The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) is encouraging northern Victorian irrigators to consider their
carryover needs and risks and has released a number of factsheets to help guide decision making.
VFF Water Council Chair Andrew Leahy said it was important that irrigators understood how
carryover works and the potential risks as the end of the irrigation season approaches.
“Whilst carryover has been around for quite a few years, it’s always interesting to look at how
carryover is being used and understand how and when to carryover, particularly as the end of
season approaches,” Mr Leahy said.
Carryover keeps unused irrigation water in the dams at the end of the season for use or trade in the
following season.
If carryover and seasonal allocations are greater than 100 per cent high reliability water shares and
low reliability water shares, this excess water goes into a spillable water account. Water in spillable
accounts is only released to irrigators once a low spill risk has been announced.
Mr Leahy said that with high levels of water remaining in Lake Eildon and Lake Eppalock, a spill
declaration will not occur until 10 June, just prior to the season ending.
“This is unprecedented. Never before have we seen a spill declaration so late and people need to
be careful with their planning.”
“Currently, 343GL remains in spillable accounts on the Goulburn and 5GL in the Campaspe. “
“We are urging irrigators to consider their carryover requirements if they still have water in spillable
accounts,” Mr Leahy said.
“Our fact sheets look at the volumes of carryover over time and by who. The trend shows that on the Murray, the environment is carrying over almost as much as irrigators.”
“In 2023-24, Victorian Murray irrigators carried over 539GL, and the environment carried over
448GL. On the Goulburn irrigators are historically carrying over much more water than the
environment. In 2023-24 irrigators carried over 794GL and the environment carried over 299GL.”
For further information or a copy of the fact sheet, please visit https://www.vff.org.au/fact-sheets