2024-25 Year in water

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The 2024-25 Victorian Water Accounts tell the story of a very dry year across most of Victoria, with low rainfall and reduced water availability compared to recent years.

Much of western and central Victoria received the lowest annual rainfall (July to June) in 50 years. The volume of water flowing through the Avoca and Loddon river basins for the year was only 2% and 9% of long-term average inflows, respectively. Across the state, the river inflow volume was the driest since 2018-19. For many Victorians, this was the second consecutive very dry year.

The dry conditions led to water resource managers applying some of their tools to ensure that water is shared fairly and sustainably, such as increased restrictions and lower seasonal allocations. As often seen in drier times, overall water use increased (within the available limits) compared to the previous year. Much of this was to support our critical agricultural needs through the low rainfall periods.

Our major water storage levels fell from 82% to 61% over the year, a reduction of 2,620 billion litres or more than 1,600 times the volume of the MCG. While fluctuations in storage volumes between wet and dry years are somewhat normal for Victoria, consecutive very dry years place significant pressure on our water supplies. The likelihood of these conditions is increasing under climate change, and we are planning for it as the new normal.

The Victorian Water Accounts – now in their 22^nd year – provide a wealth of information and resources to inform researchers, policymakers, and anyone interested in understanding water availability and use over time across the state.

Through a refreshed partnership with the Geography Teachers’ Association of Victoria, we have developed new curriculum resources for year 7 and 10 students. These bring the Victorian Water Accounts to life for a younger audience through interactive classroom workbooks made available to teachers, as well as a suite of public online water education resources. This work supports students in learning about the importance of sustainably managing our precious water resources, and helps inspire the next generation of water leaders.

THE HON MICHAELA SETTLE

Minister for Water

October 2026

The purpose of the Victorian Water Accounts is to report on water availability and use, and to demonstrate Victoria’s compliance with its water entitlement framework. It covers different sources of water including surface water, groundwater, recycled water and desalinated water.

Table 1 and Figure 1 report the total available water, and the consumptive and environmental entitlements and use across the state for the last 2 years for each of the 4 different sources of water.

Available water in the Accounts includes:

• the total volume of water that flowed down streams
• the sum of available water in a groundwater management unit (the permissible consumptive volume (PCV) or the entitlement volume where there is no PCV)
• the amount of wastewater treated
• the volume of water produced by the Victorian Desalination Plant.

Entitlement volumes are the maximum volumes authorised to be allocated and used by a holder for the year.

Use of surface water and groundwater is the volume of water diverted from a waterway or groundwater bore. Recycled water use is the end use of treated wastewater (e.g. for urban, agricultural or commercial purposes) that did not get discharged to the environment.

In 2024-25:

• 13,675,649 ML of water was available, the lowest since 2018-19 (and less than the 22,613,346 ML available in 2023-24)
• 7,677,063 ML of entitlement was on issue
• more water was used for consumptive and environmental purposes (4,951,659 ML, compared to 4,312,779 ML in 2023-24).

• Most of the state’s west and north received less rainfall than during the previous year. Rainfall ranged from the lowest on record in parts of Victoria’s west and centre, and South Gippsland, to above average in parts of Central and East Gippsland.
• Less water was available than the previous year (13,675,649 ML in 2024-25, compared to 22,613,346 ML in 2023-24).

Rainfall

Long-term average rainfall in Victoria (July 1975 to June 2025 - Figure 2a) varies from as low as 200 mm a year in the north-west of the state to up to 2,400 mm a year in parts of the alpine region.

The range for total annual rainfall received in 2024-25 varied across the state from 100 mm to 1,800 mm (Figure 2b). Less rainfall was received across Victoria’s north and west, and parts of the south-east, and more rain was received in parts of the south-west.

• The lowest rainfall - between 100 mm and 200 mm - was received in the Victoria’s north-west.
• The highest rainfall – between 1,200 mm and 1,800 mm - was received in parts of the Yarra Ranges, the Otway region and alpine region.

When compared to the 1975 to 2025 reference period, the rainfall received in 2024-25 ranged from the lowest on record in parts of Victoria’s west and centre and South Gippsland, to above average in parts of Central and East Gippsland (Figure 3). Close to average rainfall was received over most of eastern Gippsland, in isolated parts of the state’s north, and around Geelong.

The various layers on Figure 4 show the seasonal pattern of rainfall during the year, relative to the 1975-2025 reference period.

• Winter rainfall ranged from below to very much below average over most of Victoria’s western and central regions, but was above average across part of eastern Gippsland, and ranging.
• Spring rainfall was above average over parts of Victoria’s north, and a mix of close to or below average conditions for most of the state.
• Summer rainfall was below to very much below average over the state’s central and western regions, largely close to average over Victoria’s eastern and southern regions, and above to very much above average over most of eastern Gippsland.
• Autumn rainfall was average to very much above average across eastern Victoria, and below to very much below average across western and central Victoria, with lowest on record rainfall in parts of the state’s south.

The amount of water available for consumptive and environmental uses varies from year to year. The entitlement and planning frameworks include mechanisms to conserve and share water between users in response to seasonal variability and water shortages. More information on these mechanisms is provided in How is water managed?

In 2024-25:

• seasonal allocations were slightly lower than the previous year (see Statewide surface water)
• there were more restrictions on licensed diversions from streams (see Statewide surface water)
• there were 3 groundwater management units that were subject to restrictions (the same number as the previous year) (see Statewide groundwater)
• there were 8 towns placed on urban restrictions (stages 2 and 3), compared to none during the previous year Statewide water supply)
• water carting was required on four occasions to address isolated water shortages (see Statewide water supply)
• there were no temporary qualifications of rights to water.

Evapotranspiration is the sum of all processes by which water moves from the land surface to the atmosphere via evaporation and transpiration. Evapotranspiration amounts vary considerably across Victoria depending on a range of factors including rainfall conditions and land cover.

• Averaged across Victoria as a whole, evapotranspiration in 2024-25 was estimated to be 483 mm.
• This was below the long-term average evapotranspiration (about 14% less than the post-1975 historic climate reference period), and 17% less than the previous reporting period (2023-24).
• When estimated at a basin-scale, evapotranspiration was generally below long-term average conditions, except in the far south-east of the state.
• Read the report for more detail on evapotranspiration in 2024-25.