LODDON irrigators should start the new season with a high reliability water share of at least 25 per cent.
Northern Victoria resource manager Andrew Shields updated the seasonal determinations outlook last week.
“Catchment areas across northern Victoria have received little rainfall in recent months,” Mr Shields said. “As a result, flows into the major storages have been well below average.
“Flows into the Menindee Lakes provided some additional resource in the Murray system.
“Considering these factors and an estimate of the volume carried over, seasonal determinations in the Murray, Goulburn, and Loddon systems should begin 2025-2026 with about 25 per cent high-reliability water shares (HRWS) or better.
“The Campaspe system is expected to receive 100 per cent HRWS on July 1 2025 under all inflow conditions due to the reserves established during 2024-2025.
“As annual systems, the seasonal determinations in the Broken and Bullarook systems rely on catchment conditions and the volume of carried over allocation.
“Due to low reserves, we anticipate seasonal determinations in both the Broken and Bullarook systems will start 2025/26 at zero per cent HRWS.
“Inflow conditions during 2025-2026 will determine how seasonal determinations change during the year.
Average inflow conditions should allow the Broken, Goulburn, Loddon and Bullarook systems to reach seasonal determinations of 100 per cent HRWS by mid-October 2025. Murray system seasonal determinations may not reach 100 per cent until December under average inflow conditions.
The first 2025-2026 seasonal determination announcement will be released on July 1 and will include an updated outlook and an assessment of the probability of spill in the Murray, Goulburn and Campaspe systems.
Meanwhile, Goulburn Murray Water has started its annual winter weed treatment program.
The program will see the water corporation directly treat close to 300km of channels for weeds.
GMW will do this using Flumioxazin (Payload), a herbicide it has used since 2021 due to its effectiveness on target weeds and overall low environmental impact. Manager civil and environmental services John Walker said the program had major benefits to irrigators. “We take different steps to remove aquatic weeds from our channels throughout the year, but often the best results are seen during the winter, when we can dewater channels.“