Water Races (Stockwater)

The Council operates a water race network supplying stockwater to farmers on land between the Ashley (Rakahuri) and the Waimakariri Rivers.

The scheme was first opened in 1896 and today consists of an open channel stockwater supply scheme, extracting up to 2.1 cumecs from the Waimakariri River at Browns Rock, west of Oxford, and delivering it to approx 42,500 hectares of land for stock drinking water.

The area supplied lies between the Waimakariri and Ashley (Rakahuri) Rivers, and east of Burnt Hill and Oxford and west of Rangiora and Eyreton.

In 1999 the scheme was enlarged, with an additional intake and widened races, to supply an additional 10.5 cumecs of irrigation water to approx 18,000 hectares.

The irrigation scheme is owned by Waimakariri Irrigation Ltd (WIL), although most of the races are owned by the Council. Both the stockwater and irrigation water networks are managed by Waimakariri Irrigation, under contract to the Council. 

The Council has three ECan  consents to take water - the first is for 2.1 cumecs from the Waimakariri River at Browns Rock, and the others are for takes of 32 litres per second each from the Cust River at Pattersons Road and at Stokes. It also has approximately 33 bywash discharge consents.  These are for the discharge of spent race water into tributary channels of the Rakahuri (Ashley), Eyre and the tributary system of the Waimakariri River.

Stockwater Levels of Service

Providing a reliable source of stockwater to approximately 1510 properties through a 791 kilometre network of races, managed under contract by Waimakariri Irrigation Ltd.