On this page

Goulburn-Murray Water (G-MW)

G-MW Media Release - 15 May 2008 

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.

As of 1 April, allocations for high reliability water shares were as follows:

Modest inflows to Lake Eildon and continued loss-savings were sufficient to increase allocations on the Goulburn system during April. Efficient operations and isolated showers allowed increases in the Broken system.

Despite improved operating efficiencies, inflows were not enough to improve the allocations in the other water systems.

There was not enough water in the Bullarook system for an irrigation allocation in April. No irrigation allocation is likely this season. Bullarook Creek customers continued to have access to water for domestic and stock purposes only.

Pumping of Waranga Basin (under the Government’s Drought Relief Package) commenced on 7 April to manage anticipated high demand for irrigation water in the coming months.

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 will remain in place until allocations on these systems reach 50%.

G-MW issued a water quality alert for Tullaroop Reservoir and Tullaroop Creek on 24 January after monitoring detected high levels of potentially toxic blue-green algae. The situation improved during April with a significant decline in the concentration of blue-green algae. G-MW has advised the public and water users that they need to exercise caution when using the water as, even at low concentrations, people sensitive to blue-green algae can have a reaction.

On 15 February G-MW released the outlook for seasonal allocations at the start of the 2008/09 season using the most recent trends and historic data.

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 are expected to allow non-zero allocations in the Murray, Goulburn, Campaspe and Loddon systems. The Broken system will remain at zero allocation.

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. G-MW will update the allocation outlook for 2008/09 on 15 May 2008. The first seasonal allocations for 2008/09 will be announced on 1 July 2008.
Back to Top

Coliban Rural System

Coliban Water increased its rural season allocation to 35% on 14 December and it remained at 35% throughout April.

Back to Top

Wimmera Mallee Domestic and Stock Supply System

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.

At 31 March 2008, storages in the Wimmera-Mallee domestic and stock supply system had reduced to 3.3% of capacity. This was a reduction of 0.2% since March.

All farms in the Supply System 1 and Supply System 5 areas are now able to access water from the Wimmera-Mallee Pipeline once their meter is installed. The tapping and metering program is due for completion in May 2008.

On 8 April, GWMWater announced the 2008 winter water supply arrangements for areas supplied from the Waranga channel system:

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 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.

Back to Top

Southern Rural Water

Macalister Irrigation District (MID)

At 30 April, Lake Glenmaggie, the principal source of water for the MID, was at 58.3% of capacity.
Allocations remained at 200% for all irrigators within the MID, and for diverters on the Thomson River, Macalister River and Rainbow Creek during April. The allocation is in addition to the 46,000 ML (equivalent to 32% of water right volume) delivered during the off-quota period up to 20 November 2007.

Latrobe System

Water availability on the Latrobe system decreased throughout April with storage levels in Blue Rock Lake falling 1.6% to 71.3% of capacity.

Although this level is well above that of the same time last year, the irrigation share of Blue Rock as at 30 April was just 17.3%. This is a result of being heavily drawn upon last season.

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 7.2% of capacity at the end of April.

The seasonal allocation remained at just 8% of water right and licensed volume for the Werribee and Bacchus Marsh irrigation districts in April.

SRW continues to implement its Western Irrigation Contingency Plan which includes:

• pumping dead storage from Pykes Creek reservoir;
• transferring 2,000 ML of water from SRW’s Macalister Irrigation District drought reserve in the Thomson Reservoir to Werribee and Bacchus Marsh; and
• extending Government approval to make 800 ML of water available to irrigators 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 fell to 3.4% of capacity. With inflows well below average, SRW diverters face another season of low, possibly zero, allocations.

There have been no irrigation releases this season and the allocation remains at 0% of licensed volume.  Back to Top