For Sunraysia, the big ones to keep an eye on are Hume Dam and Dartmouth Dam, which are directly tied into the Murray River system. Both have had a positive week, with Hume Dam rising by 3.77 per cent and Dartmouth Dam rising by 0.59 per cent.
Hume is still sitting lower than ideal, but a rise of almost four per cent in a week is certainly worth noting. Dartmouth, being the bigger and deeper storage, moves more slowly, so even a smaller weekly percentage rise is still a positive sign.
The weekly lift also comes after the recent water allocation announcement for Sunraysia, with Murray high reliability water shares starting at 29 per cent.
That figure is not exactly something irrigators will be celebrating. It is more a case of it is what it is at this stage of the season. Farmers will now be watching the sky, the catchments and the storage updates closely, hoping further winter rain leads to stronger allocations as the season rolls on.
Lake Eildon and Lake Eppalock have also had useful gains. While they are not sitting on the Murray River itself, water from those systems eventually makes its way through the Goulburn system and into the Murray, which is why they are still worth watching from a Sunraysia point of view.
Lake Eildon rose by 1.25 per cent for the week, while Lake Eppalock had the biggest jump of the four, rising by 12.80 per cent.
That sharp rise at Eppalock shows what can happen when the rain falls in the right part of the catchment. Eildon is also moving in the right direction, although it still has plenty of ground to make up.
None of this means the system is suddenly full, and it does not mean the water picture is suddenly fixed. But after the recent rain across parts of Victoria and southern New South Wales, it is good to see some of that water starting to show up in the storages.
For Mildura, Merbein, Red Cliffs, Wentworth and the wider Sunraysia region, these are the sort of numbers worth keeping an eye on through winter.
The catchments have had a drink, the storages have lifted, and while the 29 per cent allocation is only a starting point, farmers will be hoping this is the beginning of a better run of water news.