The national River Reflections water conference in Mildura was told water storages were just 36 per cent full in May 2020 compared with 89 per cent today.
Murray-Darling Basin Authority Mildura regional manager and acting executive director river management Andrew Kremor said the most dramatic turnaround was in the northern basin, particularly in Queensland, which saw water in dams leap from a dire 19 per cent to 97 per cent full in the past 24 months.
“Heavy rain in the north beyond the normal wet season has meant water has run off the already saturated catchments,” Dr Kremor said.
“This has certainly brought renewed optimism to many in the agriculture sector, even though it’s meant some challenges with flooding, infrastructure impairment and difficulties with harvest, planting and crop damage.”
The much-wetter-than-average conditions are not consistent across the whole basin, with rain in the Upper Murray in March to April returning to around average after being high in the 12 months or so prior.
“However, Upper Murray inflows have remained well above average, with averagely wet catchments, and Dartmouth Dam inflows back in January were the highest on record,” Dr Kremor said.
“Across the whole Murray River system, active storage levels remain well above the long-term average and are likely to remain very high into the coming spring.”
Dr Kremor said the Bureau of Meteorology’s outlook was for above-average rainfall across the Murray-Darling Basin from now until August.
“This means we are in the unusual position of commencing airspace management, or pre-releases, at Hume Dam because it is still at high storage levels coming into winter, with more rain and high inflows likely,” he said.
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