Water Markets and Trading

Interim operating rules

The Minister for Water has announced an interim operating regime that sets out how much traded water can be delivered from the Goulburn to Murray system between December and April. The last two years have seen record volumes of water delivered down the Goulburn River, and constant high flows over summer have caused damage to river banks, loss of important vegetation and native fish habitat. The interim operating regime is being put in place to make sure that Victoria can deliver water to Murray irrigators, while protecting the lower Goulburn River from environmental damage over summer.

For more information on changes to Goulburn system trade and operational arrangements, click here.

Tagged accounts

The Minister has confirmed that the Victorian Government is putting restrictions in place on 12 December for the use of water from tagged accounts. This means that tagged account holders will no longer be able to use water from Goulburn system accounts tagged to the Murray when there are trade limits in place between the Goulburn and Murray systems. These changes will help to protect the health of the Goulburn River and create a level playing field across all water market participants in the Goulburn and Murray systems.

More information on upcoming changes to tagged trade is available on the Water Register.

Improving market confidence

The Victorian Government is working to improve water market confidence and make sure market settings are right. This includes ongoing monitoring of market behaviour and reporting regularly on market trends (including carryover). For further market insights, click here. We have been working with the community to identify options to improve water market transparency. The community requested improved access to simple, useful and insightful information on price, availability, market power and market behaviours. 

The full scope of options that have been tested are available here.