September storage levels in Blue Rock Lake were at 76.4% of capacity.  The irrigation share of Blue Rock was 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 5% of capacity at the end of September.

The seasonal allocation increased to 4% of high reliability water share in September for the Werribee and Bacchus Marsh irrigation districts. This allocation applies only until 30 November 2008.

SRW is progressing its Western Irrigation Contingency Plan for the 2008/09 season. Pumping of dead storage in Pykes Creek Reservoir will continue in 2008/09, and transfer of another 2,000 ML of water from the SRW drought reserve in the Thomson Reservoir is likely to take place.

Irrigators in the Werribee area continue to rely on the recycling scheme as their principal water source while the river flows are very low. The recycling scheme is now providing up to about 60 ML/day, and approximately 90% of Werribee growers are participating in the scheme.

Maribyrnong Basin

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

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