The South West Loddon Pipeline has been a boon for Des and Frances Lanyon, providing secure reliable supplies of clean water to both house and farm, and reducing the time and labour spent carting water when dams or other supplies run low.

The Lanyon’s farm 1100 hectares spread over a number of properties spread across Yeungroon, Woosang and Woolshed Flat Road near Wedderburn. They run a mixed farming enterprise, centred on a self-replacing flock of approximately 3500 merino sheep, with 400 hectares under crop at any one time (mostly canola, wheat and barley).

Prior to connection to the South West Loddon Pipeline Des estimates that he’d needed to cart water for approximately 20 out of the 50 years he’s been farming. In those years, Des estimates he’s spent up to 40 to 50 hours a week carting water after his day’s work had been completed, just to meet livestock and household needs.

“We’ve almost always had access to water to cart from property to property. The problem was that we often had to cart the water after dark when everything else had been done. It was just another job that needed to be done.”

By removing the need to regularly cart water, connection to the South West Loddon Pipeline has saved Des a significant amount of time. It’s also improved his farming operations in other areas as well.

As far as Des is concerned, he wouldn’t want to go back to the days before the South West Loddon Pipeline.

“In the scheme of things it’s not a huge cost, and anyone that’s had pipeline water wouldn’t want to do without it”, Des said.

More than 3000 Coliban Water urban customers will benefit from the completion of the South West Loddon Pipeline.

Coliban Water contributed $2.7 million to the $89.9-million project; led by GWMWater. Approximately 1170 kilometres of pipeline will provide a raw water supply to properties across 2900 square kilometres in both GWMWater and Coliban Water service areas.

The new pipeline provides a more secure raw water source than the Loddon River system, the former source of raw water, which was being treated to supply drinking water to townships in the Coliban Water service area.

Coliban Water Manager Community Operations Mick Dunne said the raw water for the new pipeline, largely sourced from Grampians reservoirs, was of a more consistent quality, with reduced organics and salinity levels.
Bridgewater and Inglewood customers are now receiving the new supply and Coliban Water also has plans to connect urban water supply for Tarnagulla, Bealiba, Dunolly and Laanecoorie to the pipeline in the future.

Sporting and community facilities in Wedderburn and Inglewood have been able to receive fit-for-purpose water from the South West Loddon Pipeline to irrigate green areas. This is expected to reduce the demand for treated water in these towns during peak demand periods and provide a more cost effective alternative for the facilities.

Mr Dunne said the new connection was a win for the communities involved.

The South West Loddon Pipeline has provided a secure, readily available water supply for John and Ann Leach who run 5000 sheep with their son John at Rheola, near Bridgewater in Central Victoria. It has given them given back precious time to focus their attention on other demands around their Merino Sheep farming enterprise.

Dry seasons over the years meant they were forced to run sheep in mobs of 1500; carting water to on-farm tanks from February until season break.

“We used to cart water to our tanks two days a week during mid-summer,” John said.

John has set the farm up to supply pipeline water around their paddocks, meaning they can now run smaller mobs of between 100 and 400 sheep.

“It’s a good clean water source that we also use for spraying and cleaning machinery. The security pipeline water brings is a great asset!” John said. “It was a lot of money to connect, but I’m so glad we connected.”

When the big fires came through, local farmers used to arduously cart water in their tankers from the Loddon River to keep water supply up to the fire-fighting helicopter.

“Now with the pipeline in place, GWMWater have fire-fighting tanks scattered around the region. It’s great security for fire-fighting”, John said.

Dubbed the ‘best development for the region since electricity’, the pipeline provides a secure reticulated water supply to 1500 rural properties in areas surrounding Inglewood, Newbridge, St Arnaud and Wedderburn.

Murphy’s Creek farmer Deb Hancock said the pipeline had given their farm a future for their children, Campbell and Georgia.

“For us, the impact of the pipeline is hard to explain in words,” she said. “We were spending a lot of money trucking water from Bendigo; one year we spent $90,000.

“To not have to worry about water – Wow.”

Not only has their water security improved, but the quality of the water has made a difference to the health of their stock.

“The supply we get from the pipeline is absolutely phenomenal,” she said. “The animals love it; the sheep won’t even go near a dam anymore.

The sheep look amazing and that’s just because of the quality of the water. It’s exceptional.”

The pipeline also paves the way for future growth for their business.