Lake Meran is likely to fill this spring, with the North Central Catchment Management Authority (CMA) and Victorian Environmental Water Holder (VEWH) securing water for the environment from outside the Loddon region.

Lake Leaghur is also planned to be filled for the first time with water for the environment, following a successful priming earlier in the year.

And the ecologically and culturally significant Lake Boort is on track to receive a much-needed flow in autumn.

Goulburn Murray Water’s allocation outlook, recent inflows to storages, and the Bureau of Meteorology’s rainfall outlooks, have given water authorities confidence watering priorities identified for the Boort wetlands, as well as the Loddon River system, are likely to receive water as planned this financial year.

“The Boort wetlands are really important ecologically and culturally. And they’re always a key part of our focus,“ North Central Catchment Management Authority chief executive officer Brad Drust said.

“And we know how much the Boort and Lake Meran communities were looking forward to some good news this year. And we have been working hard to deliver it.

“The Boort wetlands are large, and with multiple sites needing water in the same year, in addition to flows needed in the Loddon River system (which shares the same bucket), there is a high demand on the entitlements of water for the environment across the whole Loddon system.

“North Central CMA and the VEWH have been working hard to find options for meeting the most important priorities across the whole system.”

The VEWH will look to source water for the environment from outside the Loddon system, to ensure there is enough to meet all the system’s needs over the next year.

“We’re looking forward to these important watering events across the Loddon system”, VEWH Co-CEO Dr Sarina Loo said.

“We’re mindful though that there are still some challenges in delivering the water through the channel system.

“That’s because irrigation water takes precedence when it comes to delivery, but we are confident we will have access to the right amount of water at the right time.

“We are working closely with Goulburn Murray Water to make that happen and will know more closer to the preferred dates.

“The restoration and rehabilitation of these waterways is important and something the whole community is behind.”

The delivery of water to Lake Meran is in line with the 10-year Environmental Water Management Plan.

Filling Lake Meran for the first time in five years provides the optimum watering regime and will give the redgums and vegetation on its banks a much-needed drink.

It will also continue to provide a refuge for the important population of Murray River turtles that call the lake home.

And it will provide shared benefits to campers, swimmers, and boaters.

The Lake Leaghur fill will build on the autumn watering and help promote growth of the wetland’s redgums and aquatic vegetation, to provide high-quality habitat for waterbirds, frogs, and turtles.

At Lake Boort, a partial fill in autumn next year will help waterbird, frog, and turtle habitat establish over winter, as well as the culturally significant spiny flat sedge.

The Lake Boort flow will also deliver water to the river redgum, blackbox trees, and aquatic species in the important swampy woodland zone.

“Even though there has been quite a bit of rain across the region in recent weeks, these wetlands and rivers are starting from a long way behind the eight ball,” Mr Drust said.

“River regulation, climate change, and landscape changes mean even in wet years they don’t get the water they did before European occupation.

“Water for the environment works within the current irrigation system to deliver the right amount of water at the right time of the year, with the water that’s available.”

Final volumes and dates for all the Boort wetland environmental flows, and the Loddon River, will be known closer to the flow dates.