TOOLONDO Reservoir has been handed a lifeline with a new allocation of water.
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The reservoir will receive a 5000-megalitre allocation from Rocklands Reservoir.
The Toolondo community had been lobbying for years for extra water in the lake to boost the area.
GWMWater started the water transfer on Tuesday.
The transfer was part of the authority’s annual operating plan.
Toolondo spokesman Geoff Stock said the water allocation was perfect timing.
Before the transfer, Toolondo Reservoir was 30 per cent full.
“This has been a long time coming,” Mr Stock said.
“This is what we have been advocating for for years.”
Mr Stock said while the extra water would benefit anglers, it was the Toolondo community and wider Wimmera region that would reap the biggest rewards.
“The bottom line is, whatever it costs to put this water into Toolondo will multiply out five times through the influx of fishing people to the lake,” he said. “Tourists will contribute to the economy.
“The water will mean the Toolondo can go back to being one big lake, rather than three separate ones.”
Water can be released from Rocklands Reservoir into Toolondo once the water level in Rocklands reaches a trigger point – 116,000 megalitres. The reservoir was sitting at 128,760 megalitres before the transfer.
Mr Stock said he hoped the water allocation was the start of a bigger investment into Toolondo.
He said the reservoir received another 5000 or 10,000 megalitres it would drought-proof it for the next few years. “This is the first 5000 megalitres but hopefully it is not the last,” he said.
“We hope the long-term plan is to re-instate Toolondo as a premier location.
“Because of the evaporation aspects, Toolondo would actually be better for storage than Rocklands Reservoir anyway.”
GWMWater water resources manager Kym Wilson said because of the water level in Rocklands at the moment, it was more efficient to hold water at Toolondo.
He said the transfer should increase Toolondo’s water level by half a metre.
“Because we are still early in the flow season, we will review the water levels in about two to three weeks and decided whether more water needs to be transferred,” he said.
In the Wimmera-Mallee System Headworks operation plan for 2017-18, it states Toolondo was an important storage for recreational purposes.
The report said the exact volume of any transfer throughout August and September would be determined by seasonal conditions.
“Transfer volumes of 5000mL could be expected under very dry conditions, through to 15,000mL under average or wet scenarios,” the report said.