2026 kicked off in a big way, with record delivery of water to farmers across the State.

Tasmanian Irrigation delivered 24,349 megalitres of irrigation water to Tasmanian farmers in January - the highest volume in any month on record, 32 per cent more than January 2025 and double the amount supplied in January 2024.

A mild and cool early summer, the seventh driest January on record since 1900, maximum January temperatures above average for most of the State, low sub-soil moisture and increased crop plantings all contributed to this record water delivery month. We delivered a year-to-date total at the end of January of 54,925 megalitres

And we expect the February figures, to be released in the coming weeks, to reflect ongoing high demand from farmers around the State for Tasmanian Irrigation water.

Demand on the Lower South Esk Irrigation Scheme was up 117 per cent in January, compared to the same period last year, the Don Irrigation Scheme up 94 per cent and Whitemore up 74 per cent.

For our Scheme Operators, that’s countless hours working with our customers and our infrastructure to ensure landowners can access the water when and where they need it. With the late harvest and many thirsty paddocks planted to potatoes, we are continuing to supply increased quantities of water across most of our 19 operational schemes.

Our assets responded to the high demand with uninterrupted delivery throughout the month. New outlets were opened for the first time and other outlets that had not been used for many years were drawing water. Pumps, balance tanks and pipes all moved more water than in previous seasons.

Our dams are also under close scrutiny from our dam safety and engineering teams, with many down to 50 per cent of capacity. Southernfield Dam in the Southern Highlands has been reduced to around 30 per cent.

Our Operations team is closely monitoring all dam levels and is confident that all have sufficient water to meet irrigator demand in line with their entitlement allocation across the State.

Our ability to meet the record demand demonstrates three key things:

1. The resilience of our infrastructure;

2. The essential role of reliable irrigation in supporting Tasmanian agriculture through variable seasonal conditions; and

3. The skill, dedication and capacity of our Tasmanian Irrigation team to go above and beyond to make this happen.

Where we have had a couple of unplanned outages on our schemes, our team has exceeded all expectations by developing innovative solutions to repair infrastructure far quicker than expected.

We share an insight in this newsletter regarding how a three-week outage was averted on the Midlands Irrigation Scheme. And our Operations and Engineering teams did a fabulous job to prevent a major outage on the Kindred North Motton Irrigation Scheme earlier this month. A significant pipe leak resulted in the scheme having to be shut down to drain the lines to carry out the necessary repairs. Our team worked into the night to fix the problem, ensuring the scheme was back up and running by morning.

On behalf of Tasmanian Irrigation, I thank all our dedicated team and all our customers. Your collaboration has made this water delivery record possible.