Inland water

Important Notice - New Legislation
Who controls water?
Your rights to water
What is a waterway?
Water licences
Water share
Limited term transfer
Allocations
Water share mortgages
Victorian Water Register
Building a farm dam
Unsafe or leaking dams
Maintaining water quality
Problems with salinity
Protecting fish passage and aquatic habitat

Important Notice - New Legislation

In 2004, the Victorian Government issued its comprehensive White Paper entitled "Securing our Water Future". Since then, the Government has introduced legislation to implement its policies contained in that White Paper.

The Water (Resource Management) Act 2005 (commenced 3rd August 2006).This Act has some far reaching consequences for rural areas.

It provides:

For an environmental entitlement to be administered by the relevant Catchment Management Authorities.
Water rights and diversion licenses on regulated streams are to be converted to water share - this means the relevant landowner has a share of the water in the relevant water system.
The new water share is not "attached" to land but may be "associated" with land or held completely independently (the so called "water baron provisions").
Each parcel of land will have a "Water Use Licence" setting the volume of water that may be used on that land and under what appropriate conditions.
A delivery share, being associated with land, will be the basis upon which water will be delivered to this land. This share was fixed as at 30th June 2006 and may only be reduced in limited circumstances including paying an "exit fee" upon any permanent reduction in the delivery share held.
One delivery share entitles 270 megalitres of water to be delivered. If more water is delivered than allowed by the delivery share held, a "casual use" fee will be payable in respect to the excess water delivered.

North of the Divide

The new provisions have been applied to water systems (including irrigation districts) north of the Great Dividing Range from the 1st July 2007 (ie. to the Goulburn-Murray Rural Water Corporation, First Mildura Irrigation Trust and the Lower Murray Urban & Rural Water Corporation). The amending Act does not presently apply to groundwater licenses, diversion licenses on unregulated streams and drainage diversion agreements.

South of the Divide

The amending Act does not presently apply south of the Great Dividing Range or to Southern Rural Water. It is anticipate these provisions will be applied on the 1st July 2008.

In the interim, landowners south of the Divide will continue to have water rights and diversion licenses on regulated and unregulated streams, groundwater licenses and drainage diversion agreements.