On Wednesday 2 July 2025, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority made 38,767.7 megalitres (ML) of allocation trade opportunity available from above to below the Barmah Narrows. As in previous years, there was more demand than supply.

2025 marked the third year that Victoria and New South Wales (NSW) synchronised the timing of the Barmah trade opportunity.

This year, Victoria and NSW implemented a new joint randomisation protocol for the processing of Barmah trade applications. The new protocol meant that differences in each state’s processing approach and systems did not influence traders’ access to the available Barmah trade opportunity. You can learn more about how the protocol worked here.

A submission window for NSW and Victorian trade applications was open from 7 am to 2 pm on 2 July 2025.

DEECA and WaterNSW undertook a joint randomisation process to determine the processing order for eligible applications. This was independently observed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

Manual processing of the applications was undertaken on 3 July 2025, in the order determined by the randomisation process.

Key statistics:

• In total, 235 eligible trade applications were received for a volume of 86,418.9 ML.
• 96 trade applications were successful for a volume of 38,761 ML.
• 139 trade applications were unsuccessful for a volume of 47,657.9 ML.

Victoria:

• 138 eligible trade applications were submitted in Victoria for a total of 39,450.2 ML.
• 51 trade applications from Victoria were successful for a total of 16,008.6 ML.
• 87 trade applications from Victoria were unsuccessful for a total of 23,441.6 ML due to insufficient Barmah opportunity.

NSW:

• 97 eligible trade applications were submitted in NSW for a total of 46,968.7 ML.
• 45 trade applications from NSW were successful for a total of 22,752.4 ML.
• 52 trade applications from NSW were unsuccessful for a total of 24,216.3 ML due to insufficient Barmah opportunity.

Next week, Victoria will release a comprehensive post-trade report, covering both the Barmah and Goulburn-to-Murray trade openings. The report will be released on the Victorian Water Register website.