Victorians expect access to good quality water for urban, agricultural, and industrial use. We also expect it to be shared in a way that protects the environmental integrity of rivers and wetlands so that reliable, clean water supplies continue for future generations.

The ‘Improving Victoria’s water resources knowledge and access’ initiative provides $135.75 million over 4 years. Funded from EC6, this initiative is designed to give Victorians continued confidence that water is shared effectively and fairly, and that decisions on how to share water have integrity. Its 3 programs are:

  • water resource strategy policy and frameworks
  • water resource strategy data, analysis and assessments, and
  • Victorian Water Register systems and processes.

Expenditure to date

  • 2024–25 expenditure: $26.22 million

Annual progress summary

DEECA contributed to the maintenance and enhancement of Victoria’s water entitlements framework. Actions include:

Surface water and groundwater data continued to be collected, published and assessed. Highlights include:

  • maintained long-term monitoring sites and published data on the Water Measurement Information System from more than 2,000 water monitoring sites through the regional water monitoring partnership (with over 55 partners).
  • completed the successful transition of the Victorian water monitoring network from 3G to 4G technology in November 2024.
  • hosted 54 webinars to showcase the latest Victorian water and climate research to stakeholders and the broader community and provided expert water-related advice in the preparation of the Victorian Climate Science Report 2024.

Victorian Water Register (VWR) systems and processes continued to be maintained and enhanced. Highlights include:

  • delivered a refresh of the governance for the VWR work program, and held the inaugural meetings of the 6 VWR governance forums represented by both internal and external stakeholders during September 2024
  • completed delivery of a proof of concept in March 2025 for migration of the VWR platform onto modern, supported technology
  • prepared an updated business case and detailed costings for the uplift of the VWR, including obtaining all approvals necessary to close Phase 1 of the work program (Planning and Proof of Concept) and commence Phase 2 (VWR Migration).
  • continued to deliver high quality water register services and reporting, including releasing the 2022–23 Victorian Water Accounts (being the 20th anniversary edition) in October 2024 and temporarily moved to a new approach for competitive inter-valley trade openings to provide a more reliable experience for traders in November 2024.

Page last updated: 05/11/25