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No need to worry about the Amazon or even Lake Argyle when there's more water much closer to Melbourne.

Lake Argyle - annual flow at the dam is 4,400 GL

Tasmanian hydro-electric scheme annual discharges:

Derwent = 3138 GL

Gordon = 3271 GL

South Esk = 1945 GL

Mersey-Forth = 1936 GL

Pieman = 4907 GL

King = 1205 GL

Now, Hobart uses about 0.6% of the Derwent scheme's water for its urban supply (and we don't bother with meters or restrictions...) with the rest running straight down the river into the sea. That source alone could easily supply ALL of the water used by Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth combined.

Now all we need is a Bass Strait pipeline. We already have a gas pipe, power cable and 3 fibre optic links across it, now we just need a water pipeline.

In practical terms, running it from the Pieman catchment (probably straight from Mackintosh or Bastyan dams) would be a realistic way to do it and such an idea was at one time proposed.

Alternatively, at the 100% certain chance of seriously upsetting the greens, we could build 3 new dams on the Arthur River and make 2800 GL available from that source while also reducing Tasmania's use of fossil fuels for electricity from 11% of total generation down to 5%. That water source would be very conveniently located for a Tas - Vic pipeline.

Tankers are another option worth looking at. Higher ongoing costs than a pipe but it could be put in place fairly quickly.