Development of an environmental flow management strategy for the Thomson river, Victoria, Australia

Abstract

The headwater section of the Thomson River has been nominated for listing as a heritage river, mainly because it supports a population of large blackfish, a species which has high conservation value in Victoria. The upper river was dammed in 1983, creating an impoundment of 1.2 × 106 Ml capacity. It is anticipated that the dam will provide a reliable water supply to Melbourne for up to 20 years, but minimization of downstream releases will delay augmentation. For the period during which the dam was filling, an interim environmental flow was applied. However, these flows were lower than what was considered at the time to be ideal for maintaining in‐stream habitat in the long term. Despite pro..