New South Wales Government
Water and Energy

Water Licensing

Basic water rights

Three basic rights to access water are available to rural landholders' in NSW. Licences are not required for water taken under basic rights:

Domestic and stock water

Landholders over an aquifer or with river or lake frontage can access water for domestic (household) purposes or to water stock.
Native title water

Anyone who holds native title with respect to water, as determined under the Commonwealth Native Title Act 1993, can take and use water for a range of personal, domestic and non-commercial purposes.
Harvesting runoff – farm dams

Harvestable right water is generally intended for essential stock and household use but can be used for any purpose. Harvestable right water allows for landholders in most rural areas to collect a proportion of the runoff on their property and store it in one or more farm dams up to a certain size.