In November 2011, the Northern Victoria Irrigation Renewal Project (NVIRP) was integrated into GMW as the GMW Connections Project.
This coincided with the Commonwealth Government agreeing to jointly fund Stage 2 of the project, contributing $953 million in addition to the $106 million from the Victoria Government.
Through various water-saving measures – such as decommissioning and remediating channels, and modernising irrigation infrastructure – the project would eventually create 433GL of annual water savings.