We began work on electrical upgrades at the plant in August.

Completing these upgrades will address reliability issues, support the new facility and future planned upgrades, and support the installation of a major solar facility in the future.

The electrical upgrades are expected to be completed by July 2026 when the construction of the new solids handling facility will begin.

We reached a major milestone earlier this year in May 2025, with announcement of an $82.6 million contract awarded to LC Envico – a joint venture between Laurie Curran Water and CCB Envico.

LC Envico will help us construct a new Solids Handling Facility which will replace the existing treatment process that takes the solids from our used water and turns it into 'biosolids' that can be reused as a nutrient-rich alternative to fertiliser.

Planned works will include upgraded electrical infrastructure and the construction of a new aerobic digestor with thickening, dewatering and outloading systems.

Construction of the facility is expected to be finished at the end of 2027 with Stage One concluding in 2028.

The Solids Handling Project designs progressed and were refined throughout 2025, including through a number of design review workshops. The completion of the design will allow to commencement of the major civil construction works in mid-2026.

Throughout the year we hosted tours of the Bendigo Water Reclamation Plant for school students studying environmental science at Victory Christian Collage and Marist College.

We also conducted regular bird counts that allowed local bird groups to not only see the birds who call the plant home but conduct important ecological surveys.

We completed a number of maintenance works at the plant this year to ensure it continues to operate at the best of its ability.

Among the works was replacing the inlet covers at the start of our treatment process. This will more effectively contain odours from sewage arriving at the plant.

In April, we completed maintenance works on high voltage power supply equipment.

We completed maintenance work on one of the biofilters at the plant. Biofilters help mitigate the odour produced as part of the treatment process through a ventilation system.

As the weather warmed up in October, odour levels at the plant increased.

In response, we completed maintenance and other measures to reduce odour including consulting an odour industry expert, installed extra covers at the wastewater screening area and maintenance works on one of our odour-reducing processes, the biofilter.

These responses helped reduce the odour being released from the plant.

Learn more about how we manage odour at our plant here.

At our Bendigo plant, the treatment process produces Class B and C that is then treated to a Class A level at our Recycled Water Factory. Recycled water is wastewater that’s been treated to such a high standard, that it can be reused for other purposes.

In 2025, the project team prepared for major upgrades to this facility. This include completing a tender design that was released to the market. The team are now reviewing submissions resulting from that tender design.

Minor works were completed at the plant alongside this tender process, such as chemical system upgrades and a 20% capacity increase to the ultrafiltration unit.