Melbourne tap water, by the numbers.
Lightly chlorinated, fluoridated, soft and safe to drink. Here are the figures from every water company's 2024-25 report, what you may notice at the tap, and what a filter can and cannot change.
Written by the Eco Purify Water team using the 2024-25 annual reports. Updated 3 November 2026.
In short.
Safe and soft, with a little chlorine. The smell is what most people pick up on.
You can drink Melbourne tap water with confidence. All three metropolitan retailers met the Safe Drinking Water Regulations in 2024-25, and more than 30,000 samples turned up no confirmed E. coli. The water is soft and fluoridated, and it carries a little chlorine to keep it safe between the reservoir and your tap.
The things people notice are not safety issues. One is the chlorine smell, strongest in a hot shower. The other is the odd spell of brown or cloudy water after mains works. We cover both below, using figures from the water corporations' own annual reports, so every number can be checked.
Each water company's figures.
Which retailer you have comes down to your address. These are 2024-25 averages, and your street may be higher or lower.
| Measure | Yarra Valley Water | South East Water | Greater Western Water |
|---|---|---|---|
| Areas | North and east: Box Hill, Doncaster, Ringwood, Glen Waverley, Kew, Preston, Epping, Craigieburn, most of the Yarra Ranges | South and south-east: Dandenong, Berwick, Cranbourne, Frankston, Brighton, Bentleigh, Mornington Peninsula, Belgrave | Inner west and west: Essendon, Sunshine, Williamstown, Werribee, Point Cook, Melton, Sunbury, Bacchus Marsh, Gisborne |
| Disinfectant | Chlorine | Chlorine | Chlorine; chloramine in Romsey only |
| Chlorine | 0.13 to 0.56 mg/L average free chlorine, by locality | 0.76 mg/L average chlorine (free or total not stated) | 0.75 mg/L average free chlorine |
| Hardness (as calcium carbonate) | 8 to 31 mg/L in most localities; Whittlesea 75 | 18 mg/L average (15 to 27) | 17 to 29 mg/L in metro areas; 70 to 120 around Gisborne, Macedon and Bacchus Marsh |
| Fluoride | 0.63 to 0.82 mg/L average, by locality | 0.81 mg/L average | 0.70 mg/L average |
| E. coli | 100% compliance across 7,257 samples | No E. coli in 13,577 samples | No E. coli in 9,258 samples |
Australian Drinking Water Guidelines health limits: chlorine 5 mg/L, fluoride 1.5 mg/L. Water under 60 mg/L hardness is soft. Retailer boundaries do not match suburb names exactly, so check your bill or the state map in the sources below.
Where your water starts.
Mostly closed, forested catchments. Anything from open catchments is fully treated.
The bulk of Melbourne's water starts in forested catchments to the east of the city, closed to the public. Melbourne Water manages 11 catchments. Most of the supply enters the network through Silvan Reservoir, which is fed by the Thomson, Upper Yarra and O'Shannassy reservoirs.
Roughly a quarter comes from open catchments where people live and farm, such as the mid-Yarra and Sugarloaf, Yan Yean and Tarago. That water is fully treated before it goes into the network. The Wonthaggi desalination plant supplied no water in 2024-25, and Melbourne Water has ordered 50 billion litres from it for 2025-26.
Melbourne Water handles treatment and transfer. After that, three retailers own the pipes in your street, send your bill, sample the water and take your call when something goes wrong: Yarra Valley Water, South East Water and Greater Western Water.
Chlorine.
What it is for, how much is in the water, and why the shower is where you smell it.
Water can spend days in the pipes, and chlorine keeps it free of bacteria for that whole trip. In 2024-25, average free chlorine ranged from 0.13 to 0.56 mg/L across Yarra Valley Water's localities and was 0.75 mg/L in Greater Western Water's area. South East Water reported an average chlorine level of 0.76 mg/L. If you live near a dosing point you get more, and at the end of a long main you get less.
The health limit for chlorine in the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines is 5 mg/L, several times higher than any Melbourne reading. Most people start to smell chlorine at about 0.6 mg/L, and sensitive noses at 0.2 mg/L. That is why the smell comes and goes, and why you notice it most in a hot shower, where it is released into the air.
Chloramine, a longer-lasting mix of chlorine and ammonia, is used in just one place in the Melbourne area: Romsey, in Greater Western Water's area. The rest of the city is on chlorine.
Activated carbon takes chlorine out, and that is the job of the two carbon stages in a whole-home system. For more on the smell, and on skin and hair, see chlorine in shower water.
Hardness.
Soft right across the city, and moderately hard in a few fringe areas.
Hardness measures the calcium and magnesium dissolved in water. Below about 60 mg/L, water counts as soft, and the guidelines say scale becomes a nuisance at 200 mg/L. Most of Melbourne falls between 8 and 31 mg/L.
The northern and western fringe is where the exceptions are. Whittlesea averaged 75 mg/L. In Greater Western Water's area, Gisborne averaged 76, Macedon 72, Bacchus Marsh 82 and Myrniong 120, while Sunbury averaged 35 but recorded peaks of 120. Even these are moderately hard, not hard. Almost nowhere in Melbourne is a water softener worth the money.
Fluoride.
Added deliberately, held under 1 mg/L, and left in by carbon.
Fluoride is added under the Health (Fluoridation) Act, which caps the yearly average at 1.0 mg/L. Melbourne Water targets 0.9. In 2024-25 the measured averages were 0.63 to 0.82 mg/L in Yarra Valley Water's area, 0.81 in South East Water's and 0.70 in Greater Western Water's. The guidelines set the health limit at 1.5 mg/L.
Four small towns on the north-western edge are not fluoridated: Lancefield, Myrniong, Romsey and Woodend. Carbon filters leave fluoride in the water, and ours is no exception. If you want it removed, read which filters take fluoride out.
Brown or cloudy water.
Melbourne's most common water complaint, and usually short-lived.
According to the Department of Health, every one of the three retailers got more complaints about brown, yellow or cloudy water in 2024-25 than about anything else: 2,905 to Yarra Valley Water, 3,326 to South East Water and 2,257 to Greater Western Water. It tends to happen after a burst main, hydrant use or maintenance, when a change in flow stirs up sediment sitting in the pipes.
All three retailers give the same advice. Run the tap closest to the front of the property on full for about two minutes until the water clears. If it does not clear, call them. Their number is on your water bill.
That grit is what the first stage of a whole-home filter is for. A 5 micron sediment cartridge stops it before it gets to the hot water service, washing machine, aerators and shower heads. Discoloured water is still not a reason to buy a filter instead of calling your retailer. A run of brown water is a fault, and fixing it is their job.
pH.
Kept near neutral on purpose.
Lime is added by Melbourne Water to bring pH to between 7 and 7.5, close to neutral. In 2024-25, retailer averages were 7.0 to 7.6. The guidelines give a range of 6.5 to 8.5, which exists to protect pipes and taste rather than health. Soft water at this pH will not leave heavy scale.
What a filter can and cannot do.
The honest version, so you can work out whether you need one.
A three-stage whole-home filter will:
- Takes the chlorine taste and smell out of every tap and shower, using two carbon stages.
- Stops sediment down to 5 microns before it gets to your fixtures and appliances.
- Cuts tastes and odours that come from organic compounds.
It will not:
- Make the water safer to drink. Melbourne's water is already safe.
- Take out fluoride, salts or dissolved minerals.
- Soften your water. It is already soft in Melbourne.
- Fix a fault in the supply. If discoloured water does not clear, that is for your retailer to sort out.
Common questions.
Quick answers. The numbers behind them are further up the page.
Can I safely drink Melbourne tap water?
Yes. For 2024-25, all three metropolitan retailers reported full compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Regulations, and more than 30,000 samples showed no confirmed E. coli. Melbourne's water meets the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.
What causes the chlorine smell in Melbourne tap water?
A small dose of chlorine that keeps the water safe in the pipes, typically 0.1 to 0.8 mg/L on average, depending on where you live. Most people can smell it from about 0.6 mg/L, and more so in a hot shower. How much you get depends on the season and how far you are from the dosing point. Read more on chlorine in the shower.
Does Melbourne have hard or soft water?
Soft. Hardness as calcium carbonate averages 8 to 31 mg/L in most suburbs, comfortably below the 60 mg/L soft threshold. Some areas on the northern and western fringe, including Whittlesea, Gisborne and Bacchus Marsh, are moderately hard at 70 to 120 mg/L.
Who supplies water to my suburb?
In broad terms, Yarra Valley Water looks after the north and east, South East Water the south and south-east including the Mornington Peninsula, and Greater Western Water the inner west and west. The boundaries do not line up neatly with suburb names. Your water bill names your retailer, and the Victorian Government's water corporation map will confirm it for your address.
Does Melbourne water need filtering?
Not to make it safe. A whole-home filter is about comfort and upkeep: no chlorine smell at any tap or shower, and no sediment in your appliances. If all you want is nicer drinking water, an under-sink filter costs less.
Sources
- Yarra Valley Water, Drinking Water Quality Report 2024-25
- South East Water, Annual Drinking Water Quality Report 2024-25
- Greater Western Water, Drinking Water Quality Report 2024-25
- Melbourne Water, Water Quality Annual Report 2024-25
- Department of Health Victoria, Safe Drinking Water Act 2003 Annual Report 2024-25
- NHMRC, Australian Drinking Water Guidelines: chlorine, hardness, fluoride and pH fact sheets
- Victorian Government, find your water corporation
Keep exploring.
What these numbers mean for your home.
Chlorine in your shower water
Why a Melbourne shower smells of chlorine, its effect on skin and hair, a shower filter compared with whole-home carbon filtration, and what carbon cannot remove, fluoride included.
Filter or softener? Melbourne water is already soft, so start there.
How filtering differs from softening, why Melbourne mains water seldom calls for a softener, where the white film on kettles and glassware comes from, and when buying a softener is money wasted.
Do water filters remove fluoride? Carbon does not, but some filters do.
Why Melbourne adds fluoride to its water, why carbon filters let it through, the technologies that do remove it (reverse osmosis, activated alumina, bone char), and the cost of doing that at one tap.
How a whole-home water filter works
The three stages and what each one takes out, where the system goes on your property, and what to expect on installation day.
Wondering what a filter would actually change for you?
Let us know your suburb and what you do not like about your water. If a filter is not the fix, we will tell you.