Reviewing delivery share for northern Victoria

About the review

The review resulted from the Victorian Government’s commitment to help irrigation communities adapt to rapid change and reduced water availability.

Examining how delivery shares were working and how they could support affordable and resilient irrigations districts for the future was the main aim of action 4.3 in Water for Victoria: Help irrigation districts adapt.

The review started in 2017 and examined delivery share arrangements in the Lower Murray Water (LMW) and Goulburn Murray Water (GMW) irrigation districts.

Preliminary findings were released in July 2018.

After community consultation and targeted engagement with GMW and LMW customers, individual outcomes and actions were reported for each water corporation’s districts. The outcomes were released as two reports on 28 October 2018.

The review found that delivery shares were working as intended, but there was scope to adjust and strengthen delivery share arrangements.

Major and continuing changes in water and land use in irrigation districts have offered new ways for irrigators and rural water corporations to manage shared infrastructure.

The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) has been working with LMW, GMW and irrigator representatives to carry out the review’s actions and support the recommended outcomes.

Consulting and working together on solutions

Goulburn Murray Water, Lower Murray Water and independent experts worked on the review. The irrigation community’s essential contribution was made through feedback and in formal submissions responding to the Preliminary Findings Report and Community Discussion Paper released in mid-2018.

Consultation included:

• three open community forums in Mildura, Kerang and Shepparton
• workshops with irrigator committees
• an active online portal providing information and asking for feedback through a detailed questionnaire.

Active irrigators, industry groups and water corporation customer committees made 101 submissions to the review.

Community feedback led to further technical assessments and clear aims for improving delivery share arrangements in each irrigation region, supported by specific actions.

The unique management of delivery shares in Sunraysia and Goulburn-Murray districts led to separate outcomes and actions being proposed to suit each region. These were published in individual reports.