Frequent Trader and Large Water Owner information published on 15 January 2025.
The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) has published two water trade information reports on the Victorian Water Register website. These are:
Read more: New trade transparency data released for frequent traders and large water owners
The Victorian Water Register's My Water and Broker Portal will be offline on Thursday 23 January 2025 between 6 pm and 9 pm.
This planned outage is required for scheduled maintenance.
Between 6 pm and 9 pm, the following services will be unavailable:
Outside of this timeframe, both the website (waterregister.vic.gov.au) and My Water should have full functionality.
The release of the Goulburn to Murray Post Trade Opportunity Opening Report, December 2024, summarises the outcomes from this trade opening and consolidates information available via the Victorian Water Register website with some additional data around the number of unique allocation accounts that traded. It provides insights into the number, volumes and reason for trade for all applications submitted.
Read more: Release of Goulburn to Murray Post Trade Opportunity Opening Report – December 2024
The next release of seasonal trade opportunity from the Goulburn to the Murray system opens on Monday 16 December. Based on current estimates, approximately 9 GL of Goulburn to Murray trade opportunity will be released.
The randomisation approach implemented for the rescheduled October opening will be used again in December.
Important information – Goulburn to Murray trade opportunity for 16 December 2024
The Goulburn to Murray Trade Limit—which governs allocation trade from the Goulburn, Broken, Campaspe and Loddon systems to the Victorian Murray system, New South Wales and South Australia—will open again on Monday 16 December 2024. Estimated volumes will be made public closer to this date.
The randomisation approach implemented for the rescheduled October opening will be used again in December.
Read more: Important information – Goulburn to Murray trade opportunity for 16 December 2024
The release of the October 2024 post-trade report summarises the findings from October Goulburn to Murray trade opportunity and consolidates information available via the Victorian Water Register website with some additional data around the number of unique allocation accounts that traded. It provides insights into the number, volumes and reason for trade for all applications submitted.
The rescheduled Goulburn to Murray trade opportunity opened on Thursday 14 November 2025 at 7 am with an opening limit of around 45 gigalitres. The Victorian Water Register received around 400 applications from market participants. Trade applications were received during a 5-hour submission window on 14 November. Eligible applications were then randomised to determine a processing order. Goulburn Murray Water and Lower Murray Water began processing the applications in that processing order from 7 am Friday 15 November.
Read more: Release of post-trade opening report – Goulburn to Murray October opening
The rescheduled October Goulburn to Murray trade event took place yesterday on Thursday 14 November. The Victorian Water Register received around 400 applications from market participants. Goulburn Murray Water and Lower Murray Water began processing these applications from 7 am this morning (Friday 15 November).
Due to the number of applications received, processing is predicted to finish later than originally communicated.
The previously communicated My Water and Broker Portal outage at 4:30 pm today will now occur later this evening once processing has been completed. My Water and Broker Portal will be offline for around 30 minutes before the system is re-opened for normal business.
Read more: Important information – change to scheduled My Water outage
The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) reminds water market participants about the timings of this Thursday’s rescheduled Goulburn to Murray trade opening. As previously advised, DEECA is implementing a randomisation processing approach for the rescheduled opening.
Read more: Reminder: Rescheduled October Trade opportunity this Thursday 14 November
Last week, the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) conducted two webinars with water market participants. The two identical webinars were conducted on Thursday 31 October at 2 pm and 7 pm to inform the market about the new process that will be in place for the rescheduled October Goulburn to Murray trade opening, which is to now take place on Thursday, 14 November.
DEECA has now released video of the first of these webinars, which can be viewed using the link below. Users can also download the presentation and transcript.
Read more: Rescheduled October Trade opportunity – webinar and updated FAQs now available
Earlier this week, the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) announced a rescheduled Goulburn to Murray trade opportunity opening for Thursday 14 November 2024.
This followed a disruption during the original 15 October 2024 submission window.
DEECA is implementing a new randomisation processing approach for the rescheduled opening. The approach was designed to provide market participants with reliable access to the October Goulburn to Murray trade opportunity as soon as possible. It will not alter the way water market participants submit trade applications.
Read more: Rescheduled October Trade opportunity – New process information
DEECA is announcing that the rescheduled Goulburn to Murray trade opportunity will take place on Thursday, 14 November 2024, using a new application processing approach. This approach is designed to improve user experience and ensure market stability during trade openings. We will implement a two-stage approach to processing applications to address the instability in the current processing method when large numbers of trade applications are submitted simultaneously.
Read more: Important information – Goulburn to Murray trade opening rescheduled to 14 November 2024
On 15 October 2024, the scheduled Goulburn to Murray trade opportunity was postponed after a technical disruption during the submission window. No applications were approved during this time, and application fees paid were refunded.
The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) apologises for the inconvenience and thanks market participants for their patience following this announcement.
Read more: Goulburn to Murray October 2024 trade opportunity disrupted – update
DEECA releases the 20th edition of Victorian Water Accounts with the latest report.
We are excited to announce the release of the 2022–23 Victorian Water Accounts.
The Victorian Water Accounts are a trusted data source on water availability and use.
There are now 20 years of this annual report available, covering dry periods such as the Millennium Drought, and also periods of flooding. This long record of trend data is useful for researchers, policy makers and water users in general.
Read more: Celebrating 20 years of the Victorian Water Accounts
We regret to inform you that a disruption to the Victorian Water Register online portals (MyWater and Broker Portal) occurred during the application submission window for the 15 October 2024 trade opportunity. The unforeseen circumstances have caused disruption to the submission and processing of the Goulburn to Murray trade opening.
As a result of this, and as we investigate the cause of the issue, the trade opportunity scheduled for Tuesday 15 October 2024 has been postponed.
Read more: October 2024 seasonal trade opportunity disrupted
The next release of seasonal trade opportunity from the Goulburn to the Murray system opens for submission on Tuesday 15 October 2024 at 10:00 am AEST. Based on current estimates, approximately 45 GL of Goulburn to Murray trade opportunity will be released.
The Victorian Government is committed to transparency for water market participants and actively overseeing water market operations to ensure their ongoing effectiveness. The release of the 2022–23 annual brokers audit underscores this commitment.
This audit provides oversight of compliance with government rules for using the Victorian Water Register's online Broker Portal and API. The audit also checks the brokers' compliance of their responsibilities to their clients.
The Department of Environment, Energy, and Climate Action engaged independent auditor RSM for the 2022–23 annual audit. RSM audited all 26 intermediary firms that used the Broker Portal or API during 2022–23 to determine how they complied with the Victorian Water Register online Broker Portal use agreement and rules.
Read more: Release of latest Victorian Water Brokers audit report 2022–23
The Goulburn to Murray Trade Limit—which governs allocation trade from the Goulburn, Broken, Campaspe and Loddon systems to the Victorian Murray system, New South Wales and South Australia—will open again on Tuesday 15 October 2024. This follows the previous Goulburn to Murray trade opening on 2 July and is the second of three Goulburn to Murray trade openings for the 2024–25 water year. Estimated volumes will be made public closer to this date.
Read more: Important information – Goulburn to Murray trade opportunity for 15 October 2024
From 1 July 2024 there are new Commonwealth requirements on people trading water.
All information provided by water markets participants in a trade or transfer application form must be comprehensive and accurate. There is also an obligation to keep certain records for five years. Click here to read about what this means for Victorians.
The Inspector-General of Water Compliance has put together FAQs on these new obligations; you can find these here. To find out more information please visit Water market reform – DCCEEW.
The release of the Annual Trade Report for 2022-23 report continues the Victorian Government’s commitment to ensuring all water participants can easily access water market information.
The Annual Trade Report for 2022-23 highlights that water market prices reflect water availability and water demand where more water available generally means lower prices. Victorian annual rainfall was above average as the La Niña event continued into its third year. With this Victoria experienced high water availability and low water prices.
The first of the 2024–25 water year’s scheduled trade openings have completed.
The MDBA Barmah Choke trade opportunity opened for submissions on Monday 1 July 2024 at 8:30 am with a balance of 56,038.7 megalitres (ML) and was manually processed from 10 am until 6 pm. The Goulburn to Murray trade opportunity opened for submissions on Tuesday 2 July 2024 at 8:30 am with a balance of 84,861.90 ML and was manually processed from 10 am until 6 pm.
The Barmah Choke trade opening received a total of 161 trade applications for total volume of 136,528 ML. Of these applications, 87 were made to Victoria, and 74 were made to New South Wales. The new processing protocol (announced Tuesday 26 March 2024) resulted in 31 approved Victorian applications and 29 approved NSW applications.
The Goulburn to Murray trade opportunity received a total of 99 trade applications for a total volume of 235,254 ML. Of these applications, 23 were approved for a total volume of 84,835 ML.
Read more: Release of post-trade opening report – July 2024 trade opportunities