The Goulburn Weir is crucial to supporting the region’s multi-billion-dollar agriculture sector.
Goulburn Weir is not only Australia’s earliest major diversion structure but one of its most important.
Sitting on the Goulburn River, about 7km north of Nagambie, the weir is at the heart of irrigation in northern Victoria and is crucial to supporting the region’s multi-billion-dollar agriculture sector.
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On average, 1,768,000 megalitres of water is diverted through Goulburn Weir annually.
The weir is managed by Goulburn-Murray Water. It raises the level of the Goulburn River so that water can be diverted by gravity along the Stuart Murray Canal, Cattanach Canal and the East Goulburn Main Channel.
G-MW senior storage officer Shane Edwards is one of the water corporation’s staff who operates the weir.
He said doing so was a considerable undertaking.
“I’ve worked at other storages before, but Goulburn Weir is certainly unique,” he said.
“Part of this is because the weir diverts water into three separate waterways, all of which are crucial parts of our delivery network.
“We’re constantly diverting water to the different parts of our network, so it certainly keeps us busy.”
Shane said this had particularly been the case in recent months.
“In the seven years I’ve been here, we’ve never diverted as much water as we have this irrigation season,” he said.
The Stuart Murray canal at Goulburn Weir.
Shane is one of two senior storage officers who live at the weir.
When they are on duty, they are available to make changes to releases from the weir 24/7, ensuring G-MW’s customers get the water they need
“It’s intensive but really rewarding because you know the work you’re doing serves a really important purpose,” Shane said.
Transforming northern Victoria
Goulburn Weir has now been serving an important purpose for more than 130 years.
The construction of Goulburn Weir was approved by parliament as part of the Irrigation Act of 1886.
Speaking to the bill, the then Minister for Water and future Australian Prime Minister Alfred Deakin said that without irrigation the population of northern Victoria would “be swept away, and the land must go back simply to sheep farming”.
Multiple floods delayed the works, but in January 1891 the weir was complete. The works cost a total of £106,000 — about $11 million by today’s equivalent.
The Rushworth Chronicle lauded Goulburn Weir as “the prettiest sight in the district”, while the Bendigo Independent described it as “one of the most important irrigation works in the colony”.
Just as Deakin envisaged, Goulburn Weir supported considerable growth in northern Victoria, as the previously sparsely populated region developed into Australia’s agricultural hub.
This growth was hastened by the passing of the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Act 1917, which empowered the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission to administer irrigable land to soldiers returning from World War I.
Replacing gates at Goulburn Weir.
The weir has undergone several changes since its construction.
Most notably it received a major refurbishment in the 1980s, which included replacing most of the 21 overshot floodgates with nine steel radial gates.
Two of the original gates were kept in place at the weir and remain there today.
In 2017, Goulburn Weir was added to the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage’s register of Heritage Irrigation Structures for “being the first major diversion structure built for irrigation development in Australia and supporting some of Victoria’s best irrigated agriculture for more than 100 years”.
