Our Organisation
Southern Rural Water (SRW) was formed on 1 July, 1995 when the former Rural Water Corporation was dissolved. Water businesses had previously operated as the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission.
We are a water corporation, operating under the Victorian Government’s Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning. Southern Rural Water is governed by a Board of Directors, who are appointed by the Minister for Water.
Our business – a quick overview
Southern Rural Water is responsible for managing irrigation districts, the regulation of surface water and groundwater licensing, and storage dams across the southern third of Victoria.
Our service area covers 88,000 square kilometres, or 37 per cent of Victoria, stretching from the South Australian border to the New South Wales border, and from the Great Dividing Range to the Victorian coast.
We deliver the water for essential food and fibre production, rural and urban businesses, electricity generation, and the raw water for treatment for urban water corporations to supply towns and cities.
We have more than 168 staff and manage assets worth $1.4b.
Within this wide geographic area, we provide high-quality services to more than 12,000 customers through managing:
- three regulated irrigation districts: Macalister, Bacchus Marsh and Werribee
- seven major dams and eight diversion weirs
- Victoria’s largest groundwater operations
- the second largest non-metropolitan headworks business
- take and use licenses from waterways; and
- licences relating to catchment dams and farm dam registrations.
Executive team
Cameron FitzGerald
Managing Director
Cameron has two decades of professional experience with 14 of these years in the water sector. Having successfully delivered high profile transformative programs across the sector, Cameron is committed to driving outstanding outcomes for Southern Rural Water’s customers and local communities. Cameron has worked at EPA Victoria, KPMG, City West Water and Melbourne Water and holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical) with Honours from the University of Melbourne. He is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors
Isabel Frederick
General Manager Customers and Technology
Isabel has wide-ranging experience in Technology and Business, having held senior positions in both fields, both locally and internationally before joining SRW in June 2019. Her career in Business/Technology has seen her deliver excellence in Consulting to Senior Management and Boards, in several major Australian corporates, as well as senior Line Management roles across all areas of large Business/IT Divisions.
She has led both traditional and emerging transformation Programs, most recently Lean Organisation Transformation and has held COO, CTO and CFO roles. Highly motivated, with a strong business and customer focus, she has succeeded in Defence (Logistics), Finance and Banking, Insurance, Superannuation, Healthcare, and Telecommunications.
Jo Giannini
General Manager People, Safety and Culture
Jo joined Southern Rural Water in 2017 having held senior human resources positions in the community services and disability sectors. She brings a strong background in
Nicole Griffin
General Manager Assets and Environment
Nicole joined Southern Rural Water in May 2018 having spent five years at Gippsland Water as General Manager Assets and Commercial Business and before that General Manager Business Development.
Before joining the water industry, Nicole spent a number of years in the Biotechnology sector working for Monsanto both in Australia and the Asia Pacific region. She has worked in the cotton industry for a number of years and understands the important role that irrigation plays in the health of regional economies.
Nicole holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Science and Graduate Diploma Environmental Management. Nicole is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and is currently completing an Executive MBA.
Elisa Hunter
General Manager Strategy and Performance
Elisa is an enthusiastic and outcome-oriented engineer with over two decades working in the water industry across both the private and public sectors. She has worked in a wide range of roles across the whole asset lifecycle bringing a unique perspective to strategy development, community engagement and water resource planning. Elisa brings a passion to her leadership with a focus on meeting customer, community and stakeholder expectations.
Craig Parker
General Manager Service Delivery
Since coming into the water industry in 2000, Craig has worked from field officer to executive levels across all of our regions. Craig has also acted as CEO at the East Gippsland Catchment Management Authority, adding a new perspective to his management of water resources. As General Manager Customer Service, Craig is committed to better customer outcomes in all parts of the business. This includes making water trading more accessible, making transactions such as renewals cheaper and easier, and customers accessing their own data to help run their business. In addition, Craig is accountable for ensuring our modernised assets lead to increased service opportunities for customers. Craig is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and has business qualifications from Mt Eliza Business School and UQ.
Stuart Wrigglesworth
Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary
Having grown up on a family farm supplied from the Macalister system, Stuart joined Southern Rural Water as Finance Manager in late 2005 and was appointed Chief Financial Officer in March 2011. He has 6 years’ experience working in professional practice for
