GMW Overview

Waterways and storages in northern Victoria map
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Goulburn-Murray Water (GMW) is a statutory Corporation constituted by Ministerial Order under the provisions of the Water Act 1989 (the Act). An Independent Board of Directors (the Board) governs GMW. The Board operates under part 6 of the Act and reports annually to the Minister for Water and the Treasurer.

We have functions and powers under the Act to provide, manage and operate an irrigation district (pursuant to section 221 of the Act), a water district (pursuant to section 163 of the Act) and a waterway management district (pursuant to section 189 of the Act).

Goulburn-Murray Water is Australia’s largest rural water corporation.

We manage, store and deliver water through approximately 10,000 km of delivery and drainage infrastructure to more than 25,000 active customers in northern Victoria.

We manage 23 water storages that can hold approximately 11,400 GL of water and also have responsibility for managing more than 100,000 hectares of public land surrounding our storages.

We manage water related services in a region of 68,000 square kilometres, bordered by the Great Dividing Range in the south and the River Murray in the north, stretching from Corryong in the east down river to Nyah. This area supports diverse agricultural commodities including dairy, cropping, horticulture, beef and sheep.

Goulburn-Murray Water is the northern Victorian Resource Manager appointed by the Minister for Water and is responsible for making the seasonal determination for all northern Victorian declared water systems. We are a partner in the Victorian Water Register, which manages more than $7 billion of water entitlements and over $300 million in water share and allocation trade for Victoria. 

We are Victoria’s largest inland boating authority and manage boating and recreational activities across the majority of our storages.

In addition, we service and supply a diverse range of Urban Water Authorities, Environmental Water Holders, Catchment Management Authorities (CMA) and the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA).

Goulburn-Murray Water maintains recreational infrastructure and services at 23 storages, managing safe boating access at 16 of these. To varying degrees, all the dams managed by GMW are available to the public for recreational use such as boating, fishing and swimming.

The complementary services portfolio includes 724 houseboat licences, over 50 public boat ramps, 673 occupational licenses, 245 agricultural licences, 12 caravan park leases and 61 community/club leases. The 85 recreation reserves located around GMW and MDBA storages are funded by GMW, the MDBA and partly or fully by local government.

Customer Segments

GMW's customer segments as at 30 June 2022

Primary Service Segment* Example customers Number of customers* Revenue** Annual Water Use
Irrigation Horticulture, dairy, mixed farming 11,593 $93.1m 1,072.81 GL
Domestic and Stock Rural residential
Mixed farming
Intensive animal industries (eg. piggeries)
9,689 $3.3m 25.51 GL
Environmental watering Commonwealth and State environmental water holders 2 $10.4m 887.4 GL
Bulk water for urban and rural water supply Urban water corporations 12 $10.2m 627.35 GL
Water investment

Investment funds
Water share only customers
Agriculture corporations

2,754 $3.0m 14.28 GL
Flood protection Protection of land and property in flood protection districts 50 $0.009m 0.0 GL
Recreation Houseboat operators
Recreation clubs
1,263 $2.2m 0.5 GL
Commercial leasing and contract services

Livestock graziers
Forestry corporations
Caravan parks
Murray-Darling Basin Authority
Local government and catchment management authorities
Commercial contracts

338 $23.6m 0.42 GL
Power generation Hydroelectric power utilities 1 $2.9m 0.0 GL
Other Sundry customers 68 $0.4m 0.0 GL
TOTAL   25,770 $149.1m 2,628 GL


* The customer segments have been identified using a single customer view methodology that groups customers based on their primary need. For example, if a customer accesses a gravity irrigation service and a domestic and stock service, they are classified as in the irrigation segment if their gravity irrigation charges exceed their domestic and stock charges.
** For the 2018/19 period, as at 30 June 2019.

For more information about GMW, please refer to our most recent Annual Report. 

Details of Trades

Details of trades that Goulburn-Murray Water has been a party to are available from the Water Register Website. This is a requirement under section 12.38 of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.