Welcome to Coleambally Irrigation

Coleambally Irrigation Co-operative Limited (CICL) is a private co-operative that holds the Coleambally Irrigation District irrigation water licence.  We are responsible for providing irrigation water delivery and associated services to our customers.  We focus on the day-to-day operation of the irrigation scheme and the provision of water to our customers, consistent with our regulatory obligations and long-term business sustainability objectives.  We operate the most modern open-channel irrigation system in Australia and one of the most modern in the world.

The Coleambally Irrigation District (CID) is located south of Griffith between Darlington Point and Jerilderie, New South Wales in the southern Murray-Darling Basin of Australia.  The area comprises of 477 irrigation farms containing 79,000 ha of irrigated land supplied through open earthen channels.  Water is sourced from the Murrumbidgee River, at Gogelderie Weir, one of the major tributaries of the Murray River.  Water supplies are regulated from two major Snowy River Scheme dams, Burrinjuck and Blowering.

The CID was developed over the period 1958 to 1970.  The supply system is gravity fed, solar powered, and incorporates state of the art metering and flow regulation technologies providing for automated water ordering and accounting.  It consists of 41km of main canal from the Murrumbidgee River, 477km of supply channel, and a further 734km of drainage channels.  The irrigation area is 79,000 hectares of which about 35,000 hectares is effectively irrigated.  In addition, the Co-operative’s members have spent $104m since 2000 improving their land and water management practices and enhancing local biodiversity.  The Co-operative also manages 1,700 hectares of Crown land that has been set aside for biodiversity purposes.