Storages are lower than at the same time in the last two years, Northern Victorian Resource Manager Mark Bailey said.

His first predictions for 2019/20 came a day after the Murray-Darling Basin Authority declared protecting critical fish and waterbird habitat would be a focus next financial year.

Water managers were beginning to plan for the period in the wake of drought in NSW and Queensland, plus long dry periods in parts of Victoria.

Environmental water allocations across the basin could be well well below average if hot and dry conditions, coupled with low inflows, continued into next year, MDBA executive director of science and knowledge Colin Mues said Thursday.

“In these conditions, environmental water will be best used to target and protect critical habitat for native fish and waterbirds that are most at risk of being lost if this drought continues,” he said.

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A drier than average autumn was predicted for large parts of northern Australia in the Bureau of Meteorology’s latest climate outlook, released Thursday.

The rest of the country showed no strong tendency towards being drier than average, but warmer days and nights were expected.

The MDBA recommended water releases in the Campaspe and Loddon rivers to protect wildlife refuges and fish numbers.

Pygmy perch, river blackfish and galaxias were under threat in the lower Loddon, while in the Campaspe there was a risk big water deliveries could impact rainbow fish and Murray cod.

Environmental flows put through the region’s rivers over the last few years had been about building resilience for dry times, the North Central Catchment Management Authority environmental flows project manager Darren White said.

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Campaspe and Loddon were classed last December as “dry” and “very dry”, respectively, according to the MDBA.

Mr White said it impacted how water had been managed.

Flows had been kept low over summer to protect native fish, he said.

“Then you provide some variability. So for example on the Loddon we are about to put down what we call a ‘summer fresh’,” Mr White said.

One hundred megalitres would be released through the Loddon River, with smaller flows through the Serpentine in coming weeks to give fish and other creatures respite from low flows.

“And it will make sure water quality is OK,” Mr White said.

Rivers in the region had avoided the kind of mass fish die-offs seen in western NSW this year.

While there was always that risk, Mr White said a good flow regime would flush organics out of the system.

“The other thing is, on the bigger rivers like the Loddon and Campaspe we do have monitoring in place to actively watch dissolved oxygen levels,” he said.

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