Modernising a Century-Old Irrigation District
For more than a hundred years, the farming regions of Werribee South and Bacchus Marsh have relied on open, above-ground channels to move irrigation water across the district. It's a system that has served generations of growers, but it comes with a cost: every kilometre of open channel is exposed to leakage, seepage and evaporation, and every dry summer chips away at supply reliability for the farmers who depend on it.
Southern Rural Water set out to change that. The Werribee Irrigation District Modernisation, Stages 4 and 5, is a large-scale program to convert the district's open channels into fully sealed, below-ground pipelines, stabilising supply and locking in a constant flow of fresh, clean water for the farming communities of Werribee South and Bacchus Marsh. It's the kind of project that sits squarely within the industries Viadux supports — rural and irrigation infrastructure where reliability isn't optional and every litre saved matters.
Viadux's Role in the Project
Viadux was engaged to supply the pipe that would carry this transformation — converting unreliable open channels into fully sealed, serviceable pipelines capable of meeting Southern Rural Water's long-term reliability targets. After a competitive tender process, Viadux was selected as the successful supplier and began deliveries in April 2023.
To manage a project of this scale, the works were broken into three packages — A, B and C — each with its own delivery schedule and construction sequencing. By July 2023, Packages A and C had been fully supplied, with construction well underway by Southern Rural Water's subcontractor, Jaydo Construction. That kind of staged delivery is only possible when the supply partner can be trusted to hit the mark on every package, every time — which is where Viadux's national branch network and locally sourced product supply chain, including the Melbourne branch servicing Victorian projects, made the difference.
An Alternative Materials Approach That Delivered Real Savings
Rather than simply supplying to a fixed specification, Viadux submitted an alternative material options tender — proposing a range of compatible products that Southern Rural Water ultimately accepted. This flexibility resulted in a more functional, cost-effective design, with reduced lead times and a higher proportion of locally sourced product built into the solution.
That local-sourcing outcome was underpinned by Viadux's GRP Systems range, including Flowtite Continuous Filament Wound GRP pipe — a lightweight, corrosion-resistant product made in Australia and engineered for exactly this kind of irrigation and water transmission application. It's the same product family Viadux has specified on other Victorian and South Australian irrigation upgrades, including the Greenways Irrigation Pipeline and the Winnaleah Irrigation Scheme in Tasmania, both of which relied on GRP's combination of long design life, corrosion resistance and ease of jointing to meet demanding rural supply requirements.
Viadux also partnered with local transport providers experienced in handling pipe of this scale, ensuring deliveries arrived on time and free from damage — a critical factor when construction is sequenced tightly across multiple packages and subcontractors.
Meeting Local Industry Development Commitments
Beyond the technical and logistics side of the project, Viadux developed a Local Industry Development Plan (LIDP) covering key criteria around locally made product, local jobs, modern slavery compliance and broader social procurement outcomes. This plan was pre-approved by the Industry Capability Network (ICN) prior to tender submission, and Viadux reports directly to the ICN to demonstrate that the commitments made at tender stage are being met in practice throughout delivery.
This is an increasingly common requirement on publicly funded water infrastructure work, and it's an area where a supplier's ability to document and report on compliance can be just as important as the product itself. For water authorities managing public funding and community expectations, a supply partner that treats social procurement as a genuine deliverable — not a box-ticking exercise — reduces risk across the life of the contract.
Sustainability and Cost Benefits for Southern Rural Water
Sourcing locally produced GRP product delivered a double benefit: it minimised the project's environmental footprint while also improving efficiency in delivery and installation timeframes. Shorter supply chains mean less transport-related emissions and faster turnaround when construction crews need product on site.
The project also delivered a direct cost saving for Southern Rural Water and its key customers. Because Viadux could deliver direct to site exactly when the customer needed it, the project avoided the inefficiencies — and the holding costs — that come with poorly timed deliveries on a multi-package civil works program.
A Collaborative Outcome
The results achieved on the Werribee Irrigation District Modernisation project were the product of close collaborative planning and execution between Jaydo Construction and Viadux — from the alternative materials tender through to staged delivery and on-site installation support.
It's a project that reflects the kind of work Viadux does across Australia's rural water sector: helping water authorities move away from ageing, leak-prone infrastructure toward sealed, reliable pipeline networks, using locally manufactured product wherever possible. To see how Viadux has supported similar upgrades elsewhere in the country, explore the full library of industry case studies, or browse the product range guide for the full technical specification of the GRP and ductile iron systems used across these projects.
For water authorities and contractors planning their own irrigation modernisation or pipeline replacement program, Viadux's Melbourne branch and national network are available to discuss product selection, local sourcing options and project delivery timelines.