Mixed farmers in north central Victoria were “very worried about their future”, as questions remained over the region’s major irrigation project, according to one producer.
The $2 billion Goulburn Murray Water Connections project is the largest irrigation infrastructure program, begun in Australia since 2007. Durham Ox mixed farmer, Chris Harrison, said his was one property where the planned upgrade appeared to have stalled. “A lot of people are very worried about their future,” Mr Harrison said. He said he’d been left with a “hybrid” system, with both the older style Dethridge wheel and modern, automated technology. There were also problems with the new technology. “I have a $50,000 metre that hasn’t been fixed for four years, when is it going to be fixed?” Mr Harrison said. The Loddon Shire council has estimated only 40 per cent of the irrigation system had been modernised. Mr Harrison said there was still grave concern the project would not be fully rolled out. “They are half way through my place, they have put some meters in but not addressed the spur channels. That’s where the cost and inefficiency is; they’ve said they’ll just cut off the spur channels and – all of a sudden – thousands of hectares, which are irrigatable, might be lost.” Mr Harrison said it appeared the core assumptions, underlying the business case for the project, were flawed. “It said at the start of the project over 40 per cent of farmers would leave irrigation altogether - that is totally untrue,” Mr Harrison said. Fernihurst mixed farmer Ken Pattison said it appeared the drought had meant much of the water had been traded out of the district.
“Because of the drought, the first thing they have done is sold the water, when they want to access to temporary market, it’s outside their reach – they can’t afford to pay the price,” he said.”There has been water in the system, but its just been able to access it.” He said Goulburn Murray Water also charged tariffs to farmers who were not receiving any water, as the corporation to maintain existing infrastructure. “They have a triple outcome, they can’t access the temporary market, they have no water, they have no money and they have no feed, they are facing the perfect storm. “The Goulburn Murray water titanic is not going to hit the iceberg, it’s going to sink before it hits the iceberg.”
