Early works have started on the biggest overhaul of northern Victoria's irrigation system in more than 100 years, marking the beginning of the State Government's Food Bowl Modernisation Project.
The early works program began on Friday for the $1 billion first stage of the project by installing the first automated gate in Kyabram.
"Climate change, drought and crumbling irrigation infrastructure are the real threats to these communities and we understand their anxiety," Water Minister Tim Holding said.
"This project will deliver a world-class irrigation system to ensure that northern Victoria remains the most important agricultural production region in Australia by securing water for the future.
"Today marks an important milestone in a once-in-a-century opportunity to modernise this irrigation system to capture the losses and provide more water for irrigators, the environment and Melbourne."
Stage 1 of the project will capture an average 225 gigalitres of water each year to be shared equally by local irrigators, stressed rivers and Melbourne water users.
Melbourne's share of the water savings will be transferred from the Goulburn River to the Sugarloaf Reservoir near Yarra Glen via the Sugarloaf Pipeline.
Stage 1 is jointly funded through $600 million from the Brumby Government, $300 million from Melbourne water users and $100 million from local irrigators.
The Commonwealth recently committed up to $1 billion to Stage 2 of the project to recover another 200GL of water to be shared equally between irrigators and the Murray River.
Mr Holding said the early works program would see 1000 automated gates installed in major channels in the Goulburn-Murray Irrigation District by the end of 2008.
"The project will automate the entire irrigation system with intelligent technology known as the Total Channel Control system – designed, developed and manufactured in Victoria," he said.
"This will replace the 100-year-old system of manually opening gates throughout the main irrigation channels."
Each automated gate contains the equivalent of a small computer inside which enables it to:
· measure the water flow and regulate it by opening and closing the gates automatically;
· communicate with other gates and receive information from a central control centre; and
· recognise problems such as leaks, breaches of the channel or other discrepancies in water volume, which alerts staff to any issues immediately.
The early works program covers five irrigation districts in the Goulburn-Murray - Central Goulburn, Torrumbarry, Murray Valley, Rochester and Pyramid/Boort and is being delivered by the Northern Victoria Infrastructure Renewal Project.
Other works being undertaken as part of the early works program include rebuilding irrigation channel banks, relining large sections of channels to reduce seepage and building earth dams in channels to allow dewatering around structures.
"We understand that some people will always oppose the Sugarloaf Pipeline but Melbourne water users are investing $300 million to modernise this irrigation system and as a result of the investment they should receive some of the benefits of the project too," Mr Holding said.
"Without this investment irrigators would be left to foot the bill for the project."
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