Anglesea borefield

Since November 2019, Barwon Water has been operating the Anglesea borefield to supplement water supplies for customers. Groundwater from the borefield can supply Anglesea, Aireys Inlet, Torquay, the Bellarine Peninsula, and parts of southern Geelong.

Our access to groundwater from the Anglesea borefield is governed by a bulk entitlement, issued by the Victorian Government. Under the terms of the bulk entitlement, we are licensed to extract a maximum of 40 million litres per day, 10,000 million litres in any year, and 35,000 million litres in any 5-year period.

We will operate the borefield below these limits to ensure groundwater levels remain above the triggers that have been set to protect groundwater dependent ecosystems. This means we will take up to 13 million litres per day, or 5,000 million litres a year (5 GL per year).

The Anglesea borefield is one of a number of critical backup water sources that can supplement the existing supply system in response to dry conditions. Accessing backup sources is part of a balanced approach to managing the region’s water resources and providing greater water security.

The Anglesea borefield will operate in conjunction with an extensive environmental monitoring program, which includes community oversight through the Anglesea River Working Group.

Extraction rates

Monthly totals
Month	Monthly volume extracted (ML)	Total volume extracted – year to date (ML)	Yearly limit* (ML)**
Commissioning phase*		15.8	10,000
November 2019	234.5	250.3	10,000
December 2019	303.0	553.3	10,000
January 2020	187.3	740.6	10,000

Daily totals
Date	Daily volume extracted (ML)	Daily Limit (ML)**	Total volume extracted – year to date (ML)	Yearly limit* (ML)**
01/02/2020	2.4	40.0	743.0	10,000
02/02/2020	3.7	40.0	746.7	10,000
03/02/2020	3.7	40.0	750.4	10,000
04/02/2020	5.2	40.0	755.6	10,000
05/02/2020	8.4	40.0	764.0	10,000
06/02/2020	10.4	40.0	774.4	10,000
07/02/2020	10.5	40.0	784.9	10,000
08/02/2020	10.2	40.0	795.1	10,000
09/02/2020	10.0	40.0	805.1	10,000
10/02/2020	9.8	40.0	814.9	10,000
11/02/2020	5.3	40.0	820.2	10,000
12/02/2020	9.8	40.0	830.0	10,000
13/02/2020	10.2	40.0	840.2	10,000
14/02/2020	9.6	40.0	849.8	10,000
15/02/2020	10.0	40.0	859.8	10,000
16/02/2020	10.0	40.0	869.8	10,000
17/02/2020	9.9	40.0	879.7	10,000

(Table updated weekly - last updated 18/02/2020)

*Between 17 August and 31 October 2019, a total of 15.8 ML of groundwater was extracted as part of the re-commissioning process of the Anglesea borefield.

**The Bulk Entitlement restricts the volume that can be extracted in any given day to a maximum of 40ML.

***The Bulk Entitlement also restricts the total volume that can be extracted in any given year to an annual limit of 10,000ML. It also restricts the total volume that can be extracted over a five year period to 35,000ML.

Note: We have dual monitoring systems for extraction rates, a central monitoring system at the Anglesea pre-treatment plant and individual monitoring at each bore. This approach enables us to cross check our extraction data for accuracy and update where required. The extraction data was updated on 7 January 2019 - including some changes to November and December totals - to utilise the central monitoring system data, which is providing a more accurate combined total.

Groundwater level monitoring and trigger update

We will report monthly on the status against the threshold level for the two key bores. Below are links to the monthly status reports:

Read more about the groundwater level monitoring and triggers in the Latest News below.

More information

You can read more about the role the borefield plays in our region’s water security, and how it will be managed to highest environmental standards, in the Document Library section of this page.

Please feel free to ask us any questions via the online Q&A tool below.