We're continuing to investigate what the future of our rural water supply network could look like, and we need your feedback and support!

The work to develop a Detailed Business Case, due for completion in December 2025, is progressing well. This business case will seek funding from the Federal Government to upgrade the ageing and inefficient rural system.

A further funding opportunity is also available through a Federal program aimed at improving water efficiency and savings within the Murray Darling Basin. Applications for this program close in late March 2025.

This means the current program has been broken into two stages:

Stage 2A - Interim Business Case (funding application).

Stage 2B - Mid-2025. At this time we will provide customers with additional information that was not previously available to assist with their decision making. This information will help customers review and discuss their preferred options before they are finalised for the Detailed Business Case in December 2025.

Other resources on this page will provide additional context and answer some of the questions you may have. Feel free to look around.

Click here to complete the Stage 2A customer preference survey

Background

In August 2023, we welcomed a $3.7 million investment announcement by the Australian Government to develop a Detailed Business Case for a more efficient rural channel system. The funding complements our $2 million investment in the project.

The Coliban Water rural network supports lifestyle, agricultural and primary industry through 12 rural supply systems, comprising 360 kilometers of channels and 140 kilometers of pipelines. We typically supply between four and seven gigalitres of raw and recycled water to rural customers each year.

Originally built to supply the former booming mining industry and associated services, our rural water network is an ageing and leaky system that can now often be found passing through growing urban areas. In its current configuration it does not always support what’s best for the region.

The channels are largely unlined and inefficient. 79%, or an estimated 4 gigalitres, of water is lost each year due to leaks and seepage in both the Coliban Water channel and private channel networks.

Building on the work completed in the Preliminary Business Case in October 2022, this investment will support engagement work with our rural customers to develop options to update the rural network.

These options will improve customer service levels and provide greater water efficiency, as well as delivering significant water savings and better environmental and cultural outcomes.

Consultation

Input from rural customers will be critical to the development of the Detailed Business Case. We will consult in different stages over the next 12 months.

• Stage 1 - In March 2024 customers received an information pack and questionnaire. The information provided will assist us to identify options, costings, and policy positions for updating the rural system.
• Stage 2A - An interim business case will be developed for the additional funding opportunity identified in March 2025. We will need to find out from customers what they intend to do with any surplus water that they hold.
• Stage 2B - The feedback gathered in earlier stages will allow us to provide more detailed information to customers about their options and have discussions about what their preferences are. This will help us to finalise the business case.

We encourage all of rural customers to participate and provide feedback. This will give us the best chance to build the strongest case possible for funding.

Throughout the project we will continue to seek advice from our Rural Customer Advisory Group (RCAG). There is more information about this group to the right of this page.

Customer Engagement

The customer and stakeholder engagement for Stage 2A is now complete and over 430 customers have indicated what their preferences would be if we had an upgraded and more efficient rural system. This stage offered incentives for voluntarily reducing licence volumes, or leaving the system altogether, which was aimed at recovering some of the water that is not used each year. This information is critical to help us refine system design options, service levels and costings for the business case.

Customers received an information pack in the mail with a booklet, preference form and a reply paid envelope. The form could be completed and posted back to us or done online via the link below. The online version is still open if you haven't let us know your thoughts yet, just click on the link below.

We also hosted another round of drop-in sessions so that customers could chat to us face to face about the project and ask questions if they needed help completing their preference form. The drop-in sessions were well attended with 109 people dropping in for a chat.

It is important to note that customers are not locked into the preferences they make in this stage. If we receive funding we will confirm preferences once we have provided more information about tariffs, costs and termination fees. We acknowledge that this additional information will be needed so that people can confirm or review their preference.

For Eppalock pipeline or Coliban Main channel customers we do not anticipate any major changes to the level of service currently being provided, however when the options to upgrade the rural system are fully developed we will advise if you will be impacted in any way. We still asked you to complete the preference form as we want to know what you would like to do with your licence volume, especially if you hold more water than you need.

Investigations

Technical investigations will be completed for each of the relevant channel systems. The findings will be combined with customer feedback and a range of options identified. These options may include:

1. No change – We do not receive any further funding and the system will remain as it is for now.

2. Modernisation – A rural piped supply will replace the existing channel system.

3. Reconfiguration - a mix of new piped supply and upgrades to the channel system.

4. Alternate supply – Customers may be converted to another supply source (eg town water supply).

5. Rationalisation– If a system is not viable for modernisation, closure may need to be considered.

We anticipate we will have a better understanding of where each channel system sits after the second phase of customer consultation. While these investigations and customer conversations are underway, we do not anticipate any major changes to existing rural arrangements.

We have implemented some interim policy positions to support the investigation period that relate to licence renewal and permanent water trading. More information is outlined in a factsheet accessible via the yellow button on this page labelled 'Interim Policy Positions'.

Harcourt Rural Modernisation Project

A business case for the Harcourt Modernisation Project was completed in July 2011. The business case was endorsed by the then Victorian Minister for Water and approved by the then Victorian Treasurer in January 2012.

Highlighted benefits of the project included:

• Estimated water savings of 950 megalitres per year.
• Increased reliability of supply for Harcourt irrigators.
• Improved capacity to respond to a future shortage in urban supplies.

Harcourt was chosen for modernisation as it had the highest water use of any of Coliban Water’s rural systems. In contrast to other systems used by small water users and hobby farmers, the Harcourt system is predominantly used for agriculture.

One of the unique drivers for Harcourt, was the link between this project and the Southern Interconnector/Castlemaine Link project. The Harcourt modernisation was part of a broader project to allow the transfer of water from Bendigo to Castlemaine, increase operational flexibility, and improve urban water security for the Coliban South system.

In modernising the Harcourt system, the following principles were used:

• Customers were compensated for reducing their licence volume, or for exiting the system.
• Pipe sizing allowed entitlements to be delivered over 26 weeks.
• Customers were required to hold three days of water to accommodate pipeline maintenance.
• Tanks were required for all customers with licenses equal to or less than five megalitres.
• Customers are expected to pay for any works downstream of their meter, with project benefits expected to offset the upfront costs.

Once modernised, a termination fee was introduced for customers choosing to leave the system, to ensure that remaining customers would see no change to their existing tariffs due to a lower customer base. This fee does not apply where entitlement is traded within the system.