Seasonal Determination update

Announcement Date: 15 Dec 2015
Next Announcement Due: 4 Jan 2016

Determination Data

Seasonal determinations for northern Victoria regulated river systems.

  High Reliability Water Share Change to High Reliability Water Share Comments
Murray 94% +2% Declared 10 September 2015
Broken 20% +3% -
Goulburn 82% +2% Declared 1 July 2015
Campaspe 55% 0% Declared 1 July 2015
Loddon 65% 3% -
Bullarook Creek 6% +2% -

Further Information

The Resource Manager for northern Victoria today announced increased 2015/16 seasonal determinations for the Murray, Goulburn, Broken, Loddon and Bullarook systems.

The Murray system increases by two per cent to 94 per cent high-reliability water shares (HRWS) and the Goulburn system also increases by two per cent to 82 per cent HRWS.

The Broken system increases by three per cent to 20 per cent HRWS and the Loddon system also increases by three per cent to 65 per cent HRWS. The Bullarook system increases by two per cent to six per cent HRWS.

Resource Manager Mark Bailey said the Campaspe system remained unchanged on 55 per cent HRWS.

“Operating requirements such as evaporation and river losses have been slightly lower than forecast in this latest assessment period, which enabled today’s increase,” Dr Bailey said.

Trading Opportunities

The Goulburn system’s inter-valley trade (IVT) account owes about 85 GL to the Murray system on December 15. The Goulburn, Campaspe and Loddon systems can trade to the Victorian Murray system, New South Wales and South Australia while the total volume owed to the Murray system is less than 200 GL.

The Goulburn, Campaspe and Loddon systems can trade from the Victorian Murray system, New South Wales and South Australia while the total volume owed to the Murray system is greater than zero.

Allocation trade from New South Wales to Victoria is limited to the lesser of a net annual volume of 200 GL or a volume that keeps the risk of spill in the Murray system below 50 per cent. The spill risk limit allows more than 200 GL of trade, and so the net annual volume of 200 GL applies unless advised otherwise.

Customers participating in the water trading market can monitor trade availability on the Water Register website, waterregister.vic.gov.au/water-trading/allocation-trading.

Standard Murray-Darling Basin Authority policy prohibits the net trade of allocations from above the Barmah Choke to downstream to protect delivery of downstream water entitlements. However, there is currently about 170 GL of capacity available to trade from upstream to downstream. Customers can monitor trading opportunities across the Barmah Choke on the Murray-Darling Basin Authority website.

Upcoming Resource Manager Announcements

  • The next 2015/16 seasonal determination announcement will be released on Monday, January 4, 2016.

For information about the Resource Manager for northern Victorian regulated water systems, including seasonal determinations, resource availability and carryover volumes, please visit www.nvrm.net.au. The status of Victorian shares of Murray storages is available at http://www.mdba.gov.au/managing-water/water-sharing.

Information about El Niño is available from the Bureau of Meteorology at www.bom.gov.au/climate/enso.

Details of the December to February rainfall outlook are available from www.bom.gov.au/climate/outlooks and seasonal streamflow forecasts are available at http://www.bom.gov.au/water/ssf/index.shtml.