A big funding boost has been announced for the Broken River.
Irrigators are hoping new funding of $130 million will help resolve reliability and sustainability issues along the Broken River.
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Farmers relying on water from the Broken have been battling to have the issues addressed for more than a decade.
Recently the federal and Victorian governments announced the funding for a business case and subsequent works.
Farmers have suffered from unreliable water delivery since the closing of Lake Mokoan more than 15 years ago.
They have had to rely on the small Nillahcootie reservoir since then.
The solutions could include the purchase of water entitlements, whole farm planning, transition to alternative farming, better on-farm storages and the decommissioning of the Gowangardie Weir.
The business case, expected to be concluded in March next year, will recommend which options to include.
Irrigators are expected to be included on a stakeholder reference body, which will include the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority, Goulburn-Murray Water and government agencies.
Victorian Water Minister Gayle Tierney said the Broken Reconfiguration Project looked to remove demand on the Broken River system, contribute water to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, increase reliability for water entitlement holders, increase domestic and stock water supply security, and improve resilience against drought.
VFF Water Council chair Andrew Leahy said VFF members had worked tirelessly for many years to improve water reliability in the Broken system, as well as to secure improved stock and domestic supply.
“A special thanks must go to former VFF Water Council chair and local irrigator Richard Anderson, who worked for years to help get this across the line,” Mr Leahy said.
“This project is a direct result of years of grassroots advocacy and it’s fantastic to see that hard work finally being recognised and realised.
“The VFF has written to the Commonwealth Water Minister, Murray Watt, inviting him to the region and we look forward to the opportunity to discuss our local issues face to face.”
Irrigator Wayne Spinks welcomed the announcement, which he hoped would be a step forward in improving reliability and sustainability of the Broken River system.
The Goorambat farmer said the funding was an encouraging development.
“We can’t say yet exactly how it will look but the outcomes will be better,” he said.
“We are an opportunistic system at the moment; we want it to become sustainable in the future.”
He said the current system was a problem for both irrigators and stock and domestic customers.
Mr Spinks said the two previous Victorian water ministers, Lisa Neville and Harriet Shing, had understood the issues over the past decade and supported the farmers in a quest for better reliability.
Indicative results for the preferred scenario for the Broken River (measured against the base case. Source: www.water.vic.gov.au
Under the preferred options identified in a feasibility study, the $130 million could be expended on the following actions:
Construction of pipelines to resupply properties.
Entitlement purchases.
Acquisition of Goulburn shares.
Brokerage and legal fees associated with entitlement purchases.
Professional farm planning advice to support landowners to transition to non-irrigation practices.
Whole farm planning survey and design.
Works to transition properties to non-irrigation practices.
Works to transition properties to a more efficient form of irrigated use.
Increased on-farm storage.
Decommissioning of Gowangardie Weir.
Water entitlement changeover.
The feasibility study suggests that 50 per cent of the recovered entitlement will be transferred to environmental water holders, and 50 per cent will be retired to support system reliability.
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