Water management in Victoria deals with the management of water resources in and by the Australian State of Victoria.
History
Waterworks trusts
Following droughts in the 1870s, the Water Conservation and Distribution Act 1881 was passed to help establish local waterworks trusts. It allowed local trusts to borrow funds from the government for the construction of water supply works. The trusts could then charge water rates to users in order to recoup their costs and pay the interest on the loans.
In 1887, the Mildura Irrigation Company was established as a privately owned water supply company in Mildura. After the collapse of its parent company in 1895, it became a co-operative known as the Mildura Irrigation Trust, which later become known as the First Mildura Irrigation Trust (FMIT). This operated in the Mildura area until 2008 when it was forcibly taken over by the Victorian government.
In December 1889, the shires of Oakleigh, Dandenong, Moorabbin, and Mornington voted for the formation of an urban water trust to bring water from the catchment area of the Dandenong Ranges. Plans were made for "the storage of 596,000,000 cubic feet of water, to supply 39,000 people with water for domestic purposes" to "ensure a permanent and efficient supply". The cost of the scheme was estimated to be £41,000 with the contribution of each shire being Moorabbin £23,247, Oakleigh £11,852, Dandenong £5,000 and Mornington £1,000. Storage tanks were proposed to be constructed for each township to provide for a supply of at least 20,000 gallons.
The State Rivers and Water Supply Commission was created in 1905 by the Water Act 1905 to coordinate and manage the State's rural water resources and eventually to take over all Victorian rural water trusts and irrigation schemes. The Commission was replaced in 1984 by the Rural Water Commission.
The Geelong Municipal Waterworks Trust was created in 1908 and expanded in 1910 to become the Geelong Waterworks and Sewerage Trust. In 1984 the trust was merged with other local water and sewage authorities to form the Geelong and District Water Board, and again restructured to form the Barwon Region Water Authority in 1994 (trading as Barwon Water).
Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works
Melbourne received its first piped water, from the Yan Yean Reservoir, in 1857. Water shortages in the late 1870s led to the construction of the Toorourrong scheme in 1882–1885, and the Maroondah Aqueduct in 1886–1891. In 1888 a large part of the upper Yarra valley was reserved for water supply purposes.
In 1891, the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW) was a public utility board in Melbourne, set up to provide water supply, sewerage and sewage treatment functions for the city, and to create a piped sewerage system.
MMBW's responsibility covered the Yan Yean Reservoir (supplemented by the Toorourrong Scheme), the first stage of the Maroondah Scheme, and six metropolitan service reservoirs.
MMBW continued to augment Melbourne's water supply with diversions from upland tributaries of the Yarra River. The Maroondah Scheme was extended with a pipeline diversion from Coranderrk Creek (1908). A diversion weir on the O'Shannassy River was completed in 1914 and replaced by the O'Shannassy Reservoir in 1928. Maroondah Reservoir was completed in 1927, replacing a diversion weir upstream of the site.
Silvan Reservoir was completed in 1932 to regulate the increased flows in the O'Shannassy Aqueduct from the Upper Yarra River and Coranderrk Creek diversions. Water flowed out of Silvan Reservoir through the Mount Evelyn Aqueduct; the aqueduct was later replaced by pipes but is still visible in places with the Mount Evelyn Aqueduct Walk alongside.
The diversion of water from the Upper Yarra River commenced in 1939 with a weir upstream of the present dam and an aqueduct and pipeline to the O'Shannassy Aqueduct. The Upper Yarra Dam was completed in 1957, increasing Melbourne's total storage capacity to nearly 300,000 megalitres. While the Upper Yarra Project was being built, a 1.7-metre diameter pipeline from a basin near Starvation Creek to Silvan Reservoir was completed in 1953. A duplicate pipeline of the same diameter was completed in 1964.