Water

Boost for irrigators

By Contributed

Oct 2, 2026

Irrigators in the major northern Victorian water districts will get more water allocated under the latest seasonal determinations.

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The Murray system seasonal determination increased from 70 per cent of high-reliability water shares (HRWS) to 75 per cent HRWS.

The Goulburn and Loddon systems will increases from 51 per cent to 57 per cent.

The seasonal determination for the Campaspe system’s low-reliability water shares (LRWS) increase from 61 per cent LRWS to 64 per cent LRWS.

The Broken system remains at 100 per cent high-reliability and the Bullarook system is unchanged with 100 per cent and 100 per cent.

Resource Manager Mark Bailey said flows into the major storages and water use supported the latest seasonal determination increases.

“The flows into the storages were higher than our conservative estimates,” Dr Bailey said.

“Demand for water has increased in recent weeks, enabling some of the flows in the rivers downstream of the storages to be utilised,” Dr Bailey added.

“This contributed to volume available for allocation in the Murray and Goulburn systems.”

Dr Bailey also advised a small volume passed Lake Eppalock before the storage fell below the full supply level and this volume would be deducted from spillable water accounts.

“Around 300 ML will be deducted from Campaspe spillable water accounts and other accounts such as the Campaspe inter-valley trade account that are subject to spill. This represents less than one per cent of the accounts’ total volume.”