Large Water Share Owners
Updated 28 September 2026.
This page provides insights to address community interest in water ownership, focusing on northern Victoria.
The Victorian Government committed to publishing a report on Large Water Share Owners in response to the 2019 and 2020 consultation on water market transparency. Through this consultation, it was clear that the community wanted more transparency in certain aspects of the water market, balanced with an appropriate level of individual and commercial privacy.
Under these same commitments a similar report, the Frequent Traders Report, publishes the names of individuals and organisations’ allocation accounts who have completed more than 20 allocation trades in the Goulburn and Murray systems during a water year.
From 1 July 2024, following an amendment to the Water Act 1989, the Minister for Water can now include names of individuals in public reports in specific circumstances.
Who qualifies as a large water share owner?
This report defines large water share owners as any party that owns over 2% by volume of the high reliability water shares in northern Victoria and the largest declared river systems in this region.
Water shares owned by related owners have not been added together. The VWR does not collect information about company structures that would be needed to determine which companies are related to one another. In some instances, organisations listed may be the registered owner of water shares on behalf of other parties.
Only where names of water share owners are exactly the same have the water share volumes been consolidated.
Large water share ownership at 30 June 2026
This report lists parties who hold more than 2% by volume of high reliability water shares across northern Victoria and the Goulburn and Murray river systems as at 30 June 2026.
The systems that are reported on are:
- Northern Victoria as a whole (trading zones 1A, 1B, 2, 3, 4A, 4C, 5A, 5B, 6, 6B, 7, 9A and 9B)
- Goulburn system (trading zones 1A, 1B and 3)
- Murray system above Barmah Narrows (trading zone 6)
- Murray system below Barmah Narrows (trading zones 6B and 7).
Reporting focuses on these systems because they are the largest systems with the most market participants and market activity.
This report focuses on the owners of water shares only. It does not include other types of entitlements in these systems such as bulk entitlements and environmental entitlements held by water corporations and the Victorian Environmental Water Holder. Bulk and environmental entitlement volumes are publicly reported on the Victorian Water Register (VWR) website.
Key statistics
This report is based on data as at 30 June 2026.
- There are 8 large water owners who own more than 2% of high reliability water shares in one or more of the reported systems. These are all organisations rather than individuals.
- The Australian Government (Commonwealth of Australia) remains the largest holder of water shares in reported systems, and overall in northern Victoria. Its holdings have increased across northern Victoria to 30.5% of high reliability water shares, compared to 28.6% last year. This increase reflects water purchases undertaken under the Australian Government’s Voluntary Water Purchase Program.
- There are no new parties listed as a large water owner since 1 July 2025.
Northern Victoria
Goulburn system
Figure 1: A visual representation of the ownership of high reliability water shares in the Goulburn, 30 June 2026.
Each named box represents a water share owner above the 2% threshold. The size of the box represents the total volume of high reliability water shares held by each owner. The colour represents whether the water share is owned by the environment (green), privately (red) or by a water corporation (blue).
Murray above the Barmah Narrows
Figure 2: A visual representation of the ownership of high reliability water shares in the Murray above the Barmah Narrows, 30 June 2026.
Each named box represents a water share owner above the 2% threshold. The size of the box represents the total volume of high reliability water shares held by each owner. The colour represents whether the water share is owned by the environment (green), privately (red) or by a water corporation (blue).
Murray below the Barmah Narrows
Figure 3: A visual representation of the ownership of high reliability water shares in the Murray above the Barmah Narrows, 30 June 2026.
Each named box represents a water share owner above the 2% threshold. The size of the box represents the total volume of high reliability water shares held by each owner. The colour represents whether the water share is owned by the environment (green), privately (red) or by a water corporation (blue).
Publishing this information
Part 5A of the Water Act 1989 sets out the purpose of the Victorian Water Register, including to make information about water markets publicly available. This information was published in accordance with section 84EA.
Foreign ownership of water entitlements
Some Victorian water entitlements are foreign owned. The Australian Taxation Office reports on foreign ownership of water. The latest report is at 30 June 2025 and available to download.