The Water Register is a public register of all water-related entitlements in Victoria.
It has been designed and built to record water entitlements with integrity and provide crucial information for managing Victoria’s water resources.
Unbundling in northern Victoria has created some 35,000 water shares with a market value of over $4 billion, plus around 18,000 delivery shares and 23,000 water-use licences, all housed in the electronic register.
Unbundling in southern Victoria has created some 3,300 water shares, plus around 1,500 delivery shares and 1,800 water-use licences.
The Water Register:
- holds water shares recorded by the Victorian Water Registrar, together with mortgages and leases relevant to these water shares
- records water allocations that are available in the current season
- tracks and reconciles volumes of water entitlements by water system and trading zone
- holds water-use licences and delivery shares that are managed by water authorities
- includes workflows to process water dealings, and keeps audit trails
- generates statistics and reports on levels of use, directions of trade, and prices paid
Most water register transactions incur prescribed fees under the Water (Resource Management) Regulations 2007. These fees are adjusted annually in line with the consumer price index. A list of the current fees is available here.
Key statistics are available free.