We're investigating what the future of our rural water supply network could look like, and we need your help!

In March, we sent all rural customers an information pack that included a questionnaire to complete. Thank you to those customers that have completed the questionnaire. We’ve had an excellent result so far with over 420 completed, which is a response rate of over 35%. We also had a great response to our customer drop-in sessions, with 165 people attending across the seven sessions to discuss the project.

If you haven’t yet completed your questionnaire, please do so. We are keeping it open and encourage you to share your feedback to help us shape a strong business case. If you have already completed it either online or via a paper copy, there is no need to do it again. The online questionnaire can be accessed below. Interim questionnaire results are also available on the top right of this page.

We continue to progress our work in developing the Detailed Business Case, due for completion in December 2025. However, a new opportunity that could provide early access to funding is now available. The opportunity is a Commonwealth program aimed at improving water efficiency and savings within the Murray Darling Basin, with applications closing in late March 2025. To meet this revised timeline and produce a funding application, the current program will be broken into two stages: Stage 2A – Interim Business Case (funding application) and Stage 2B – Detailed Business Case. Additional customer engagement will be included in both of these stages.

A more targeted approach will be taken for Stage 2A (late 2024) to ensure we have feedback from larger users to help with system design. We will develop another survey to see who has potential interest in exiting the rural system, either in part or in full. This will also help to understand system design requirements.

In Stage 2B, likely to be mid-2025, we will be providing customers with opportunities to review and discuss the preferred options for the Rural Water Efficiency Project and how these options might be refined to inform the final Detailed Business Case, scheduled for completion in December 2025.

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

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. 33%, or an estimated 3.2 gigalitres, of water is lost each year due to leaks and seepage. Similar levels are also lost from private supply channels.

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 deliver significant water savings.

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 further funding.

Throughout the process we will be seeking advice from our Rural Customer Advisory Group.

Investigations

Technical investigations will be completed for each of the 12 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 the time being.

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

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

4. 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 first 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 18 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.