The world's second largest river red gum forest, on the NSW-Victorian border, is set to receive its first managed environmental watering this spring.
The $80 million project aims to restore the Koondrook-Pericoota forest back to a healthy condition by delivering artificial floods.
David Dreverman, executive director for river management with the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, says the scheme has been engineered to reach 17,000 hectares of forest.
"So the aim is to get a sheet of water moving through the forest and ultimately into the creeks and channels that drain the forest and ultimately into the Barbers Creek which flows into Wakool River," he said.
"The Barbers Creek offtake is probably 30 or 40 kilometres downstream of where we are standing."
The project was officially commissioned by NSW Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson at Torrumbarry near Echuca.
Project managers have the capacity to deliver water volumes the size of Sydney Harbour, or 466,000 megalitres, into the forest to mimic a natural flood event.