Pioneer Valley Water Co-operative

The Pioneer Valley Water Co-operative Ltd (PVWater) is a not-for-profit business located in North Queensland near the coastal city of Mackay. It is a service provider that distributes water for irrigation purposes to 200 members, and 50 non-members, located throughout the Pioneer Valley catchment. It is one of at least 36 water or irrigation co-operatives currently operating in Australia. Of these 14 are located in Victoria, nine in Queensland and six each in NSW and WA. PVWater is governed by a board of five directors, of which three are active member directors and two are appointed independent directors.

PVWater has its origins in the creation in 1996 of the Pioneer Valley Water Board, a statutory authority. In March 2016 the water board was converted into a dual co-operative structure consisting of PVWater and Pioneer Valley Water Mutual Co-operative Ltd (PVMutual). PVWater was subsequently registered as a service provider under the Water Supply (Safety and Reliability) Act 2008, and issued with a water distribution operations licence. The co-operative distributes up to 47,390 megalitres of water for irrigation of agricultural land, primarily sugar, but also some irrigated pasture and cover crops. Water is sourced from headwater stream flows into the Pioneer Valley, and supplemented when required from Teemburra Dam.

The co-operative distributes water via a network of pipelines, earth channels and natural watercourses, with pumping stations assisting with diversion into supplemented streams. A gravity-fed high pressure pipeline reticulation scheme also operates from Teemburra Dam. PVWater’s distribution network is controlled using automation and this enables a relatively small staff of five. Beyond the distribution of irrigation supply, PVWater is engaged by PVMutual to maintain irrigation scheme infrastructure. The infrastructure is owned by water allocation holders via their membership of PVMutual.

The extended version of this case study is presented in Australia’s Leading Co-operative and Mutual Enterprises in 2016, which is part of the CEMI Discussion Paper series.