In this project, HARC investigated the potential for winter-fill diverters to harvest high flows outside the winter-fill period, and whether the volume and reliability of these additional extractions were outweighed by the administrative, monitoring and environmental costs.
The investigation included six case-studies in southern Victoria, namely the Yarra River, Steels Creek, Pauls Creek, Dixons Creek, Stringybark Creek and the Mitchell River.
Based on these case studies, the conclusion of the investigation was that the catchment and diverter characteristics required to make summer high flow harvesting viable for winter-fill diverters were likely to be present in only a small portion of the state.
