The Resilient Water Program, a division of Goulburn-Murray Water, was tasked with preparing a detailed business case for the reconfiguration of the Broken River system following completion of the Broken Reconfiguration Feasibility Study and the Broken River System Review.

For many years, water availability has been a challenge for all water users in the Broken System. Low and late seasonal allocations resulting in unreliable supply has made it difficult for irrigators and stock and domestic users to use water effectively. There is also a significant shortage of held environmental water within the Broken System, required to maintain river and creek health.

In response, the community sought government assistance to explore long-term options for the future of the Broken System under reduced and more variable water availability. This led to the Broken System Review (2020-2022), the Broken Reconfiguration Feasibility Study (2023-2024) and subsequently, the development of this Business Case.

Starting in June 2025, the Program Team has worked closely with various Broken System stakeholders to thoroughly test the recommendations made in the Feasibility Study, including: landowners and customers, the Stakeholder Consultative Committee, the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA), the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority and Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation.

The Feasibility Study recommended further investigations and community consultation be undertaken through a business case.

Over the last eight months, the Program Team has directly engaged with more than 300 customers within the Broken System, through more than 2000 individual interactions.

In assessing potential infrastructure solutions, the Program Team undertook detailed engagement with affected customers and landowners on potential configurations and alignments.

In addition to direct customer and community engagement, the Program Team has convened community meetings and arranged briefings for a range of stakeholders including local representatives, Councils, water authorities and Traditional Owners.

The Stakeholder Consultative Committee, made up of 7 community members and representatives from DEECA, Goulburn-Murray Water (operations and diversions), the Program Team and Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority, has held 6 meetings between June 2025 and February 2026.

Working closely with landowners and stakeholders the Program Team sought to determine whether:

• the expected volume of water recovery is achievable
• the proposed infrastructure works are viable
• implementation of the proposed measures would benefit stakeholders

Detailed investigations to assess the viability of the proposed infrastructure works involved direct engagement with all landowners and customers and expert advice from consultant engineers, farm designers and planners.

The investigations determined that the reconfiguration of service arrangements within the system through the installation of new pipelines was not viable due to a range of factors including:

• not receiving collective support from customers and landowners
• construction costs to meet customer service level expectations exceeding available funding
• operation and maintenance costs exceeding current and comparable services in other areas
• customer preferences to maintain current diversion service and existing tariff arrangements
• risk of exposing GMW and its customers to significant future cost liabilities

For these reasons, the Resilient Water Program will not be recommending the construction of any new pipelines within the Broken System as part of this project. However, a number of recommendations from the Feasibility Study can be delivered and would have real benefits for Broken System stakeholders.

Our engagement with customers indicates that there is a strong willingness from more than a third of water share holders to sell all or part of their water entitlement to the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder. While assisting those customers to transition away from (or reduce) irrigation usage, the acquisition of this entitlement would create a pool of held environmental water available to be used in the Broken System into the future.

In addition, targeted works to improve fish passage and protect water quality would assist in enhancing the environs of the Broken System while at the same time improving service on the existing Mokoan diverters pipeline. These measures will have enduring benefits for all users of the Broken System.

If you would like to make a submission in response to the Business Case Proposal Summary, please use the form available on the project homepage.

The final business case will be submitted to the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action in March 2026 for consideration before being submitted to the Commonwealth in accordance with the funding agreement.

The Program Team will continue to provide updates on the GMW Your Say webpage on the outcome of a funding decision. If funding is confirmed the project name will be updated to better reflect the proposal for the Broken system being put forward.

The Program Team is always willing to speak with customers and community members interested in the proposed works – any queries can be sent to resilientwater@gmwater.com.au.