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What is Victoria's water grid?

The water grid works much like our road network. It connects an extensive network of water sources such as dams, reservoirs, irrigation districts and the desalination plant to water users.

This includes homes, schools, businesses and even other waterways. It does this through infrastructure (sometimes above or below ground) including pipes, channels, pumps and natural waterways like rivers and creeks.

The grid includes the following assets:

Water sources

  • Reservoirs that are created by constructing a dam wall across a river valley. This creates a man-made lake where water can be stored for future use. Water is often released from a reservoir at set times throughout the year for environmental reasons or when capacity nears 100% (known as a ‘spill’).
  • Wells or bores used to extract groundwater from underground aquifers.
  • The Victorian Desalination Plant. This facility takes salty seawater and produces drinking water that is transferred to reservoirs through pipes.

Water transfer and treatment

  • Pipelines, open channels and canals used to transport water from waterways and reservoirs to where it is needed. This sometimes includes other reservoirs or smaller tanks. This movement may be fed by gravity or may require pumping. This depends on a water source’s elevation.
  • Water treatment plants for processing water to meet water quality standards before use. Different sources of water require different types of treatment to make sure it is always clean and safe.

Water authorities must plan ahead to determine what infrastructure projects are required to meet future water needs as our state keeps growing. Building new dams does not create new water, it takes water from somewhere else.

Due to the reduction in rainfall as a result of climate change, we will need more climate-resilient sources like recycled water or desalination, together with greater use of stormwater and rainwater when available, to meet our future water needs.

Community involvement is encouraged to use water more sustainably and conserve our precious resources.

Case study

The Victorian Water grid is a complex interconnected network managing the flow of water throughout the state. It covers the entire state and everywhere you get water. Watch this animation to understand it further.

Watch the video

Enhancing Victoria's Water Grid (1 min)

View transcript

Meet the expert

Josh Quinn is a Senior Policy Officer with the Grid team at the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA). In this video he discusses how he wound up working on the Victorian water grid and how it is responsible for all the water you use.

Source: DEECA
View transcript

Photo essay

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HARC (specialists in hydrology, dam safety risk management, catchment modelling and water resources) assisted DEECA and Victoria’s water authorities to define and apply a stress test of the Victorian water grid. This was to better understand the resilience of Victoria’s integrated water supply systems to severe but plausible scenarios. Learn more here: https://harc.com.au/projects/implementation-of-a-regional-water-grid-stress-test/ Image credit: DEECA

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Ben is the Team Leader Compliance and Enforcement at Lower Murray Water. Here he stands among the pipes and pumps of the Robinvale Main Pump Station. Image credit: DEECA and Darryl Whitaker

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The main northern channel flume north of Maffra. A flume is a specially shaped, fixed hydraulic structure, in this case a raised concrete chute that transports water from one side of the gully to the other. Image credit: DEECA and James Lauritz

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Within the reverse osmosis room of the Victorian Desalination Plant, a vast array of pipes collect water from the ocean, remove the salt and eventually deliver that fresh drinkable water to Cardinia Reservoir via the Victorian water grid.. Image credit: DEECA

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Goulburn-Murray Water undertake reconstruction of an irrigation channel in Kerang. Such works improve farmers' infrastructure by reducing water leaks and saving water among other benefits. Image credit: DEECA and Darryl Whitaker

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Water for irrigation is often transported to farms via open channels and canals from waterways and reservoirs to where it is needed. To do this, you must be entitled to do so through the Victorian Water Register. Image credit: DEECA and Darryl Whitaker

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At the Merbein Pump Station in Mildura, large inter-connected pipes send water up a steep riverbank from the River Murray. Image credit: DEECA and Darryl Whitaker

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Pump station infrastructure at Boundary Bend along the River Murray helps deliver water to where it is needed. Image credit: DEECA and Darryl Whitaker

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The Melton Recycled Water Plant receives wastewater through special purple pipes and treats it so that it can be sent via the grid and re-used elsewhere or discarded into waterways. Image credit: DEECA and Craig Moodie

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Eamonn works for Lower Murray Water in the lab and grounds of the Seventh Street Mildura Treatment Plant. including this collection of large blue pipes that send water to various destinations. Image credit: DEECA and Darryl Whitaker

Further resources

Below you can find a variety of resources to further research and understand the Victorian water grid.

Discover what Victoria's water corporations are saying about the grid.

Video and interactive tools

Return to the school water education resources home page.

Page last updated: 12/08/25