Goulburn River (Victoria)

Goulburn River
Middle reaches of the Goulburn, near Seymour
Country	Australia
Part of	Murray River, Murray-Darling basin
Tributaries
- left	Big River, Rubicon River, Acheron River, Yea River, Sunday Creek
- right	Delatite River, Broken River
Source	Victorian Alps
- location	near Woods Point, Victoria, Australia
- coordinates	37°32′13″S 146°11′22″E
Mouth
- location	confluence with Murray River, near Echuca, Australia
- coordinates	36°6′11″S 144°49′47″E
Map showing the course of the Goulburn River and the major irrigation channel diverted from it

The Goulburn River is a major inland river in Victoria, Australia. The headwaters of the Goulburn River rise in the western end of the Victoria Alps, near Mount Buller. The Eildon Dam creates Lake Eildon, a major storage of water for irrigation. From Lake Eildon, most of the irrigation water goes to Goulburn Weir and Waranga Basin.

Overview

North of Eildon the Goulburn River enters the northern plains of Victoria and eventually flows into the Murray River near Echuca. This area is a very productive irrigated agricultural area. The Goulburn River was named after Henry Goulburn. There is also a Goulburn River in New South Wales.

Tributaries include the Broken, Rubicon, Delatite, Howqua, Jamieson and Yea Rivers.

Much of the flow is extracted, and the river is very heavily regulated, which has strongly affected the river's ecosystem. With recent years being some of the driest on record in the basin, there has been even further stress on the river's ecosystem.

Because of all this there has been much controversy over the construction of the North–South Pipeline, which will pipe 70 billion litres of water annually to Melbourne's water supply. There are arguments that all the water piped to Melbourne will be saved water, by the upgrade of the irrigation infrastructure in the Goulburn river basin all a part of a food bowl modernisation project.

In June 2008 the Murray-Darling Basin Commission released a report on the condition of the Murray-Darling basin, with the Goulburn and Murrumbidgee rivers both rated in a very poor condition in the Murray-Darling basin with fish stocks in both rivers were also rated as extremely poor.