Back to About us

Our strategy

Great value for customers and community through excellence in rural water management.

In delivering our vision, our aspirations are to provide:

  • customer value through outstanding service
  • community value to help our regions thrive
  • excellence in everything we do by empowering our people to deliver results.

Our foundations will enable us to be: financially sound, resilient and insight-driven, operate efficient systems, and be a great partner, an outstanding asset manager and a trusted resource steward.

Our people are at the heart of everything we do. It is our people who build these foundations and apply them to bring our aspirations to life.

Our Corporate Strategy

Strategies, report and plans

Our history

Southern Rural Water was formed when the Rural Water Corporation was dissolved. The Rural Water Corporation started life in 1907 as the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission of Victoria – with wide ranging responsibilities for water supply and distribution in rural and regional Victoria.

By the 1990s, however, many irrigators were not happy about some of the activities of the Rural Water Corporation. When irrigators protested over charges, the government established the McDonald Review to look at the future management of the Rural Water Corporation.

In 1992 the McDonald Review set in train the dissolution of the Rural Water Corporation by establishing regional advisory boards. In 1994, the Rural Water Corporation was separated into five independent rural water authorities.

For Southern Rural Water, the final step occurred on 1 July 1995 when the two authorities in southern Victoria (Southern and Gippsland) were combined to form our current organisation.