The progressive allocation leapt to 53 per cent, eclipsing last year’s record low total of 35 per cent, and season 2007-08’s total of 43 per cent.

Goulburn system irrigators were allocated a 7 per cent increase yesterday.

Some irrigators must be pinching themselves, after expecting the worst earlier this year.

Near the end of last season, GMW was projecting a total as low as 19 per cent if the year continued dry.

That scenario looked odds-on in mid-year, when the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) dipped below zero, and climatologists warned of the prospect of El Nino drought in the second half of the year.

But the El Nino event has so far failed to materialise, and good rains saturated the highland catchments of the Hume and Dartmouth dams in winter and early spring, producing some of the best runoff in several years.

Over the border, in the southern highlands of NSW, the major storages in the Snowy Mountains scheme have also received good rain and runoff,

In yesterday’s press release GM-W resources manager Graeme Hannan said the good conditions in the Snowy Mountains, and Snowy Hydro’s planned releases into the Murray system, had helped boost the Victorian Murray allocation.

For more of this story, purchase your copy of Thursday’s Sunraysia Daily 3/11/2009.