The plan is designed to supplement the purchase of water from the Goulburn Murray system via the Waranga-to-Lake-Eppalock pipeline if drought conditions prevail or worsen.

Mr Gibbons said Coliban Water had been investigating the feasibility of accessing ground water to secure the water supplies of Castlemaine and Kyneton, as well as investigating using ground water from the Elmore and Serpentine district’s aquifers to supplement Bendigo’s water needs.

He said the Department of Sustainability and Environment had produced maps identifying ground water throughout regional Victoria.

"These maps indicate a potentially large ground water resource south of Bendigo, stretching from south of Elphinstone, to Melton in the south, and from Creswick in the west to Kilmore in the east and situated directly below large areas of Coliban’s normal catchment area," he said.

"The salinity levels for this water are ... suitable for connection to town water supplies. The small town of Trentham is solely dependant on this water for domestic use.

"The precise size, terrain and volumes of water held in this aquifer are not clear, however maps commissioned by the DSE in 1994 and 2005 show the potential for huge volumes of good quality water".

Mr Gibbons said the groundwater could be a rich back-up for Coliban’s water security plans.

"If the drought conditions prevail or become worse over the next few years, the potential to enable ground water from these sources to be pumped directly into the entire Coliban Water system at either the Upper Coliban or Lauriston Reservoirs may be an option," he said. "This would enable a substantial addition to Coliban’s system benefiting the Kyneton, Castlemaine, Heathcote and Bendigo districts without having to use the Elmore and Serpentine aquifers which, according to DSE, are already approaching full allocation," he said.

"In addition to the Waranga-to-Eppalock pipeline and the recycling initiatives currently being constructed by the Bracks state government and Coliban Water, this could provide the potential to drought-proof the central Victorian region, possibly for decades." Mr Gibbons’ plan also includes putting the water back when the region doesn’t need it.

"In other words we would be establishing a water bank.

"The Centre for Ground Water Studies has said that artificially recharging aquifers can also lower the salinity content of this resource".

"There are many hundreds of farmers, house holders and other land owners who depend on ground water for their wellbeing and livelihood and we must make sure it is always available to them.

"Accessing ground water resources must be done in a carefully considered and sustainable manner as aquifers are naturally re-charged with surface water during normal conditions and therefore equally affected by drought conditions resulting in a diminishing volume of water".

For the full proposal, see the liftout in today’s Bendigo Weekly.

Coliban chief executive Geoff Michell said the water authority was conducting drilling investigations in the area.

"We are in the process of arranging investigation drilling in the Kyneton area to determine what the extent of the ground water is," he said.

"There is ground water there, but there is not a lot of information available on it.

"We have had some work done to identify where the best location might be. We have to also look at the quality of the water."