News & Events

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Introduction

The access to a secure and reliable water supply has underpinned the dairy industry in the Murray Dairy region.

Irrigation has supported the growth in the industry that has seen the region become one of the largest milk producing area s in Australia, producing 22.5% of the nations milk.

The irrigation systems within the Murray Dairy region combined make up the largest irrigation network in Australia. The two major water providers in the region are Goulburn Murray Water (G-MW) in Victoria and Murray Irrigation Limited (MIL) in NSW. There is approximately 1,900 GL of entitlements in the G-MW region and 1,500 GL of entitlements in the MIL region. The combined entitlements represent a volume of water approximately 7 times the volume in the Sydney harbour.

The dairy industry is the dominant water user in the region and uses between 50 to 60% of the total irrigation water in the G-MW region. Rice production is the biggest user of water in the MIL region but dairy has been a growing industry and represents 9% of the farm businesses in the area.

Depending on the location of the farm, the water can come from a number sources including surface water gravity delivered through open channel systems, direct diversion from river systems, groundwater and drainage water. The majority of water used in the region is gravity fed to farms via a comprehensive open channel system from three major storages.

The major storages include Lake Eildon on the Goulburn river, Dartmouth dam on the Mitta Mitta river and Hume dam on the Murray river. Storage Storage Capacity (GL) Lake Eildon 3,390 Dartmouth Dam 3,906 Hume Dam 3,038

As water comes under the jurisdiction of the states there are differences in how water is managed in NSW and Victoria. A ML of entitlement held by a NSW farm is different to a ML of water entitlement held by a Victorian farm. In Victoria the allocation policy results in a more reliable water supply but with lower yield compared to NSW’s policy that results in a less reliable water supply but with a higher yield.

In other words, Victoria will hold more water in reserve for the next irrigation season compared to NSW. The more conservative approach in Victoria provides a more reliable water supply but with less total volume of water allocated in the longer term. This occurs because in years of high inflows, Victoria’s share of the storages will “spill” more often than NSW’s share of the storages.

See Water Management chapter in the irrigation section for further explanation of the differences between NSW and Victoria.