This year we celebrated our 30-year anniversary of becoming Southern Rural Water and commemorated a century of irrigation in the Macalister region. It’s been an exciting and challenging year, and we’ve achieved some great wins for customers, communities and environment in 2025.
In response to ongoing dry conditions across parts of the state, the Victoria Government formed a Drought Response Task Force. As part of the task force and in September this year, we proudly launched Farmer helping Farmer to support farmers in drought-affected regions access stock and domestic water. Starting in south west Victoria, we’re now aiming to expand the program into parts of South Gippsland.
We’ve supported communities in Nillumbik Shire by building three new emergency water bores that they can access during a drought or bush-fire crisis. These new bores join a network of emergency water supply points across Victoria that can help safeguard lives and support livelihoods.
We have issued new water licences to Traditional Owners on the Albert, Franklin and Powlett Rivers. A total of 300 megalitres was returned to the Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation and 450 megalitres to Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation. This water will be used to support self-determined initiatives.
Between January and March, we sold 1,350 megalitres of seasonal entitlement, and 600 megalitres of high reliability and 191 megalitres of low reliability permanent water shares in the Macalister Irrigation District. This water was made available from water savings achieved by the investment made by customers, State and Federal governments as part of modernisation in the district. We look forward to offering more water to customers in 2026.
We also delivered more water for farmers along the Latrobe River to bolster supplies and boost operations by selling 4.37 gigalitres of water. This water was part of the 16 gigalitres of water previously set aside for power generation that was reallocated equally to agriculture, Traditional Owners and the environment by Minister for Water, Gayle Tierney MP. Farmers along the river had been advocating for more water so it felt good to be able to offer them this and we are working with the Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corportation to licence their share of 5.33 gigalitres.
Online groundwater trading opened to all customers across southern Victoria allowing them to buy and sell permanent or temporary licenced water. We’re aiming to launch a trade room for Werribee and Bacchus Marsh Irrigation District customers early next year… stay tuned for updates.
Community safety is at the heart of everything we do and this year we completed safety tests at Glenmaggie and Narracan dams to ensure they met the required strength and stability standards. Tests confirmed both are rock solid and our dam safety team continues to constantly monitor and manage our seven major damas and eight diversion weirs.
We also renewed joints on the upstream side of the spillway at Blue Rock Lake. The renewal stops water leaking through the spillway ogee and ensures the structure remains safe and operational. This is essential in allowing us to continue supplying the electricity generators who keep Victoria’s lights on and irrigators who grow our food and fibre in the Latrobe Valley.
We delivered a significant program of infrastructure works in 2025. In the Macalister Irrigation District, we upgraded more outlets with automated slip meters, upgraded and replaced regulators on the Main Northern Channel, finished phase one of the Main Southern Channel Tunnel 5 upgrade and repaired many other assets to ensure we have a safe and efficient irrigation network.
In Werribee, we installed two new modern flow meters that will help enable total channel control in the district and a fully automated irrigation system.
We started replacing more than 1,000 old-style water meters across southern Victoria with new pattern approved meters. The new meters will greatly improve the accuracy of reads and allow our customers to better track water use against their water entitlement and remain compliant.
And when it comes to compliance, we conducted major investigations across several catchments and followed through on several enforcement actions. We have a zero-tolerance approach to non-compliance with the Water Act because water is a precious resource that must be accessed fairly by all licenced water users. We remain ever vigilant.
Finally, we’ve started building a new all-abilities pontoon at Blue Rock Lake and aim to complete the works in early 2026. This will complement our all-abilities playground and be a great community asset that will enable people living with a disability to access and enjoy the water.
As this year draws to a close, we want to wish you a safe and peaceful Christmas and New Year. We know it can be a busy time and will be working to deliver your water when you need it.