The 2023-24 season begins on August 15.
The Resource Manager for Northern Victorian Mark Bailey released the first outlook for the 2023-24 irrigation season on February 15 and said last year’s events underpinned water availability for 2023-24.
“Very wet conditions through 2022-23 provided maximum seasonal determinations in all systems and good prospects for 2023-24 allocations,” Dr Bailey said.
“Based on estimated use at the end of the season, opening seasonal determinations in the (Victorian) Murray system are likely to be at least 80 per cent of high-reliability water shares (HRWS).
“Seasonal determinations in the Goulburn and Loddon systems are expected to start at about 75 per cent HRWS or better.
“The Campaspe system has enough resource available to allocate 100 per cent HRWS under all conditions on the first 2023-24 announcement on July 3, 2023.
“Carried-over allocation volumes and catchment conditions will influence early season availability in the Broken and Bullarook systems, which have smaller storages and fewer reserves.”
He said even under average inflow conditions the Murray, Goulburn, Loddon and Bullarook systems should reach seasonal determinations of 100 per cent HRWS by mid-August 2023.
“The same conditions in the Broken system would provide 100 per cent HRWS in mid-October,” he said.
He said the risk of spill in the Murray, Goulburn and Campaspe systems in 2023-24 would depend on how much water was released from the storages in the next few months to meet demands.
“The risk of spill in each system is expected to be at least 70 per cent at the start of July 2023,” he said.
The 2022-23 irrigation season ends on May 15.
“Customers in these systems should factor the risk of spill into their plans for the remaining months of 2022-23.”
For more information visit https://nvrm.net.au/
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