The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning is undertaking a review of the Goulburn to Murray trade rule, following concerns about environmental damage to the lower Goulburn River from delivering unseasonal high flows of traded water to downstream users.

The Minister for Water has released a consultation paper and the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning is undertaking public consultation to gather community feedback on the proposals up until 15 May 2020.

The consultation paper sets out the issues and options for proposed changes to Goublurn to Murray trade. Two further attachments give more practical information on how the trade rule options would work and the context of water trade rules in northern Victoria.

You can get a copy of the consultation paper  and attachments below.

The public consultation will target water users and the community in northern Victoria and will include a set of webinars for the public on the 24th, 27th and 28th of April 2020.

For more information on these webinars please visit the Engage Victoria website and search Goulburn to Murray trade rule.

The Department is also inviting community feedback on the proposals and can make a submission to the department on the Engage Victoria website.

To limit further damage in 2019-20 the Minister for Water announced three key actions in August 2019, to reduce the risk to the lower Goulburn River and to get future market settings right for Goulburn to Murray trade. These were:

• an interim operational regime to achieve variable summer and early autumn flows in the lower Goulburn River (implemented from December 2019);
• bringing all trade under the same rules so that use from a tagged account is subject to the same 200 GL inter-valley trade (IVT) limit as allocation trades (changes made on 12 December 2019); and
• the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) beginning public consultation on changes to the Goulburn to Murray trade rule in early 2020.

The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning has previously released a series of factsheets below outlines the findings of work on the review so far, including the impact to the environment, the changes in trade rules and IVT deliveries and what to expect in 2019-20.

Further information will be posted to this website when available.