Increases for Murray and Goulburn Allocations

Determination Data

Seasonal determinations for northern Victoria regulated river systems.

Further Information

Goulburn-Murray Water (G‑MW), the resource manager for northern Victorian water systems, announced increased allocations for the Murray and Goulburn today. The allocations in the Broken, Campaspe, Loddon and Bullarook systems remained unchanged at zero.

The Murray system allocation is 53% of high-reliability water shares (HRWS), which is an increase of 16%. The seasonal allocation in the Goulburn system is 40% of HRWS, which is an increase of 7%.

"At the time of the mid October allocation update inflows into the key Goulburn and Murray system storages were on the rise following the last useful rain.  The key storages have continued to rise, although with no follow up rain, inflows have receded to low rates.  Conditions in the Snowy Mountains have improved and the additional planned releases to the Murray system have helped the allocation increase," said G-MW's Resource Manager, Graeme Hannan.   "Inflows in the Broken, Campaspe, Loddon and Bullarook systems will provide greater security for the delivery of domestic stock supplies and some carryover from these rivers for the remainder of the season.  There has not been enough inflow to make good the shortfall to fully meet the operation losses and make an allocation for this season."

The Goulburn system allocation is now secure without the need to supplement supplies by pumping water from below the normal minimum operating level at Waranga Basin.  "G-MW will not proceed with plans to pump Waranga Basin in 2010, thereby avoiding this $1.9 million project.  Pumping to supplement low allocations is an effective drought response measure but uses water needed to support next season's allocation", said Mr. Hannan.

The Murray allocation announcement now means that the 100% allocation rule comes into effect for a small number of irrigators who carried over the maximum allowable volume against their high reliability water shares.   The 100% allocation rule means that water carried over against a water share, plus allocations in the current season, cannot exceed 100% of the water share volume.  If the Murray allocation increases further a greater number of irrigators will reach 100% in their allocation bank accounts.

The outlook for allocations for the remainder of the season will be updated on 16 November.  The improvement in the Murray system has exceeded the average inflow scenario for late October and this means that there will be a further improvement to the previous outlook to a 61% allocation for average conditions.   The Goulburn system improvement has been close to expectations for the average scenario.