High-reliability water at 100% in all major districts

By Geoff Adams

Dec 6, 2024

A wet spring is filling water storages and suppressing irrigation demand.

A wet spring has pushed dam storage levels higher and generated more high security water for northern Victorian irrigators.

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The major irrigation districts now all have 100 per cent of high-reliability water allocations.

This doesn’t occur this time every season, but it has become more common in recent, wet years.

The recent rain falling across northern Victoria areas has also suppressed irrigation demand.

Goulburn-Murray Water said the last time the season hit 100 per cent was in 2019-20, and it ran close in 2015-16 across most systems, except for the Goulburn, which reached 90 per cent of high-reliability water shares.

On December 4, Lake Eildon was holding 84.5 per cent of capacity, Dartmouth 88.4 per cent, Hume 57.3 per cent, Nillahcootie 84.8 per cent and Eppalock 77.4 per cent.

There is no allocation increase to general security entitlements in the NSW Murray regulated rivers, as of December 3.

The cumulative general security allocation is 47 per cent for the 2024-25 water year.

Average general security carryover is about 40 per cent of entitlement.