High-reliability water shares (HRWS) in Northern Victoria have hit 100% in the Goulburn and Loddon systems, up from 93%. The Resource Manager for northern Victoria’s recent update to the 2020/21 seasonal determinations also shows that the Murray system HRWS increased to 81%, up from 77%. Meanwhile, the Campaspe system remain at 100% HRWS as well as the Broken and Bullarook systems, which are also unchanged at 100% HRWS.

According to Resource Manager Dr Mark Bailey, flows into the storages have been higher than previous conservative estimates, despite limited rain. He said the additional water helped the Goulburn system to 100% and consolidated reserves in other systems. The Bureau of Meteorology seasonal outlook is for La Niña conditions which could last to the end of summer, which supports above-average rainfall across southeast Australia through spring and early summer.

This week, Goulburn Murray Water reported storage volumes across their system had reached 69.2% of capacity, compared to 46.9% this time last year. A year ago, Hume Dam was less than a third full, while last week nearing 80% of capacity, while Eildon was around 47% full last year and is close to 70% of capacity last week.