“We’ve been trying for 12 months to get State Government assistance and we hoped we wouldn’t have to take this step, but they’ve pushed us into it,” Mr Hatty said.

“Facing the third year of zero allocation, failing winter crops and no prospect of growing a summer crop, our members are angry and fed up that our requests for the State Government to waive the fixed charges are continually ignored.”

The Government fixed charges relate to water storage and management costs and amount to around $5000 an irrigator. They are collected on the Government’s behalf by private operator Murray Irrigation, which also levies significantly larger fixed charges for the cost of running its own system.

Mr Hatty said SRI was in discussion with Murray Irrigation with regard to reducing the impact of the company’s fixed charges and at this stage it was only the

Government’s fees irrigators were planning to withhold.

Murray Irrigation chief executive Anthony Couroupis said the company was still finalising charges for this season and it was expected that the first quarterly bill, including a component of company and Government fixed charges, would be sent out at the end of this month and fall due at the end of November.

Mr Couroupis said the company was aware of the SRI action and of the “incredibly difficult” position they were in.

He said it was too early to tell how a bill boycott would impact on the company or whether the Government would expect Murray Irrigation to pay the $5.5m whether it was able to collect it from irrigators or not.

Victorian irrigators who have had fixed charges partially rebated for the past two years under State Government drought assistance are still waiting to hear if rebates will be available again this year.

A drought assistance package is expected to be announced around the beginning of November.

Victorian Farmers Federation water spokesman Richard Anderson said low rainfall and allocations meant irrigators were facing possibly their worst year yet and could ill afford to pay fixed charges averaging $5000 a property.

Rebates were just one of a number of drought response measures the organisation was seeking.

Last year the Victorian Government rebated the first $1000 in full on water bills of those rural users receiving less than 40pc allocation by December 1. Irrigators with bills over $1000 received a rebate on half the balance and the option to pay the remainder in four tranches over the next four seasons.

A spokesperson for Agriculture Minister Joe Helper said drought assistance was still under discussion and could not say if fixed charges would be rebated again this year.

"The Victorian Government understands the pressures facing farmers and is currently in the process of reviewing its drought assistance measures in the context of winter and spring inflows, as it has done at this time of year for the last two seasons," she said.

"We have a strong record in providing targeted and efficient drought support measures to farmers and their communities with $300 million delivered to drought-affected areas across the state in the past two years."