Goulburn Inter-Valley Trade Explained

The Goulburn system is comprised of The Greater Goulburn (Area 1a), Boort (Area 1b), lower Goulburn (Area 3) and Lower Broken Creek (Area 6b), but it is also connected to the Loddon system, Campaspe system, Broken system and the Victorian Murray system.

This Inter Valley Trade limit was introduced so that there was enough water stored in dams to supply the Victorian Murray and so that the storage levels were not adversely effected by the increasingly large trades between Victorian valley’s and the Murray.

The trade balances for the Goulburn IVT can be found on the Victorian Water Register and the calculations and trade limits uses real time data. A more visual representation of the Trade limits can be found here.

For the 2021/2022 season a new set of interim trade rules were implemented. The interim trade rule applies to trade from the Goulburn, Loddon, Campaspe and Broken to the Victorian Murray, including the Lower Broken Creek, and interstate regions.

Under the old trade rule, trade was possible whenever the volume of water owed from the Goulburn to the Murray system, including to the Lower Broken Creek, was less than 200 GL.

However, under the new interim trade rule, from 1 July until 15 December trade between the Goulburn and Murray valleys will be possible whenever the amount owed to the Murray is less than 190 GL and new trade opportunity will be created when water is delivered from the Goulburn to the Murray. From 15 December, net trade will be capped, and further trade opportunity will not be created as water is delivered to the Murray over summer and autumn. This will allow the Goulburn IVT account balance to be drawn down to zero over the rest of the year.

The balance of the Goulburn to Murray trade limit is determined by:

• Water still owed to the Murray from the previous year.
• Seasonal allocations leading to an increase of water owed to the Murray to supply water rights traded there in the past.
• The volume traded out this season.

i.e. The IVT limit for the Goulburn system is 190 GL and all trade in the system is halted when the balance of the account is greater than 190 GL. The entire Goulburn IVT system balance is carried over (rolled over / kept) to the new year.

Any changes to the Goulburn to Murray trade limit are released at 9:30am (ACDT), creating an opportunity to trade.

The first opening of the Goulburn to Murray trade limit was on 11 November where 1,100 ML was made available, and the second occurred on the following Wednesday where approximately 7,000 ML was able to be transferred out of the Goulburn system. On both of these occasions the limit was reached quickly proving the demand to transfer the water out of the Goulburn Valley and into the River Murray.