Reflections: Water for the Environment in Victoria 2023-24

Reflections is a celebration of the efforts of all our program partners - catchment management authorities and Melbourne Water, Traditional Owners, other environmental water holders, storage managers, land managers, and scientists.

Click here to download a PDF version of Reflections 2023-24 [PDF File - 3.7 MB]

Following on from the extensive flooding that occurred across Victoria in 2022, the 2023-24 year saw a return to more climate variability across state regions, punctuated by increasingly erratic seasonal rainfall. Waterway managers responded accordingly, tailoring environmental flows to changing conditions and aiming to build resilience in systems ahead of the next dry period.

Watering actions focused on maintaining the benefits of the wetter-than-average conditions brought by three back-to-back La Nina events. These deliveries aimed to support native animal and plant species to recover after the big floods, and improve water quality where flooding had resulted in high turbidity and hypoxic blackwater events.

The VEWH oversaw delivery of 945,668 ML of environmental water in 2023-24. The total includes 188,362 ML of water made available by the VEWH, 576,906 ML of water made available by the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder and 180,400 ML made available by the Living Murray program.