Senators spruiking such an audit stoked the anti-pipeline sentiment yesterday in Yea, where hundreds of protesters marched through the main street to demand an end to the project.

South Australian independent senator Nick Xenophon described the project's impact on the Murray-Darling Basin as akin to giving a thirsty man "a cup of salt".

Senator Xenophon said he was keen to work with non-Labor senators in Canberra to place further scrutiny on the pipe project, and the best way could be to amend legislation aimed at reforming the Murray-Darling Basin.

Senator Xenophon was joined in Yea by two other South Australian senators: Sarah Hanson-Young of the Greens and Liberal Simon Birmingham.

He suggested that talks over such an amendment could take place as early as this morning.

The crowd was also addressed by indigenous elders and Deb McLeish, the farmer who was controversially arrested last month for trying to prevent pipe workers entering her property.

Doubt over the amount of water available to the pipe has raged since it was proposed in the middle of last year.

It is intended that the pipe will carry one-third of water saved by upgrades to nearby irrigation channels, up to a maximum of 75 billion litres a year.

But the State Government believes those upgrades will leave the Murray-Darling Basin better off, as another third will remain in the rivers as environmental flows.

There is growing anger among pipeline advocates in Victoria over criticism from South Australia, particularly given that Adelaide, which drinks from the lower reaches of the Murray River, was the last major city in mainland Australia to build a desalination plant.

The protest in Yea was one of several staged around Victoria yesterday, with opponents of the proposed east-west tunnel gathering at Flinders Street and opponents of increased clearway hours converging at Parliament House.

Opposition upper house leader David Davis said community disenchantment with the State Government was clear.

"All these community groups are telling the Brumby Government one thing: you are an arrogant government, an out-of-touch government and a government that doesn't listen," he said.