THE legendary civil engineer Charles Yelverton O'Connor would have been envious.
When Premier John Brumby pushed the button for water to flow out of the north-south pipeline and into Sugarloaf Reservoir, there was barely a two-minute delay before it gushed out, connecting Melbourne's water supply to the Murray-Darling Basin for the first time.
There was no embarrassing delay such as the one that led O'Connor to take his own life over a water pipeline.
Charged with building a 600-kilometre pipeline uphill from Perth to Western Australia's goldfields in the late 1800s, O'Connor took his own life just as he appeared to have failed. But when water reached Kalgoorlie soon after his death, he was hailed a hero. Kalgoorlie and many other towns along its route rely on it today.
Victoria's 70-kilometre pipeline, completed months ahead of schedule, may not compare as an engineering feat, but it has sparked controversy since being launched in 2007.
There were threats to sabotage railway lines into northern Victoria over the pipeline and workers complained of being threatened with iron bars and swerving cars.
Private land was dug up to lay the pipeline, and some, such as Deb McLeish, were arrested on their own property for trying to obstruct it.
Mr Brumby conceded yesterday the project was disliked. ''There are some people who have had very strong views about it … but this is the biggest addition to Melbourne's water in 25 years,'' he said.
As the water was turned on, the government was still unable to fully explain where this year's 75 billion litres would come from.
This year water will not be exclusively supplied by savings in upgrades in ''Foodbowl'' irrigation.
The pipeline will take a third of water saved in the Foodbowl project in future years, but this year water will come from several contentious sources.
A reserve of emergency water kept in Lake Eildon to fight environmental problems will provide about 20 billion litres this year. Another 11 billion litres will come from water that was previously bound for the Wimmera-Mallee, but was redirected because of a successful water efficiency project.
The rest of this year's water - about 40 billion litres - will come from several irrigation upgrades in Shepparton, Central Goulburn and the early stages of the Foodbowl project.
Environmentalists claim some of the 40 billion litres was promised to the Snowy and Murray rivers, but the government denies this.
Water Minister Tim Holding will not give an exact breakdown of the volumes until water savings from the Foodbowl project are audited and published.
Those audited savings were promised to be published last spring.
With Melbourne's dams holding 644 days of water and desalination due next year, opposition spokesman Peter Walsh said Melbourne did not need the pipeline, which was expected to cost less than the original $750 million price tag. The cost to the Labor Party of bringing agricultural water to Melbourne will become known at the November state election.
Email a friend