Wimmera catchments and reservoirs are in great shape after rain

Wimmera CMA chief officer Dave Brennan said the Wimmera is having the type of winter not seen for 20 years.

"Ideally this will last for a number of months," Mr Brennan said.

"We're in favourable conditions with run offs which we haven't had all that often in winter periods."

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Mr Brennan said the river and creeks should run well until September or even October.

He said it would rain and then be dry for several days in the past, but the constant rainfall fills up the catchments and saw the rivers and creeks flow freely.

"It's good to see, the river is a really good proxy for the health of the environment," Mr Brennan said.

"Farmers are getting good rainfall for their crops and a chance for us to start putting more water in our lakes, storages and wetlands."

The catchments will see more rain as more rainwater works its way through the system.

"The more rainfall to top them up the better," Mr Brennan said.

"It's encouraging that we're getting this rainfall in winter."

This trend means the summer period hopefully will be a good one, with spring rain topping off the catchments, lakes and rivers.

"Fingers crossed it keeps on raining," Mr Brennan said.

Rainfall is "looking positive" for the Wimmera's catchments, a GWMWater spokesperson said.

"It is not unusual to receive this amount of rainfall at this time of year; the July average rainfall at Halls Gap is 138.9mm," they said.

"Our rainfall outlook for this season and catchment conditions are looking positive but require further, regular rainfall for continued runoff into waterways and reservoirs."

As a result of the recent rainfall, reservoir levels have begun to rise steadily.

Catchments remain well primed to respond to future rainfall, including more rain over the coming days.

GWMWater said there is a slight increase in the catchment, up from last year.

"Our overall storage position is tracking similar to last year," the spokesperson said.

"Moora Moora reservoir is small but has received a lot rain over its catchment over the past month. Other reservoirs are slightly lower following four years of low inflows to the reservoir system."

At this stage, the last recorded reservoir levels were published on July 21, 2021.

The most significant increase for levels was Moora Moora reservoir which was 40 per cent full this time last year and this year is at 89 per cent.

The next set of data from GWMWater will be released on Wednesday, July 28.

"We will see storage levels continue to increase steadily in response to recent rainfall," the spokesperson said.

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