Melbourne Water's tender to renew its Field Services Panel closed on 27 October 2026. The panel supports natural resource management, waterways and drainage work, and the current panel, set up in October 2022, ends in September 2027.
What the panel covers
Suppliers could register under categories including vegetation management, desilting, drainage repairs, litter collection, pest control, fencing, arboriculture and civil asset inspection. The online briefing was held on 16 September 2026, and documents sat on Melbourne Water's Zycus system under RFT #1222753561.
The wider waterways workload
The panel serves the Port Phillip and Westernport region, where Melbourne Water is the designated floodplain manager. More than 200,000 properties in Greater Melbourne face at least a 1% annual chance of flooding, with average annual damage estimated at A$735.5 million. Melbourne Water proposed A$1.6 billion for flood risk management in 2026–2031 in its customer summary, and a 2026–2031 Waterways and Drainage Investment Plan is to follow the price review.
A second panel for civil work
A separate Field Civil Panel renewal, for minor civil work on waterways and catchments such as roads, crossings and rock works, closed on 21 October 2025. Separately, the Auditor-General's June 2026 audit of drainage schemes in growth areas found design and construction milestones were met 65% of the time in 2025, and Melbourne Water accepted all five recommendations.
How these panels sit beside Melbourne Water's major capital processes, which projects in its A$7,307.7 million 2026–2031 benchmark are open or emerging, and where suppliers should focus first are set out in the full brief. The full report, Melbourne Water: Utility Account Brief, is available for USD 499 at https://ourfuturewaterintelligence.com/reports/melbourne-water-utility-account-brief. For a free overview, read the Melbourne Water Utility Snapshot at https://ourfuturewaterintelligence.com/utilities/melbourne-water.