The season was one of the busiest Goulburn-Murray Water has experienced in recent times. We delivered more than 1.4 million megalitres of water to irrigators throughout it.
This is more than we delivered throughout any of the previous 10 irrigation seasons and is well above the 10-year average of 852,000 megalitres delivered.
The high demand stemmed from conditions in our region shifting between extremes.
This season has been incredibly dry, but it also followed multiple seasons that were incredibly wet.
The wet weather had left many of our lakes, dams and reservoirs very close to full, meaning plenty of water was available to irrigators when drier conditions arrived.
Any season as dry as this one will be difficult for farmers. However, for many it has still been a productive season because they have had access to plenty of irrigation water.
Meeting high demand like we have seen this season is only possible because of storages and the delivery network we have in our region.
However, even with the delivery infrastructure we have in place, it takes a lot of careful management to ensure we can still meet demand.
Our water systems operators have processed more than 100,000 orders throughout the season, and have often had to adjust order start and end times to maximise the capacity of our delivery system.
We have operators rostered on 24/7 during the irrigation season. Their dedication is always appreciated, but during this season in particular they have been essential to helping us provide the best possible support to our irrigators.
While there was little rain throughout the season, the Anzac Day rains were a great relief for many of our customers.
This was especially the case for irrigators in the Boort, Dingee and Calivil areas as the rain meant the rationing restrictions they were facing could be relaxed and then lifted altogether.
G-MW only implements rationing when all other options have been exhausted.
Rationing limits irrigators to only taking a set percentage of their delivery share. It is only introduced when irrigation demand is so high that it is expected to exceed channel capacity for several weeks.
By late February, irrigation demand in the Loddon Valley was rising, order wait times were increasing and rationing became the only way we could continue providing all irrigators in the region with fair access to water.
It was the first time in more than 15 years that rationing had been implemented anywhere within the G-MW region, and therefore the first time it had been implemented in our automated network.
We cannot say when or where we will next need to ration, but we want to make the process as easy and user-friendly for our customers as possible.
To help with this, we will conduct a thorough review of the process, which will include seeking feedback from impacted customers on what worked and what could be done better.
For gravity irrigators, the season is now over, but for us at G-MW, there is plenty of work still to do.
Not only do we have other customers, such as pipeline customers and private diverters, who will continue to receive water over the coming months, but we have our Winter Works Program to complete.
The program sees us undertake various maintenance and upgrades on our delivery network that could not usually be undertaken during the irrigation season.
It includes works such as channel remodelling, culvert replacements, bridge repairs, and weed treatment.
In some areas where these works are under way, there may be changes to traffic conditions and an increase in heavy vehicles, so I encourage everyone to be particularly safe on the roads throughout the winter.
An interactive map showing the different projects we are undertaking can be seen on our website: https://www.g-mwater.com.au/winter-works
Charmaine Quick is the G-MW managing director.
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