Latest water use - River Murray Valley

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This page provides information on watering actions taking place in the River Murray Valley this water year.

We’ve grouped them by status – planned or on hold, in progress, and completed – and split them into 2 locations:

  • River Murray (Hume dam to the Murray mouth)
  • Edward-Kolety-Wakool River system.

We work with a range of community and government partners to manage water in the River Murray Valley. This includes First Nations peoples.

For any watering actions completed in previous water years, visit Past water use.

Note, the figures and dates provided in the tables may be estimates only. 'CEW' refers to Commonwealth environmental water. All water volumes are in megalitres (ML).

River Murray (Hume to the Murray mouth)

This section lists this year's watering actions for the Hume to Murray mouth region of the River Murray Valley.

In progress

Table 1: Watering actions in progress in the River Murray Valley
LocationEstimated water (ML)Start dateObjectives
River Murray Hume to South AustraliaCEW use: up to 650,000From July 2026 (when natural inflows are not high enough to meet environmental needs)

Other sources of environmental water also contribute to this action.
  • Support waterbird populations in Barmah-Millewa Forest.
  • Support native plants in the River Murray and Barmah-Millewa Forest.
  • Provide flow connectivity both instream and between the river and its floodplain wetlands
  • Support native fish health, breeding and movement.
    Maintain flow variability after a period of high flows.
Gunbower CreekCEW use: up to 28,000From July 2026
  • Contribute to flowing water habitat for native fish.
  • Improve the health of native plants.
Lower River Murray, Lower Lakes, Coorong and Murray MouthCEW use: up to 167,362 plus return flows from upstream actionsFrom July 2026

Delivery of return flows from upstream watering actions, the Commonwealth’s proportion of the SA entitlement flow, plus discrete orders to SA as required to:

  • Contribute to flowing water habitat for native fish
    Support connecting flows to the Coorong and Murray Mouth
  • Remove salt from the river and prevent salt from Southern Ocean entering the Coorong.
Murray wetlandsCEW use: Up to 27,000 MLFrom July 2026
  • Delivered to a range of priority wetland sites with government and non-government partners, First Nations, community and landholders.
  • Objectives vary among sites and include supporting native plants, creating habitat for waterbirds, frogs, yabbies and native fish, including threatened species.
Weir pool manipulationCEW use: up to 2,000From July 2026
  • Provide increased variation in river flows at various weir pools between Euston NSW and Blanchetown in SA.
  • Support the health of native plants.

Planned or on hold

Table 2: Watering actions planned or on hold in the River Murray Valley
LocationStatusEstimated water (ML)Start dateObjectives
Pike and Katarapko FloodplainPlannedCEW use: estimate TBCTBC
  • Maintain the health of native plants.
  • Provide healthy places for native fish, waterbirds and frogs to live in.

Completed

No actions have been completed in the River Murray during 2026–27.

Edward/Kolety-Wakool River system

This section lists this year's watering actions for Edward/Kolety-Wakool River system within the River Murray Valley.

In progress

No actions in progress for the Edward Kolety-Wakool River system.

Planned or on hold

Table 3: Watering actions planned or on hold in the Edward/Kolety-Wakool River system
LocationStatusDelivered water (ML)Start dateObjectives
Edward/Kolety River, Yallakool/ Wakool, Colligen/Neimur systemsPlanned pending suitable flow conditions and environmental triggers.CEW use: estimate TBCBetween Spring 2026 and Autumn 2027
  • Maintain the health of river red gums and support other riparian native plants.
  • Provide flows to support native fish including breeding and movement.
  • Providing flows that meet the environmental watering requirements of the system.
  • Providing connectivity flows allowing fish movement across the Edward/Kolety-Wakool and Murray systems.
Ephemeral creeks and wetlands in the Murray Irrigation Limited footprintPlanned pending suitable flow conditions and environmental triggers.CEW use estimate: TBCBetween Spring 2026 and Autumn 2027
  • Maintaining healthy trees along these creeks is essential for maintaining wildlife corridors for birds, squirrel gliders, and other arboreal species.
  • Provide baseflows and fresh flows to improve and maintain conditions for native fish.
  • Supporting native plants and wetland habitats important for the threatened southern bell frog and waterbirds.

Completed

No actions have been completed in the Edward Kolety-Wakool River system during 2026–27.

Read more

The Water Management Plan has more information about Commonwealth environmental flow planning.

To learn more about the results of watering actions, visit Science and monitoring. You can also: