About the Region
The Rochester irrigation area in the Goulburn-Murray Irrigation District stretches from past Lockington in the west to Echuca in the north-east and Rochester in the south-east.
The area is part of the Campaspe Basin, which covers approximately 4 180 square kilometres south from the Murray River to the Great Dividing Range. Dairying under irrigation is the most important agricultural activity in the area as well as fruit and vine growing and dryland farming.
There are approximately 1 802 irrigation properties in this region and 553 kilometres of open irrigation channels. The average volume of water used for irrigation in this region is 94 gigalitres per year.
Planned Works
The NVIRP project aims to install approximately 59 kilometres of channel lining, 453 regulator gates and 1 080 metres in this region.
To learn more about NVIRP's plans to connect the majority of landowners to the modernised backbone system of irrigation channels, please click here
To view a map showing planned future works for the Rochester irrigation area, please click here
Key Contacts
NVIRP's Rochester Office
Heather Barber
(03) 5484 7461
Modernisation Coordinators
Jacki Tomlinson and James Kellerman
(03) 5484 7458
Rochester Modernisation Consultation Committee
Richard Anderson: (03) 5483 2214
Peter Gibson: (03) 5484 5226
John Hewlett: (03) 5486 5278
Mark Hill: (03) 5484 6204
Bruce Macague: (03) 5484 2225
Bill McMinn: (03) 5483 2233
Ken Parker: (03) 5484 1498
Eril Rathjen: (03) 5432 9266
Ian Whatley: (03) 5482 1062
Goulburn-Murray Water
Campaspe Operations: (03) 5484 7400
http://www.g-mwater.com.au/
Goulburn-Murray Water, Water Services Committee
RochesterCampaspeWSC@g-mwater.com.au
Campaspe District Future Management Strategy
The Campaspe Community Reference Group, a subcommittee of the NVIRP Rochester-Campaspe Modernisation Consultation Committee, was established in 2009 to investigate future water supply and security options in Campaspe. The region had being experiencing severe drought and subsequent low water allocations for a prolonged period of time.
Through extensive consultation and support from technical experts, the Reference Group developed a coordinated proposal to on-sell the majority of its water shares, in conjunction with the decommissioning or altering of shared irrigation supply infrastructure. Consultation with irrigators resulted in overwhelming support for decommissioning the irrigation district and developing solutions for continued but reduced water supply to the district. An irrigator survey conducted in 2009 can be downloaded below.
