BOB McCarthy's Merbein block has 3000 almond trees on it. All are dead.

Mr McCarthy said the price of water ballooned out of his reach when cashed-up managed investment scheme companies entered the market.

"Had they not been there, the water would have been," Mr McCarthy said.

"They forced the prices up and there was a scarcity of water then - it becomes a battle of who's got the biggest pocket.

"I would have had water on this year and last year, I would have been able to survive.

"I hate them with a vengeance ... they were morally bankrupt."

Mr McCarthy said he was forced to sell his water to the Federal Government's water buyback scheme and stop watering his almond trees while the epic failure of managed investment giant Timbercorp saw 12,000ha of almonds and 88,000 megalitres of water fall into foreign ownership.

He also blamed the Victorian Government for separating land and water, which he said resulted in too much water coming out of the system.

"I spoke to a dairy farmer who had 500 megalitres of high security - he'd only ever used 130 megalitres (and was now able to sell off the remainder).

"That's what's buggered the whole thing - (people) are using 500 where they only used 130 before ... the river is over-committed now."

Mr McCarthy said giving Timbercorp co-founders pay-outs of millions of dollars may be legally correct but was "morally corrupt".