Jump to topic
Who we are and what we do
We are Gippsland Water. We are also known officially as the Central Gippsland Region Water Corporation.
With 375 operational, engineering, financial, environmental, and administrative employees, we are a major local employer for the region serving an estimated population base of over 165,000.
We supply drinking water to 76,490 households and businesses, and wastewater services to more than 69,000 households and businesses, across 43 towns. Our customers include major industries, some of which are of state and national significance.
We take water from 13 different sources including aquifers, rivers, creeks, and reservoirs and treat it to meet our strict water quality standards. Our largest storage is Moondarra Reservoir, south of Erica, with a capacity of 30,458ML. We also take water from storages managed by Southern Rural Water (Blue Rock Lake and Lake Glenmaggie) and Melbourne Water (Tarago Reservoir).
Our $1.7 billion infrastructure network includes more than 2,200 km of water mains, 15 water treatment plants, over 1,800 km of wastewater mains and 14 wastewater treatment plants.
See a detailed list of services we provide in each location.
Our service area
Our service area covers over 5,000 square kilometres and stretches from Drouin in the west to Loch Sport in the east, and from Mirboo North in the south to Rawson and Briagolong in the north.
How we operate
We’re a regional Victorian water corporation established under the Water Act 1989 (Vic) and constituted on 21 December 1994.
We operate under a Board of Directors appointed by the Minister for Water. We’re regulated by the Essential Services Commission (ESC), the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Change Action (DEECA), Department of Health (DoH) and the Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA).
How we're funded
We’re funded by our customers.
Our charges are designed to cover the cost of maintaining and upgrading our water and sewerage infrastructure, together with delivering our water and sewage services. Any surplus is reinvested or returned to the State of Victoria.
The maximum prices for our water and sewerage services are set through our Price Submission which is approved by the ESC. As part of the submission we develop a financial model, which includes:
- our expected operating costs
- how much we’ll spend on capital projects and programs
- how long we expect our assets (infrastructure) to last
- how much money we may need to borrow
- the predicted demand for our water and sewerage services.
We use this financial model to work out the prices we need to charge for our services.
Our commercial businesses
As well as providing water and wastewater services, we run commercial businesses, including an agricultural business and an organic waste management facility. These businesses are an integral part of what we do, providing benefits to us, our customers, the region, and the state.
Our Gippsland Regional Agribusiness operations help us to effectively manage, and reuse treated wastewater and by-products. This business includes 12 farming sites producing a combination of beef, fodder crops, grain crops, and softwood plantation timber.
Our largest farm, Dutson Downs, is located 25 kilometres south-east of Sale and spans approximately 8,500 hectares. This is also where we operate our organics business, Gippsland Regional Organics. Primarily founded to process our internal waste streams and offset the costs of disposal, the facility transforms approximately 180,000 tonnes of organic waste each year into valuable, nutrient rich composts that are then used by farms and other horticultural and industrial enterprises right across Victoria.