Nhill (Victoria) Burst Water Tank
Water storage tank bursts flooding Nhill streets and damaging homes, structures by Andrew Kelso and Emile Pavlich ABC 12/3/25
A resident in the western Victorian town of Nhill has detailed the moment water came rushing past him inside his home after a nearby town drinking water storage tank spectacularly burst.
The Grampians Wimmera Mallee Water (GWMWater) tank burst around 6:30am on Wednesday near George Street in Nhill, around 400 kilometres north-west of Melbourne.
Home owner Hayden Tink told ABC Victorian Statewide Drive that he heard a loud bang, ran into the kitchen, and was confronted by “a wall of water”.
“[I had] no idea what had happened,” he said.
“It was pretty scary.”
Mr Tink said given western Victoria was very dry at the moment, it was confusing.
“Quite a lot of water at once, [I] didn’t know what was going on,” he said.
The storage tank’s capacity was around 1.8 megalitres of water, enough to fill more than an Olympic swimming pool.
It was about 30 metres away from his home.
“It’s a big green tank and all that was left was tin scattered everywhere, more or less, and just water, muddy water,” Mr Tink said.
He said the “freak accident” damaged all his carpet and garage, and means his house is currently not liveable.“We’ll have to move out from our house,” he said.
Water authority apologises for ‘catastrophic failure’
GWMWater is the water corporation responsible for the water storage tank.
Managing director Mark Williams said the organisation was investigating how the “catastrophic failure” occurred.
“Hopefully we can get to the bottom of that soon,” he said.“Certainly [we] want to extend our apologies to all of the landowners in the area.”
The company has offered to host affected resident in alternative accommodation until the situation is resolved.
Early on Wednesday, GWMWater issued a message asking residents to minimise water use.
However, the issue has been rectified.
“We’ve got the system all connected back up again,” Mr Williams said.
“So services are restored.”
Mr Williams said the organisation will make sure that home owners will not be out of pocket.
“With that we’ll also be looking to rebuild storage capacity in Nhill,” he said.
It is unclear whether compensation will be offered to the victims.
Nhill – Victoria – Iron
2013/14: Nhill (Victoria) – Iron 2mg/L (Highest level only)
Based on aesthetic considerations (precipitation of iron from solution and taste),
the concentration of iron in drinking water should not exceed 0.3 mg/L.
No health-based guideline value has been set for iron.
Iron has a taste threshold of about 0.3 mg/L in water, and becomes objectionable above 3 mg/L. High iron concentrations give water an undesirable rust-brown appearance and can cause staining of laundry and plumbing fittings, fouling of ion-exchange softeners, and blockages in irrigation systems. Growths of iron bacteria, which concentrate iron, may cause taste and odour problems and lead to pipe restrictions, blockages and corrosion. ADWG 2011
Nhill – Victoria – Turbidity
2014/15: Nhill (Victoria) – Turbidity 7.7 NTU (Maximum detection during year)
Chlorine-resistant pathogen reduction: Where filtration alone is used as the water treatment
process to address identified risks from Cryptosporidium and Giardia, it is essential
that filtration is optimised and consequently the target for the turbidity of water leaving
individual filters should be less than 0.2 NTU, and should not exceed 0.5 NTU at any time
Disinfection: A turbidity of less than 1 NTU is desirable at the time of disinfection with
chlorine unless a higher value can be validated in a specific context.
Aesthetic: Based on aesthetic considerations, the turbidity should not exceed 5 NTU at the
consumer’s tap.