First to Victoria where Goulburn-Murray Water (G-MW) has announced its first seasonal allocations, but only irrigators in the Murray and Goulburn systems will receive water, with those in the Broken, Campaspe, Lodden and Bullarook Creek systems to open the season with zero allocation.

Customers in the Murray system will receive an allocation of 6pc of high-reliability water shares, while the Goulburn system has an allocation of 4pc HRWS.

"The decision to adopt reduced volumes for operating requirements in both systems also contributed enormously," G-MW acting managing director Ian Moorhouse said.

"We could still be at zero in both systems if the operating requirements had not been reduced with the agreement of customers and our colleagues in Sunraysia.

"We expect some channels will remain below normal operating levels for much of the year.

"This could mean that water orders may be grouped to maximise water availability."

Meanwhile, there are reports today that South Australian irrigators will have their allocations increased to 11pc, up from 6pc last month but down from 16pc at this time last year.

SA Murray Irrigators chairman Tim Whetstone has cautiously welcomed the announcement, saying it is "good news for irrigators trying to plan for a summer of uncertainty".

"However based on what we saw last year, it would be nice to know that the government has managed to lift the allocation by that amount without some type of interstate trade-off," Mr Whetstone said.

"Last year we were eventually boosted up to 32pc but were told later that we had to pay a lot of it back to the other states.

"It was a deal that has come back to bite us this season."

And in NSW the State Government has announced an increased water allocation for high security license holders in the Murray and Murrumbidgee valleys.