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Silvan Reservoir Photo: Mary Daaboul, Melbourne Water
For the fourth year in a row Melbourne's dams finished winter more than 72 per cent full, and will climb further with about another three months of inflows to come.
The last time Melbourne's dams recorded such levels at this time of year over four successive years was from 1994-1997, before the devastating millennium drought saw rainfall levels slump and dam levels plummet.
Today, the good news is that Melbourne's biggest water storage, the Thomson Dam, is about three-quarters full. And overall, water storages are far above the record low (since the Thomson Dam became fully operational) of 25.56 per cent on 23 June 2009.
Melbourne's dams now hold so much water they could deliver water to Melbourne households and businesses for a long time without receiving another drop of rain.
Consider these numbers: On Thursday Melbourne's dams held 1324 billion litres of water. This is more than three times Melbourne's annual consumption of about 400 billion litres.
The storages ended winter this year 72.7 per cent full, slightly down on the same time last year, but more than double the volume held at the end of August 2009, a paltry 28.4 per cent full. (The chart below shows storage levels from 1990-2015).
Despite the relatively healthy situation compared to the years of devastating drought, both rainfall above and streamflows into the catchments were below the long-term winter average.
"Generally, spring and winter are what we regard as our filling season, because that's when we're getting a surplus of rainfall," said Bruce Rhodes, Manager Water Resource Management at Melbourne Water.
"Melbourne's catchments are a bit like a sponge. So you need the initial winter rainfall to fill that storage in the soil profile, and over the winter/spring period we'll get increased run-off into the reservoirs. And as the temperature in summer comes on and the rainfall reduces we'll then get less run-off and start to draw on storages," he said.
Stream flows into the dams over winter were measured at 144.4 billion litres, 22 per cent below the long-term average, he said.
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Sugarloaf Reservoir Photo: Lisa Solomon, Melbourne Water
Melburnians may have shivered through the coldest winter in years – where temperatures across many places in the suburbs were half a degree and more below the long-term average – but Melbourne's dams did not enjoy a particularly wet year.
In fact, average rainfall across the four major catchments, at 316.4 millimetres, was 5.4 per cent below the long-term average.
It is also worth noting that years of drought and multiple education campaigns have driven down water consumption. Back around 1996 and 1997, before the worst of the drought, Melbourne's total annual water consumption was about 530 billion litres.
"In recent years it's been down at 400 billion litres over the last few years," said Rob Yurisich, Team Leader Bulk Water Entitlements at Melbourne Water.
The Goulburn River near Seymour this week. Photo: Jason South
Further north the major storages are less full than Melbourne's dams. Lake Eildon is about 62 per cent full, while the Hume Dam is about half full.
Winter inflows into Lake Eildon, 238 gigalitres, were the lowest since 2006 and well below the long-term average of about 650 gigalitres.
Further west, in parts of central and north-west Victoria, farmers have experienced a very dry winter and are concerned at the impact on this year's grain crops. Earlier this year one farmer told The Age his farm had received very little rainfall over the previous eight months.
John Vanston on his property at Salisbury West, near Bendigo, in May this year. Photo: Justin McManus
