Carryover allows water entitlement holders to take allocations that are unused at the end of a season in the following season. It provides all water users - irrigators, urban water corporations, and environmental managers – with greater flexibility to manage their own water availability between seasons.
Rules allowing water to be carried over under an entitlement are set by the Minister for Water.
Current rules
Carryover rules vary between systems. The extent to which carryover is possible depends on the size of the storage relative to the volume of entitlements on issue and how the storage is managed.
Currently, carryover is possible in the regulated northern systems, except for in the Ovens system where storages are too small to support carryover.
More information on current carryover rules can be found here.
Reform history
Carryover reform has improved the rules for all water users since the introduction of carryover in northern Victoria in 2007.
More information on the history of carryover reform can be found here.