On completion of the four-stage plan, the project could service up to 1000 farming properties with a reticulated non-drinking water supply.
Ararat Mayor Jo Armstrong said the issue had been a ‘hot topic’ at community fire meetings in the past month.
“I think the season we’ve had, with a third of our typical rainfall over a growing season, has really highlighted the importance of adding diversity to agricultural production,” she said.
“Being able to value add, and considering this East Grampians pipeline project was promised to have been completed two years ago and it’s in its very early stages as we speak and is now a partial pipeline, it’s incredibly frustrating for primary producers across this part of the world to recognise that opportunity has been denied.”
Cr Armstrong said the council continued to advocate strongly to the State Government for funding to complete the whole project.
“As was highlighted by a primary producer, if we can increase the production and the return of investment from land across our region, that’s going to increase our population. That’s going to increase employment. That’s going to increase also the catchment for volunteers to continue to provide the vital service of the CFA,” she said.
“Everything keeps feeding into the next part of the piece, so if we can grow our area, as we all really want to do – that’s a very strong desire of council and of the community – we need to have vital water.”
Willaura farmer Andrew Byron said last year’s low rainfall – where he had less than 50 per cent of the usual annual rain at his property – had placed greater emphasis on the need for secure water.
“We’ve started carting water to the properties that we shouldn’t have started to because we were promised water to these properties with a 2022 completion,” he said.
Mr Byron said he was in the process of changing his farming operations of less crops and more livestock to mitigate his frost risk.
“Of course, more livestock need more water, and we were virtually guaranteed the water, so back in 2019, we started laying pipes underground, thinking we’re going to have water by 2022,” he said.
Mr Byron’s share farm in Willaura North had been affected by the Grampians fire, and he said not having a secure water supply had affected firefighting operations.
“ I was in charge of the quick-fill, one of them, on Boxing Day, and we wasted hours looking for water,’ he said.
“I spent hours on Christmas Day looking for decent water supplies and we were actually caught short of water on Boxing Day.”
Mr Byron said the issue of the pipeline delay had been raised with visiting government ministers.
“We just get the same story, about cost blowouts as far as cultural heritage examinations – we have heard all these excuses before,” he said.
“People are pretty angry, and they want GWMWater to take accountability because at the moment there’s no accountability, and the money’s just disappeared, with little explanation.”
Dobie farmer Charlie de Fegely said the pipeline delay was affecting his farm business.
“It just can’t come quick enough for us because we’ve missed out this year on lamb finishing, which is the year we’d have needed it,” he said.
“But because the water’s not good enough, they just don’t do so well, so you’ve got to have water like the old saying ‘if you’re not prepared to put whisky with it, don’t try and feed lot lambs with it.’”
Mr de Fegely said there were a lot of disappointed farmers south of Ararat who would not receive water from the pipeline after the project was cut back.
“We’re lucky enough to still be in the pipeline that is going to be built. People further south are absolutely irate,” he said.
Mr de Fegely said he was hoping the Victorian Farmers Federation could help advocate for more funding from both levels of government.
“It’s a tragedy because we should have all had water, and this is the year we’d have loved to have had it, but we haven’t got it,” he said.
“It’s the people down south that have got a probably greater need than us. And I think it’s a shame that it hasn’t done the whole footprint it was going to do.”
GWMWater managing director Mark Williams said construction in zones one and two of the pipeline project was now well underway.
“Pipeline is being laid near Ararat and to date more than 32 kilometres of pipe has been installed in zone two,” he said.
“Surveys have also now started within zone three and we are finalising planning requirements in zone four, with the expectation that it will be under contract within the next few weeks.”
GWMWater plans to provide interim supplies to those with signed agreements in place as soon as the pipeline is commissioned in each zone.
Mr Williams said the revised project scope preserved the full original design intent and achieves the intended benefits across the region by maximising customer connections.
“Changes to initial timeframes and scope have been driven by changes to planning considerations since the completion of the prior Wimmera-Mallee Pipeline and an escalation in construction costs since the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
Lake Fyans will be the main water source for the East Grampians Rural Pipeline, with smaller volumes of water being sourced from Mt William headworks and the Mt Cole Reservoir.
Funding for the project comes from the Federal Government’s National Water Grid Fund, $32-million; State Government, $32-million; and project beneficiaries, $21.2-million.
GWMWater, responsible for delivering the project, has committed an additional $9.3-million from accrued interest and additional value it considers the project will deliver in its overall operation.