DEECA
Water corporation

Southern Rural Water

In this area

Surface water basin: Bunyip, East Gippsland, Glenelg

Groundwater catchment: East Port Phillip Bay, Moe, Portland

Groundwater GMU: Cut Paw Paw GMA, South West Limestone GMA, Stratford GMA

About the area

  • Southern Rural Water is responsible for rural water supplies across the whole of southern Victoria (except for water supplied by Wannon Water to its rural customers).
  • Most of Southern Rural Water’s customers are direct diverters from unregulated streams or groundwater, but it also operates 3 irrigation districts.
  • The largest of these is the Macalister Irrigation District, which is supplied principally from Lake Glenmaggie on the Macalister River and from Cowwarr Weir on the Thomson River.
  • Southern Rural Water also operates the Werribee and Bacchus Marsh irrigation districts. Both are in the Werribee basin and are supplied from the Werribee River and its tributaries. The Werribee Irrigation District is also supplied with recycled water from Melbourne Water’s Western Treatment Plant.
  • More information on the water corporation can be found at Southern Rural WaterExternal Link .

2021-22 overview

Rural deliveries

71,726 ML of rural deliveries were made in rural systems in 2021-22, less than the previous year (132,130 ML in 2020-21).

Water deliveries

Rural systems

Southern Rural Water operates 3 rural supply systems and sources water from the LatrobeExternal Link , ThomsonExternal Link and WerribeeExternal Link basins.

Table 1: Rural system water balance, Southern Rural Water