The reservoir, constructed in the late ’50s, did not have the capacity to service Violet town during summer, and would cost several million dollars to upgrade to meet modern “Ancold” standards.
It was decided to pipe treated water from the more reliable Euroa system, and decommission the weir.

This caused a fair bit of angst with locals, who preferred the reservoir was retained, eventually leading to court battles and VCAT. One of their arguments was that it would not be possible to complete the works, without causing environmental damage and degradation of water quality downstream, as honeysuckle creek flowed almost all year round.

VCAT imposed stringent environmental conditions on the works and the public were ready to pounce on any breach. Armistead completed the project without any environmental issues or adverse publicity.

Works included three rock chutes in the upstream footprint to retain silt, a staged removal of the wall (approx 10,000m3), placement of approx 15,000 tonnes of rock beaching, which incorporated a low flow fishway, removal and recycling of concrete spillway and outlet structure.