New report on the effectiveness of Victoria’s water markets
- Details
The first statewide review of the effectiveness of Victoria’s water markets has now been completed and released today.
This is part of the Victorian Government’s commitment under action 9.3 of Water for Victoria to review and report on how well Victoria’s water markets are operating against the elements of an effective water market. The review covered all Victorian water markets, including the northern, southern and western regulated surface water markets; unregulated surface water markets; and, groundwater markets.
Through this review, Victoria is continuing to demonstrate leadership in the active monitoring and development of water markets to make sure that they continue to work efficiently, with effective governance frameworks and trading rules in place to protect existing entitlement holders and the environment.
Read more: New report on the effectiveness of Victoria’s water markets
Annual audit of water brokers' use of the Broker Portal
- Details
The Government, through Water for Victoria has committed to actively monitoring water markets to ensure that they continue to operate effectively.
A key task in this is an annual audit of the water brokers who use the Water Register’s Broker Portal/API (“the portal”). The audit helps to ensure that brokers meet their obligations to provide transparency of water trades and accurate price disclosure to all parties.
Read more: Annual audit of water brokers' use of the Broker Portal
Broken trade out closing and trade opportunities over Easter break
- Details
In line with the trading rules for the Broken system, allocation trade out of the Broken system will close for this season on Saturday 31 March 2018. Trade applications received after 31 March will not be approved.
Any trades from the Broken to the Goulburn, Loddon or Campaspe systems are still being automatically assessed online. These trades can be submitted online up until trade closes on Saturday 31 March 2018.
However, please be aware that any trades out of the Broken to the Victorian Murray or interstate are subject to the Goulburn to Murray trade rule. All allocation trades subject to this rule are currently being referred for manual processing by water corporations. This means that any trades from the Broken to the Victorian Murray or interstate will need to be submitted by Thursday 27 March 2018, to ensure that they can be manually processed by the last working day before trade out of the Broken closes for the year.
Read more: Broken trade out closing and trade opportunities over Easter break
Manual processing of online trades from Goulburn to Murray
- Details
All online applications to trade allocation that are subject to the Goulburn to Murray trade limit will be referred for manual processing from this evening.
An issue was encountered in the Victorian Water Register on Friday 16 March 2018 with the processing of a number of trade applications that were lodged online a few seconds apart when the trade opportunity opened up.
Referring online trade applications subject to the Goulburn to Murray trade limit for manual processing is required to make sure that all applications are assessed fairly and consistently with the trading rules.
Read more: Manual processing of online trades from Goulburn to Murray
Water Register Maintenance
- Details
The Victorian Water Register will be unavailable for use on Sunday March 18th 2018, from 9:00am until approximately 3:00pm. The system will be undergoing scheduled maintenance during that period.
Opportunities to trade from the Goulburn to the Murray, including use of tagged accounts
- Details
This news item includes important information on:
- The status of the Goulburn to Murray trade limit;
- What trade is currently possible; and,
- How the trade opportunity can change. Trade opportunity can change for a variety of reasons, for example when water is called out from the Goulburn inter-valley trade account by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority. The account balance is currently being publicly updated for call out at 10am on Wednesdays and Fridays. Read on for more.
Read more: Opportunities to trade from the Goulburn to the Murray, including use of tagged accounts
2016-17 water trading report
- Details
The Victorian Water Trading Annual Report for 2016-17 is now available.
This report summarises all water trades recorded in the Victorian Water Register for the 2016-17 year. It presents information about the number, volume, price and location of trades for water shares, allocation, and groundwater and surface water take and use licences.
Understanding the Goulburn to Murray trade limit
- Details
If you are planning to trade water, you need to keep an eye on the status of the trade limits that might affect you.
Trade is not allowed from the Goulburn, Campaspe, Broken and Loddon systems to the Victorian Murray, or to New South Wales and South Australia, if more than 200 gigalitres (GL) of water is owed to the Murray at any one time. Trade will open again when the volume that the Goulburn owes the Murray falls below 200 GL.
The amount owed is measured by the inter-valley trade account. The volume in the inter-valley trade account can change quickly now that people are using the convenience of automated online trading.
Why is the limit needed?
Victorian Water Accounts 2015-16 now available
- Details
The 2015-16 report is the 13th in the annual series which summarises Victoria’s water availability, distribution and use for the year.
Data in the report is provided by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, water businesses, catchment management authorities, the Essential Services Commission, the Bureau of Meteorology, and major water users.
Reports for previous years are available here.
New Australian Government initiative
- Details
Foreign Ownership of Water Entitlements – do you need to register?
From 1 July 2017, the Australian Government is introducing a new water entitlements register to increase transparency around foreign investment in Australia. Foreign persons with registrable water entitlements or contractual water rights may need to notify the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). A stocktake period will take place between 1 July 2017 and 30 November 2017. Following the stocktake period, a foreign person must notify the ATO of certain events regarding their interests every year. The ATO will use this information to create a register of foreign ownership of water entitlements.
All online services now available
- Details
All Water Register online services are now available.
This includes:
- MyWater access for online trading and online bore construction licence applications
- The Broker Portal
- Creation of Copies of Record for entitlements
All public reports and information on this website are also now available again, although we are still working to make bulk entitlement records available.
We appreciate your support while work was completed to restore all online services following the recent outage.
Outage to Water Register online services
- Details
Water Register online services have been unavailable since Saturday 19 August as a result of a very significant system failure at the Water Register's external hosting provider. This included the Water Register website, Broker Portal, online trading and online bore construction licensing services.
All customer information, including entitlement records and allocation balances, is secure and no data was lost during the outage.
Victorian Water Register opens at 10:00am
- Details
At 10:00am this morning (10 July 2017) we will open the Victorian Water Register including access to 'My Water' and online allocation trading.
We have now completed all necessary end of financial year water accounting tasks. We trust there has been minimal disruption to your business operations and we appreciate your support during this process.
Barmah Choke trade restriction to continue
- Details
On 27 June 2017, the Murray–Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) announced that the current restriction on trading water from upstream of the Barmah Choke to buyers downstream of the Choke will continue into the 2017-18 water year.
As explained in the MDBA's media release, the volume that can be traded through the Choke will be reset on 1 July 2016, with an annual adjustment made to take account of water savings transferred to the Snowy scheme. This will result in an opening balance close to 37,000 megalitres available to be traded from above to below the Barmah Choke.
Any further net trade above this balance will only be possible if the same or greater net volume of water has been traded from downstream to upstream of the Choke first.
Trading through the Choke
If you plan to trade water through the Choke, you or your broker need to keep an eye on any trading limits that apply to you.
- You can check the available trade opportunity through the Choke by visiting the MDBA’s website.
- For other trading opportunities and limits that may affect your ability to trade you can visit the allocation and trade opportunities page on the Victorian water register website at http://waterregister.vic.gov.au/water-trading/allocation-trading
Annual audit of brokers that use the Broker Portal/API
- Details
The Government, through Water for Victoria has committed to actively monitoring water markets to ensure that they continue to operate effectively.
A key task in this is an annual audit of the water brokers who use the Water Register’s Broker Portal/API (“the portal”).
The audit for the 2015-16 financial year is now complete.
Read more: Annual audit of brokers that use the Broker Portal/API
Important info for end of 2016-17 financial year
- Details
The Victorian Water Register will be closed while we complete the end of year accounting to roll over from the 2016-17 water year to 2017-18.
On-line services will be suspended from 5pm AEST on Friday 30 June 2017 until 10am AEST on Monday 10 July 2017.
We want your feedback about water information
- Details
The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) wants to improve its delivery of water information to puts its users’ needs first.
DELWP is currently undertaking a user needs analysis of water information products.
2015-16 water trading report
- Details
The Victorian Water Trading Annual Report for 2015-16 is now available.
See the Minister for Water’s media release here.
This report summarises all water trades recorded in the Victorian Water Register for the 2015-16 year. It presents information about the number, volume, price and location of trades for water shares, allocation, and groundwater and surface water take and use licences.
Water Register open for 2016-17
- Details
At 10.00am this morning (8 July 2016) we will open the Victorian Water Register including access to 'My Water' and online allocation trading.
We have now completed all necessary end of financial year water accounting tasks. We trust there has been minimal disruption to your business operations and we appreciate your support during this process.
Barmah Choke trade restrictions to continue
- Details
On 17 June 2016, the Murray–Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) announced that the current restriction on trading water from upstream of the Barmah Choke to buyers downstream of the Choke will continue into the 2016-17 water year.
As explained in the MDBA's media release, the volume that can be traded through the Choke will be reset on 1 July 2016, with an annual adjustment made to take account of water savings transferred to the Snowy scheme. This will result in an opening balance close to 26,000 megalitres available to be traded from above to below the Barmah Choke.
Any further net trade above this balance will only be possible if the same or greater net volume of water has been traded from downstream to upstream of the choke first.