Murray

• The Murray River forms most of Victoria’s border with New South Wales. Victoria shares the volume of water held in the major storages with New South Wales under the Murray–Darling Basin Agreement.
• For the purposes of this report, the Murray basin includes the Upper Murray basin and areas in Victoria supplied from the Murray River downstream of Lake Hume.
• There are typically large volumes of water diverted from the river for irrigation use and environmental diversions and flows. Irrigation diversions support significant agricultural production.

More information on water management and accounting is detailed in Water explained.

When compared to the previous year, in 2021-22:

• more rainfall was received and storage levels peaked and declined at higher levels
• catchment inflow was much higher, the highest volume received since 2016-17
• high-reliability entitlements reached 100% allocation earlier
• low-reliability entitlements received an allocation for the first time since 2016-17
• there were fewer restrictions on licensed diversions from unregulated streams
• more water was diverted from the basin for environmental uses.

Rainfall

In 2021-22, rainfall in the Murray basin was above average in most areas, much higher than the year before. Rainfall was:

• above average in the western and central regions of the Murray basin around Mildura, Swan Hill, and Cobram
• very much above average in the north-east region except around Hotham Heights where rainfall was average.

Wastewater treatment plants

Water treated at wastewater treatment plants can be used to supplement water available in the basin. Water discharged to waterways from treatment plants is included as an inflow to the water balance.

Information on treatment plants is now reported in the Water Supply local reports for the water corporation responsible for managing the plant.

In this basin, wastewater treatment plants are managed by Coliban Water, East Gippsland Water, Goulburn Valley Water, Lower Murray Water, and North East Water.

Compliance

Compliance against water entitlements is reported for this basin in three areas:

• entitlement issued: the volume of entitlements issued in a basin does not exceed formal caps, and has not increased without appropriate approvals
• water taken: the volume of water taken during the year does not exceed the volume considered to be available for consumptive and/or in-stream use during that year
• bulk entitlement provisions: holders of entitlements do not breach any provisions that are documented in their bulk entitlement orders.

Note to increase in total entitlement volume:

• Water share volume increased by 15,293 ML (HR) and 10,680 ML (LR), this increase was made up of 22,353 ML (HR) and 13,352 ML (LR) issued for the Irrigator Share Distribution, a decrease of 7,180 ML (HR) and 2,719 ML (LR) following surrender of Connections Project Water Shares and another 121 ML (HR) and 48 ML (LR) net increase for other matters including cancellations and conversions from supply by agreements or other systems.
• The supply by agreement volume decreased in line with the water share issue.
• Bulk entitlement volumes similarly changed volumes as a result of the Irrigator share distribution, with loss entitlements decreasing and other changes to unspecified volumes. The loss entitlement was reduced commensurate with the irrigation modernisation works completed and the issue of water shares for the Irrigator Share Distribution and approved by the Minister in line with the Water Act and Water Savings Protocol. More information on the Irrigator share distribution can be found in the Entitlements and Compliance section on the statewide surface water page.

Environmental watering sites

Environmental watering sites in the Murray basin that depend on water for the environment include:

• the Barmah-Millewa Forest, Gunbower Forest, Hattah Lakes and Kerang and Lower Murray Wetlands, which are located along the Murray River and are internationally significant wetlands listed under the Ramsar Convention; except for the Kerang and Lower Murray Wetlands, these are also The Living Murray icon sites
• the Lindsay, Wallpolla and Mulcra islands (also The Living Murray icon sites), which rely on the freshwater inputs from the Murray River to function ecologically.

Environmental water reserve

In 2021-22, water for the environment in the Murray basin comprised:

• Bulk Entitlement (River Murray – Flora and Fauna) Conversion Order 1999 – Flora and Fauna component, comprising 45,267 ML of high-reliability, 8,523 ML of low-reliability and 49,000 ML of unregulated entitlements held by the VEWH
• Bulk Entitlement (River Murray – Flora and Fauna) Conversion Order 1999 – Living Murray, comprising 9,589 ML of high-reliability, 101,850 ML of low-reliability and 34,300 ML of unregulated entitlements held by the VEWH on behalf of the MDBA
• Bulk Entitlement (River Murray – Flora and Fauna) Conversion Order 1999 – Barmah-Millewa Forest Environmental Water Allocation, a significant operational rule embedded in consumptive entitlements comprising 50,000 ML of high-reliability and 25,000 ML of lower security entitlements
• Bulk Entitlement (River Murray – Flora and Fauna) Conversion Order 1999 – River Murray Increased Flows, comprising Victoria’s share of water recovered under the Snowy Water Initiative released from the Snowy Scheme to the River Murray, held by the VEWH
• Environmental Entitlement (River Murray – NVIRP Stage 1) 2012, which is allocated mitigation water for the purposes of watering specific environmental sites that have been identified through Goulburn-Murray Water Connections Project environmental approvals processes (1,207 ML of allocation in 2021-22)
• Bulk Entitlement (River Murray – Snowy Environmental Reserve) Conversion Order 2004, comprising 29,794 ML of high-reliability entitlements, held by the VEWH
• 389,298 ML of high-reliability water shares and 41,837 of ML of low-reliability water shares held for the environment
• water set aside for minimum flows released by the MDBA as a condition of the Murray-Darling Basin Agreement
• water set aside for the environment through flow-sharing arrangements set out in North East Water’s and East Gippsland Water’s bulk entitlements from unregulated rivers
• all other water in the basin not allocated for consumptive uses: this water also provides social, recreational and cultural benefits.

Environmental water use

A total of 757,544 ML of environmental water was delivered in the Victorian Murray system in 2021-22: 607,072 ML of this made its way to the South Australian border.

Management of water in the Murray basin is undertaken by various parties.

The MDBA operates the Murray River on behalf of the Victorian, New South Wales and South Australian governments in accordance with the water-sharing arrangements set out in the Murray–Darling Basin Agreement. Under the agreement, Victoria shares the waters of the Murray River with New South Wales and South Australia.

Under normal conditions, Victoria is entitled to a 50% share of all flows upstream of Doctors Point near Albury–Wodonga (that is, flows to Hume and Dartmouth reservoirs and from the Kiewa River), a 50% share of inflows to the Menindee Lakes storage and all flows entering the Murray from the Ovens, Goulburn, Broken, Campaspe and Loddon rivers. Victoria is also required to supply half of South Australia's monthly entitlement flows from the water available to it.