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Goulburn-Murray Water (G-MW)

The season for all gravity irrigation system customers closed on 30 April 2007.

Goulburn-Murray Water (G-MW) has advised that carryover water will be available to irrigators in July. G-MW will confirm total availability following the end of June water resource assessment. 

G-MW will provide the first allocation announcement for the 2007/2008 season on 2 July 2007. It is most likely that initial allocations will be 0%, therefore carryover will be important in meeting any early season irrigation needs.

The outlook for the season ahead depends almost entirely on additional winter inflows and spring inflows, and an updated outlook will be provided for the season on 2 July.

In light of a likely 0% allocation, the Minister for Water has temporarily qualified rights to water in the Murray, Goulburn, Broken, Campaspe, Loddon and Bullarook systems from 1 July under section 33AAA(1) of the Water Act 1989. This means that water can be taken from these supply systems for selected purposes, even whilst the allocation to high reliability water shares is 0%.

The qualifications allow holders of water shares and private rights to take water for the following purposes:

Domestic and Stock:

• In-house purposes;
• Watering of animals kept as pets;
• Watering of cattle and other stock; and 
• Firefighting.

Commercial and Industrial:

• Watering of animals in intensive animal industries;
• Washdown;
• Cleaning;
• Cooling;
• Dust suppression; and
• Manufacturing and processing (provided best practice water savings measures have been implemented.

Once allocations reach 20% on the Murray, Goulburn and Broken systems, and 50% on the Campaspe, Loddon and Bullarook systems, normal operating rules will resume. 

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Coliban Rural System

The 2006/07 irrigation season closed on 15 May. If low inflows to Coliban storages persist, the 2007/08 irrigation season may start with a 0% allocation, and a qualification of rights may be required to supply essential needs.

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Wimmera Mallee Domestic and Stock Supply System

Although the Wimmera Mallee area received below average rainfall in June, the Grampians Headworks storages continued to receive reasonable inflows resulting from the good rainfalls in May.

At 27 June 2007, storages in the Wimmera Mallee domestic and stock supply system were at 5.6% of capacity (compared with 6.4% at the same time last year).

The demand for rural water cartage has continued to decrease over recent months. Full details of the cartage program are available on GWMW’s website. In summary:

• GWMW is currently delivering 7,000 L of water for domestic use every month to rural customers not receiving a house dam fill when existing house dam supplies become unusable. The purchase of a water tank is eligible for up to a $3,000 rebate from the Victorian Government. 
• Additional water is also available to GWMW rural customers, including those who receive a house dam fill, for stock watering and crop spraying. Water is provided at no cost, but carting arrangements and costs are the customer’s responsibility.
• Water is also available at a cost of $1.20/kL under a permit system for carting by others (at their own cost) who are not customers of GWMW. This water is for domestic use only.

Supplies to all customer groups are being made available in accordance with the restriction schedule contained in the Wimmera-Glenelg Bulk Entitlements. Restrictions are as follows:

• towns are on Stage 4 restrictions;
• irrigation supplies are again zero;
• no supply is available for irrigation diversions on Wimmera River;
• supply to recreation lakes has been nil since 2000;
• commercial supplies to major customers are zero.

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Southern Rural Water

Macalister Irrigation District (MID)

The irrigation season ended on 15 May with the final allocation for all Macalister Irrigation District (MID) diverters being at 60% of Licensed Volume, Water Right and Domestic and Stock.

Lake Glenmaggie, the principal source of water for the MID, is now at 100% of capacity. The rain event on 27/28 June 2007 resulted in major flooding throughout the district. Peak inflows recorded into Lake Glenmaggie were around 300,000 ML/day, whilst outflows peaked at 148,000 ML/day.

The 2007/08 irrigation season will open on 15 August 2007 with an opening allocation of 100%.

Many irrigators along both the Macalister and Thomson River have received substantial property damage from the floodwaters.

Latrobe System

Water availability on the Latrobe system increased throughout June, with Blue Rock Lake rising to 57.5% of capacity. Southern Rural Water (SRW) license holders downstream on the Latrobe and Tanjil Rivers were permitted to take up to their licensed volume, however availability was limited by low unregulated river flows (which normally contribute some 70% of entitlements) for most of the month. To this point, Latrobe/Tanjil irrigators have received less than 25% of their licence volume. At current storage levels, irrigators share is 1,356 ML or 11% of regulated allocation.

SRW is yet to announce initial allocations for the 2007/08 season.

Werribee Basin (Bacchus Marsh and Werribee Irrigation District)

SRW’s share of the Werribee Basin storages remained at 4.0% of capacity. 

Because of the low storage situation, allocations for the 2006/2007 season for the Bacchus Marsh and Werribee irrigation areas have not improved beyond the 10% reached on 23 October 2006 after SRW began to pump dead storage from Pykes Ck Reservoir. Full domestic and stock entitlements are now available in both areas. Further increases remain unlikely.

A range of other measures are in place to assist in ameliorating the supply situation:

• Irrigators in the Werribee area participating in the recycling scheme (now approaching 85% of growers) are able to access recycled water. Some 7,300 ML of recycled water have been delivered to growers this season.
• SRW installed a connection to enable spare capacity in Western Water’s Merrimu Reservoir to Bacchus Marsh pipeline to be used to bring water from SRW’s entitlement in Merrimu into the Bacchus Marsh Irrigation District.
• A Ministerial-approved revision of the depth boundary for the Merrimu GMA has allowed for additional access to groundwater for Bacchus Marsh growers.
• The Minister for Water allocated 1200 ML of unallocated water in Merrimu Reservoir for use to maintain business viability in Bacchus Marsh. Of this, approximately 230 ML has been delivered so far to growers and industry in the region.

Levels in the Deutgam Groundwater Management Area declined through 2005/06. In order to protect the resource from seawater intrusion, allocations for the 2006/07 season were set at 25% of licensed volume. Even with a reduced allocation, levels have continued to decline during 2007. As such, SRW have qualified and suspended rights, effectively banning groundwater use in the GMA as of 27 June 2007.

With inflows well below average, storage volumes in Rosslynne Reservoir remain low at 4.0% of capacity (compared to 7.1% at the same time last year). Allocations for SRW diverters remained at just 5%. 

SRW are yet to announce initial allocations for the 2007/08 season.  

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